Derrick Rose Beginning to Resemble Point Guard Chicago Bulls Know and Love
CHICAGO — For months, Derrick Rose has been promising that one day, everything was going to click. It’s a belief in himself that has seemed at times naive as he’s struggled through stretches of the Chicago Bulls’ season that have left many wondering whether he’d ever be the same player he was before the injuries.
There have been flashes, sure, a game here or a fourth-quarter outburst there that kept the hope alive that one day Rose would be himself again. What was missing was the consistency or even the realistic expectation that he would be able to perform at that level day in and day out.
That kind of return to form for Rose was what it would take for this Bulls team to reach its ceiling, and it’s become more than fair to question whether that would ever happen.
He's not all the way there yet, but over the past week, Rose has started to put together a string of games that can’t be taken as anything but encouraging. He followed his 19-point performance in the Bulls’ Christmas Day win against the Oklahoma City Thunder with an efficient 25 points on 12-of-20 shooting the following night in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
The Rose who has been on display this week has been one who attacks confidently, plays within himself and within the flow of the offense—something that has come as a struggle for him at times this season.
"We loved Derrick's aggressiveness on the road trip," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said Monday morning at shootaround. "He did a great job getting us into our early offense. He was attacking, he was getting into the paint and good things happen when he gets that ball into the paint. Whether it's for him scoring or whether we can kick it out to our shooters.
"But yeah, it started with him, and you can tell he's getting his legs where he wants them. And hopefully that's the Derrick Rose we'll see from here on out."
So far, so good. In Monday night’s convincing 104-97 home win over the Toronto Raptors, Rose was once again his aggressive, attacking self. He finished the game with 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting and even hit three three-pointers, something that’s been a struggle for him for as long as anyone can remember.
Not that he thinks anything is different.
“I’m playing the same way,” Rose said after the game. “Just taking the shots they’re giving me. It’s something I work on every day.”
Whether he wants to admit it or not, something has changed for Rose since the Bulls’ December 10 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, when he ditched the mask he’d been wearing since suffering a facial fracture during training camp.
In the 10 games since losing the mask, Rose has averaged 15.7 points on a respectable 43.4 percent shooting, a mark that seems run-of-the-mill until you consider that until that point, he was shooting an abysmal 35.9 percent from the field.
“Derrick is fine,” Bulls guard Aaron Brooks said Monday night. “You’re starting to see it, he’s starting to attack a little more. He’s coming along. He’s been through a lot, so it’s good to see him attacking more and getting to the hole like we’re used to.”
That ability to finish around the basket is still coming back to Rose, but the strides are hard to deny. Through the first 17 games of the season, he was shooting 37.5 percent on shots in the restricted area, per NBA.com. Since he took off the mask, that number has improved to 50.7 percent—still slightly below league average but no longer embarrassing.
On the defensive end, Rose is still a step slow. Chicago is 5.4 points better defensively per 100 possessions with Rose on the bench than on the court, per NBA.com. Part of this is undoubtedly the energy Rose has to expend on the offensive end to be as aggressive as he's been, but it's something Hoiberg says they're actively addressing.
Rose's upward turn in performance has only lasted 10 games, so it's tough to say whether it's simply a hot streak or if Rose has truly turned a corner. The evolving process of his preparation would seem to suggest the latter.
“A big part of it is talking about the habits with him,” Hoiberg said. “If he gets tired, he asks to come out, and when he comes back in, just goes right back into attack mode. I think he can play stretches where he’s in full-out attack mode instead of just tired. You want guys to play to exhaustion and then get them out, and then get a second wind and go back in and be refreshed.”
Rose’s teammates are noticing, too.
“Derrick’s been playing great the last couple of games,” said Taj Gibson. “It’s only going to get better. Every day, guys come in and do their work, and he’s one of the guys coming in early and leaving late.”
Rose still has a ways to go before he truly returns to the player he was before all the injuries. He may never fully get there, but the consistency and confidence are coming back. At least for now, everything is trending in the right direction. And after everything Rose has been through, that itself is a victory.
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