Written by Alex Schubauer at No Coast Bias
If you haven’t already, it’s time to forget about the Derrick Rose you once knew. The 2011 NBA MVP is just not that guy anymore.
He’s now had more surgeries than Amanda Bynes and, on top of all that, is coming back from a fractured face. His game is drifting away, which threatens to send his Chicago Bulls in the same direction.
Rose is not the offensive creator of old. His usage rate is around 25%, down from his average of 30% when playing a meaningful amount of games. He barely dishes out the most assists on his own team, with Joakim Noah and Aaron Brooks just below him in assists per 100 possessions. The rest of the league is showing him up as well. He’s 22nd in the league at 5.7 assists per game, sandwiched between rookies Emmanuel Mudiay and TJ McConnell.
But it’s not just creating for others, his own scoring is even more disappointing. You don’t even have to dig deep into the numbers; he’s shooting 36.3% on field goals and 23.4% on threes. That’s on more than 15 shots per game, the highest rate of all Bulls players. Only Noah, in his worst season as a pro, and Tony Snell have worse percentages and they take more than 10 less shots per game than Rose. He’s approaching Kobe Bryant levels of usage and inefficiency.
Bryant has nearly 50,000 NBA minutes slowing him down. Rose has three three surgeries on his ACL and meniscus. Either will take athleticism away from you. It’s easy to see this point of concern while watching their games. He can’t attack the basket anymore, shooting only 2.6 free throws per game. His backcourt partner Jimmy Butler gets 7.5. Watching him drive into the paint, jump in the air with no discernible plan, then launch an awkward pass backwards somewhere near an unsuspecting teammate is infuriating. I just watch this video over and over and cry.
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