2014-15 Playoffs Give Derrick Rose Opportunity to Write a New Chapter
CHICAGO — It's been a long time since Derrick Rose has been in the playoffs. Three playoffs ago, he tore the ACL in his left knee in Game 1 of the Chicago Bulls' first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers, a day whose shadow Rose and the Bulls have yet to escape.
One year before that, Rose was the toast of the NBA. He was the youngest MVP in league history, and his Bulls were positioning themselves as perhaps the one worthy rival to the newly formed Miami Heat superteam.
They met in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011 in what looked to be the first of many meetings in the playoffs, an Eastern Conference version of the mid-2000s Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks or the modern-day Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies.
But Rose's body had other ideas. He blew out his knee in the first game of the 2012 playoffs and missed the entire following season rehabbing, and he sat out all but 10 games of last season with an injury to his other knee.
That's three wasted years of his prime. Three years of missed opportunities. Three years of what-ifs that Rose would prefer not to dwell on.
"I can't think about that," Rose said after the Bulls' season-closing 91-85 win over the Atlanta Hawks. "I let that go years ago."
The last three years have been a dark chapter of Rose's career, one that still hasn't been closed. He missed 20 games in March and April after undergoing another, less serious knee surgery. Even Wednesday night, he didn't play the second half after experiencing some soreness in his left knee. He says it's nothing serious, and it probably isn't. But given his history, it's hard not to cringe.
But Rose wants to leave all these years of baggage in the past. When the Bulls face off with the Milwaukee Bucks at the United Center on Saturday, he's going to be on the floor. Nothing that happened this season, or the last two, matters anymore. The Bulls will have a clean slate, and Rose will have an opportunity to write a new chapter to his career.
"It's going to take some work to get there and get my mind ready," Rose said. "The playoffs is a totally different game than the regular season. I think I'm ready for it, but we'll see."
Rose will find out, along with everybody else, if he's ready for the elevated intensity and scrutiny of the playoffs after three seasons of injuries and false starts to his comeback. One thing that's never disappeared, even as his health has come and gone, is an unwavering belief in his own abilities. He made that clear Wednesday night.
"I believe I'm one of the best players in the NBA."
Still?
"Still."
If it's been a long time since Rose was in the playoffs, it's been almost as long since those words could be said about him.
He put together stellar performances at times this season, but his overall numbers very much reflect the reality that Rose's season was one spent relearning how to be an NBA superstar. He barely cracked 40 percent shooting from the field and shot an atrocious 28 percent from three-point range on a career-high 5.3 attempts per game.
The explosiveness came and went throughout the season. But when it was there, it was there, and there were just enough flashes of the MVP-era Rose to keep hope alive that maybe, just maybe, he was saving something for the playoffs. We'll find out soon enough.
"I'm very encouraged about my team, about myself and about the future," Rose said Wednesday. "I'm happy with my play and the games I've been playing in."
What Rose had to go through to get to this point—earlier this week, he called it "hell"—is irrelevant. The regular season has come to a close, and he's standing on two legs, ready to go as the Bulls enter the playoffs. That's more than could be said of the last two postseasons and all but one game of the last three.
Now comes the hard part. Being healthy for the playoffs is a personal victory for Rose, but making noise now that he's there is far from a given. What it is is a new opportunity for Rose and the Bulls to seize on this good health and leave the last three years of injuries and disappointments in the past.
"My whole mindset going into these playoffs is no excuses," Rose said. "Get the job done."
Sean Highkin covers the Chicago Bulls for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at @highkin.
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