Derrick Rose Comfortable With His MVP 'Vintage' Being Gone

[RealGM Wiretap]

Derrick Rose has become content with where he is now in his career and isn't chasing his pre-injury MVP form.

“That vintage is gone, man,” Rose said late Tuesday night. “I told you the question should be: Can I hoop? It shouldn’t be like, 'He’s playing like his old self. Like, if I can hoop, I can hoop. No matter if I did that when I was younger or now, I can play the game of basketball.”

Rose tore the ACL in his right knee in 2012 and twice tore the meniscus in his right knee (2014, 2015).

“Your whole life, you’re used to a 1-2 rhythm,” Rose said. “You have one injury, and that kind of resets everything. Let alone you have three, and you’ve got to find your 1-2 -- how high you want to jump on your shot, how high you want to jump on your 3s. All those little things count. Like, this entire time, these three or four years, I’m playing catch-up.”

“I don’t think he would ever be the same Derrick Rose, coming down and dunking,” Carmelo Anthony said. “But he’ll be great at being a different type of player now. That’s kind of what he’s showing.”

Via Ian Begley/ESPN

[The_Hater]

The problem with Rose isn't that he's lost his peak athleticism and skill, it's that he refuses to adapt his playing style to remain a positive contributor on the court. He just takes far too many low percentage shots, doesn't find his teammates, doesn't spread the floor and doesn't defend.

[pjiggz]

The problem with Rose isn't that he's lost his peak athleticism and skill, it's that he refuses to adapt his playing style to remain a positive contributor on the court. He just takes far too many low percentage shots, doesn't find his teammates, doesn't spread the floor and doesn't defend.

After watching 10+ knick games, I have to strongly disagree with your comment. He's doing the exact opposite of everything you said. Perhaps your talking about when he played for the Bulls??

[The_Hater]

The problem with Rose isn't that he's lost his peak athleticism and skill, it's that he refuses to adapt his playing style to remain a positive contributor on the court. He just takes far too many low percentage shots, doesn't find his teammates, doesn't spread the floor and doesn't defend.

After watching 10+ knick games, I have to strongly disagree with your comment. He's doing the exact opposite of everything you said. Perhaps your talking about when he played for the Bulls??

His TS% just creeped over 50% last night. His assist rate, ass/to rate, 3FG are all on par with his terrible bulls numbers. The Knicks are 27th in team defense so he hasn't helped there.

The numbers show no difference between the Bulls and the Knicks.

[adjacent2bench]

The problem with Rose isn't that he's lost his peak athleticism and skill, it's that he refuses to adapt his playing style to remain a positive contributor on the court. He just takes far too many low percentage shots, doesn't find his teammates, doesn't spread the floor and doesn't defend.

He defends pretty well and most of his shots are pretty high percentag


But I do agree he needs to look for his teammates more.

[donaldtrump_00]

I dont buy it. He's trying to return to MVP form. He still needs that extra gear missing. Bulls fans know when he is back or just playing well. He's very sneakily getting it back. I don't think he will get all the way there but he can carry this knocks team into the playoffs. I learned one thing about rose. Never sleep on him. He picks his games to play like his old self. His vertical which he spoke on is a bug part of his game. Its not fully back. The question is can he reach that extra gear. I think he can if he wants to but he's saying he don't care about it. He's become lazy, the old rose never gets restless, he's changed alot.

[IAMZOOTED]

I dont buy it. He's trying to return to MVP form. He still needs that extra gear missing. Bulls fans know when he is back or just playing well. He's very sneakily getting it back. I don't think he will get all the way there but he can carry this knocks team into the playoffs. I learned one thing about rose. Never sleep on him. He picks his games to play like his old self. His vertical which he spoke on is a bug part of his game. Its not fully back. The question is can he reach that extra gear. I think he can if he wants to but he's saying he don't care about it. He's become lazy, the old rose never gets restless, he's changed alot.

Carry? Absolutely not. Help? Sure.

[HotelVitale]

He defends pretty well and most of his shots are pretty high percentage

Shot chart says that half his shots this season have been from been jumpers/floaters outside the lane, and he's shooting about 30% on them. Those are not high percentage shots for him. Also not sure where you're getting the good defense from; he's not laughably bad but he's clearly well below average, doesn't help with team or individual D at all.

[PrecociousNeoph]

he has actually played well this year and he looks 100% healthy for the first time in a really long time. he’s not the mini-lebron that he used to be, that ship has sailed, though he has surprised me in that i was expecting him to be washed up and he definitely isn’t

[TheBallDoLie]

I agree in the sense Rose can still play at the NBA level. He can still start on most teams or be a big contributor off the bench.

The problem is when most people see Rose, they see what could have been. Whether he is ever great again is irrelevant. All that matters is can he be productive enough to warrant playing time? Yes he is.