Oh So Sweet: Derrick Rose Is The Next Great Point Guard

Last night in Oakland Derrick Rose was the man down the stretch.  He was clutch, go to, prime-time, a closer, and what ever other clichés you want to throw out there.  His 12 points in the quarter don’t even tell the whole story.

Every time the Warriors pulled close toward the end there was Rose hitting jumpers with ease and getting to the basket with electricity and explosion.  We all got a scare when he went down late but it sounds like he his okay.

With a player of Rose’s talent it is always easy to jump the gun on declare him the next great NBA point guard.  But guess what? he is.  For a Bulls franchise starved for a true star since you know who hung it up early, this Rose smells sweet.

His 18.8 point, 5.5 assist, and 4.3 rebounds a game suggest he has arrived as a superstar in this league.  His relatively low 2.69 turnover average should only go down as he gets more and more experience.

Lou Deng and Kirk Hinrich may be paid like All-Stars but in Rose the Bulls have a legitimate shot to send a player to the mid season event for the first time in a long time.  Even optimists figured it would take Rose a season or two to approach Chris Paul levels of productivity.  Well he’s pretty close.

His scoring numbers are nearly identical and Paul’s superior assist numbers are slightly aided by the fact that he is surrounded by talented shooters and isn’t playing for a coach that really doesn’t even run an offensive system of any kind.  Amazingly Rose has turned the ball over at a lower rate than Paul. 

Rose’s numbers look pretty good compared to Steve Nash’s as well.  Simply put, Derrick Rose is already one of the premier point guards in the league and he has only played 13 games.  Derrick Rose and the Bulls will only get better.  Bulls fans have waited long enough but they finally have another superstar on their roster.