Derrick Rose: An Elite Point Guard or Overrated Scorer?

Derrick Rose is a good player. There is no denying that. His athleticism at the point guard position might be tops in the league. He makes some of the most unbelievable plays with the ball in his hands and when he gets going, he is going to score in bunches. However, what separates him from the average point guard is also what’s preventing him from joining the elite.

Having never had a defender as athletic as himself before reaching the NBA, Rose has always been able to get to the rim at will.  A jump shot was useless because he didn’t need to use it. While not possessing a combination of quickness and strength like that of Rose, opposing players can contain him at times and force him to take jump shots, which he’s still not comfortable taking. However, he has improved since his rookie season.

Even though he basically has a spot on ESPN’s Top 10 reserved any time the Bulls are playing, you won’t find him making too many plays without the ball in his hands. He’s not the defender compared to other top players in the league. He is unable to play off of someone else on the offensive end. He needs the ball and he needs to score to impact the game. And while his 24.2 points per game might sound impressive, it takes him 20 shots per game to achieve such.

Many fans like to compare Rose to the likes of Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Steve Nash for the title as top point guard in the league. Yet, Rose is the only one is that group that isn’t netting at least 1.4 points per shot. Currently, he is at 1.21 PPS, good enough for the eighth worst mark for starting point guards. Although a difference of .2 might seem minuscule, the impact is rather large. If Derrick Rose was to score as efficiently as Chris Paul, he’d average exactly five more points per game.

Five more points for him would move him into the lead for points per game, by over a point. It would move the Bulls into the top five in points per game, to go along with a defense that ranks in the top ten in points allowed. More importantly, the team would jump to first place in point differential, at almost ten points per game.

Bottom line, the Bulls would take a major step in competing for an NBA Championship.

I understand the feeling in Chicago is that Rose would be more efficient if he didn’t take 20 shots a game, but the team needs him to in order to win. Take a look at the Bulls last five games. The only game they lost was the one Rose took more than twenty shots. The team has people who can put the ball in the basket, especially now that Carlos Boozer is healthy. In fact, Rose’s PPS is below that of the entire team. And while he only took seventeen shots a game in the month of December, he PPS remained steady at 1.2.

Derrick Rose is still only 22 years old, so he has plenty of time to improve, which he has done each of his three seasons in the league. When he does reach that level of elite, the sky will be the limit as to how well he’ll be with the basketball in his hands. Until then, the Chicago Bulls will have to accept going no further than the second round of the playoffs.