Even though Derrick Rose has played in a lot of games since suffering his initial knee injury in April 2012, it's funny how often it feels like we're still waiting for his Return™. Rose has been playing basketball regularly for months, yet it's difficult not to watch the Chicago Bulls and wonder when the real D-Rose is coming back.
Derrick Rose isn’t the same, but he’s still very good
Instead of waiting for the old D-Rose to make his triumphant return, let’s start appreciating the D-Rose we have.
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In the most literal sense, Rose has been back for a while -- first over the summer with Team USA then this season with Chicago -- but he’s never quite been the same. Even casual observers recognize this isn’t the same Rose from four years ago, when he won NBA MVP at age 22, or even the same Rose from two years ago, when the experiences of life-altering injuries and countless days of rehab had not yet taken their toll on the player and the fanbase.
Rose looks and plays differently now, a reflection of the years he spent primarily on the sideline working his way back. For most players, evolution is made necessary by the unfortunate realities of age and the need to compensate for declining physical traits with new moves and skills. For Rose, evolution became necessary in his early 20s, with his body signaling that it wouldn’t last an entire career taking the beating it already had.
The MVP-winning chapter of Rose’s career might be over, but he’s come out of it looking ready to climb back up the NBA’s point guard hierarchy. As he showed during a weird 30-point, 11-turnover, one game-winner performance in the Bulls’ win over league-leading Golden State on Tuesday, there’s still a lot of good (and confidence) in there even if his game has some warts.
The signs, for the most part, point to a player who’s figuring things out after some early hiccups. Rose may never again be the player you remember, but he’s still proving to be a very good one.
The good news
Waiting for the “Old D-Rose” to return ignores the fact that 26-year-old Rose was always going to be different from 22-year-old Rose, regardless of injury. The initial ACL tear undoubtedly changed Rose’s trajectory, but players are constantly trying to improve and battle Father Time as they get older.
Rose has followed through by making changes to his game that should pay off down the road. The foundation of Rose’s game remains the ability to penetrate defenses and make them pay, but he’s polishing the edges to become a better, more complete player.
Rose's game still starts with the ability to drive and finish. Only five players -- Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, John Wall -- are shooting a higher percentage (54.4) on drives to the basket, per SportVU data. Only three players score more points per 48 minutes on drives.
Not only does that give the Bulls a ton of easy points off layups and dunks, it forces defenses to lay off Rose on the perimeter in order to take away his angles for attacking the basket.
That scenario wasn’t as exciting earlier in the season when Rose’s shot wasn’t falling, but there have been signs that aspect of his game is coming together, too. Rose seems to be shaking off the rust from his multi-year, on-and-off rehab, as shown by the past eight games:
| D-Rose | FG% | 3PT% | FT% |
| Oct. 29 to Jan. 12 (28 games) | 40.2 | 25.4 | 80.2 |
| Jan. 13 to present (8 games) | 45.3 | 45.8 | 83.3 |
There’s still been inconsistency even over that stretch, including an 0-for-6 showing from three on Jan. 25 against Miami, but it’s easily the best shooting we’ve seen from Rose in two-plus years. And based on the 33 shots he took Tuesday against Golden State, it’s pretty clear his confidence is rising as well. You don’t take this shot if you’re not feeling it:
And while there’s one area of Rose’s game where he’s consistently struggled -- finishing in transition -- there’s a ton of hope there, too. After all, Rose is having no issues finishing around the rim on drives, shooting 54 percent in those situations, and he remains one of the quickest players in the game. Logic says he won’t keep shooting 41 percent in transition all season, per Synergy Sports Technology.
So we have a D-Rose who’s attacking the basket with efficiency, trending the right way with his shot and figures to perform better in transition going forward.
I suppose now is the time to temper expectations, as exciting as his recent play has been.
The bad news
Like his performance against Golden State on Tuesday, not everything with Rose is rabbits and rainbows.
First, there’s the shooting. We can portray Rose’s numbers in a positive light when you point out the current trend, but the overwhelming sample for the season says that Rose isn’t a particularly good shooter. In a league where point guards like Stephen Curry and Damian Lilllard are torching opponents night-in, night-out, that issue cannot be dismissed.
Blog a Bull
If Rose ultimately settles in as a guy who shoots around 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from beyond the arc, defenses will start playing him differently in time. Once that happens, he will have a much harder time finding lanes to drive to the basket and take advantage of his strongest skills.
So Rose badly needs to show the early shooting struggles were rust, and there are signs that’s happening. However, without the positive signs over the past couple weeks, we would probably be having a much different conversation on the point guard.
The other concern is that the Bulls' defense appears better when Rose is on the bench, even though it's clear the team needs to play him in late-game situations. The numbers aren't overwhelming -- the Bulls allow 102.7 points per 100 possessions with Rose, 101.9 per 100 without him -- but it's noticeable that the team plays better D when Kirk Hinrich is out there instead.
If Rose is a poor shooter and questionable defender, his prospects don’t look nearly as good. There just aren’t many great guards in this league who get by without shooting and/or defense. Luckily for Rose, he’s been solid in those areas before, and just needs to prove he can get back to that.
The outlook
Rose may never again be the player who turned countless heads en route to becoming the league's youngest MVP, but his recent play shows he's on his way to becoming one of the game's best scoring guards again. The athleticism is there, the talent is there and, as the Warriors game showed, the confidence is there. The only thing that could sink his return to All-Star levels is a wonky jump shot, and right now he's showing he can work through that, too.
This may not be the evolution we expected from Derrick Rose when he took the league by storm, but he’s responding to adversity by adjusting his game in the right ways. The Golden State game revealed a special, yet-flawed player, and that just might be what the Bulls have now.
Instead of waiting for Old D-Rose to come back, let’s try to appreciate the new one.
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