Derrick Rose's Shooting Struggles a Growing Problem for Chicago Bulls
CHICAGO — Derrick Rose is going to keep shooting. He made that much clear after another poor shooting night that snapped a seven-game win streak for the Chicago Bulls.
Rose’s three-point shooting hasn’t just gotten worse, it’s gotten more frequent. He’s shooting 26.3 percent from three-point range (his worst mark since his rookie year) and attempting a career-high 5.4 threes a game. In the Bulls’ 96-82 Tuesday night home loss to the Brooklyn Nets, he shot 2-of-15 from the field and missed all five of his three-point attempts.
Still, Rose is convinced a more consistent shot is around the corner.
“I’m going to shoot every time,” Rose said after the game. “Once I see one go down, I’ll be fine. My confidence to shoot the ball is there. All of them are on target; I’ve just got to get it up.”
Throughout the Bulls’ winning streak, glimpses of the old Rose grew more frequent. He’s still a deadly transition threat who hasn’t lost the ability to attack the rim and blow past opponents with layups and floaters.
“I’ve worked on it enough,” Rose said. “It’s just I need to see one go in. I think that I can shoot the ball good enough to make them play honest.”
That part is debatable. This isn’t a case of a sharpshooter just needing to find time to get back into a rhythm. Outside shooting has never been a strength of Rose’s game, and that’s no different now.
Even before the knee injuries that robbed him of two years of his prime, Rose was never a knockdown three-point shooter. He shot 33.2 percent from beyond the arc in his 2010-11 MVP campaign and 31.2 percent the following year.
In a vacuum, the shots Rose is attempting are shots he should take. He isn’t taking contested jumpers. They’re mostly wide-open attempts off catch-and-shoots. At a certain point, though, there’s a reason he’s being left wide-open. Opposing defenses don’t see him as a threat to make shots on the perimeter, and he’s given them no reason why they should.
“The most important thing is: Is it the right play?” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game when asked about Rose's shooting struggles. “Does he have the proper balance, and is he shooting the ball well? And I think when you measure it that way, there’s going to be some bumps.”
The Bulls have the depth to withstand a poor shooting night from Rose. Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler give the Bulls two legitimate No. 1-caliber scoring threats, which is two more than they have ever had during Rose’s career. This is as talented and multifaceted a team as he’s ever played on, one that should be set up so he doesn’t have to overexert himself if a defense takes away scoring at the rim.
And still, he’s sure the jump shots are going to fall.
“If I was making these shots, we wouldn’t be having this conversation” Rose said. “I’m still going to continue to play the way I play. If they’re giving me open shots or going under, I have to shoot them.”
“There’s a lot of decisions you have to make during the course of the game,” said Thibodeau. “And as long as the decisions are the right ones, you live with the results. Some nights you’re going to shoot it better than others. But there’s a lot of different ways you can win games.”
The problem is, if Rose is shooting like this every night, what is there to suggest it’s going to turn around?
Since returning from his knee injuries, Rose has stressed a need to pick his spots to be aggressive. He doesn’t need to be an explosive force every game—there are going to be nights when he plays within the flow of the contest rather than controlling it.
“The important thing is the inside-out part of it,” said Thibodeau. “You have to break the defense down. If the defense is collapsing, and it’s the right shot, I’m going to encourage him to take it. The three is a big part of our offense. It gives Jimmy room to operate in the post. It gives Pau room to operate. So you need that balance.”
The Bulls have no shortage of three-point weapons without Rose jacking up misses. Mike Dunleavy, Aaron Brooks and Nikola Mirotic are all shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc. Rose is a threat at the rim and a better passer than he’s given credit for. But now that the novelty has worn off his comeback, teams have figured out that if they leave him open from deep, he isn’t going to make them pay.
“When he’s attacking, in transition it’s a lot different because he gets everybody easy baskets,” Thibodeau said. “Then there are teams that are going to trap him, and if he has a good quarter going, or down the stretch, he’ll be trapped, he has to make the right play.”
The right play is almost never a Rose three-point attempt. With so many other ways for him to be effective, and so many other players capable of taking over, forcing these shots isn’t a necessity, even if he believes it’s going to turn around with the next one.
“I think that’s the last part of my game that’s missing,” Rose said.
If and when he finds it, it will be the first time.
Sean Highkin covers the Chicago Bulls for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @highkin
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