Concept Coop wrote:TheKingOfVa360 wrote:Your jumping the gun comparing Rose to Gary Payton. Please stop.
Which is exactly my point. Let me make it easier for you guys to understand. Derek Rose is only 21. Look at the great players in NBA history and see where they were at 21. A large majority were still in school. Why place limits on his game at 21? It is just as illogical for me to say Rose will be as good as Payton, as it is to say he can't be, based on his skill set, age, work ethic and so forth.
Another way to put it: If we had this convo when Payton was 21, or about Durant a year ago, or just about any example you want to use, It would be "far fetched." It is not any more or less far-fetched to suggest that Rose could reach said levels.
The problem with people when they talk about Rose is that they confuse being a very good to great player with the concept of POTENTIAL.
Is Rose good? Yes, he is already a "good" player. I would say that he is an excellent talent at his age. He could, one day, become the best point guard in the league. That is different from what he is TODAY, though. At this time he is firmly in my top 10 as being a real impact player at his position, and that is MAINLY due to his scoring ability. His defense and passing still need work, and his ability to run an offense and be a floor general needs even more.
The last part escapes many people on this site, as it does many basketball fans. There is a BIG difference between making some nice passes and RUNNING AN OFFENSE. Chauncey Billups is one of the best floor generals around, yet his assist stats are no great shakes. The thing is that he CONTROLS his offense effectively, and understands how to utlize the players on teh floor with him. There is very little that happens in the Denver offense that Chauncey doesn't have a hand in on some level. He isn't just hanging around out there, he is directing the show. Rose will often just disappear from the game, and I'm not just talking about his scoring, I'm talking about him giving the ball up, standing off to the side, and having next to nothing to do with what is happening out there. If he doesn't have the ball in his hands, he is just another guy out there, and that is NOT how you run an offense. This is an aspect where he lags FAR behind some of the other point guards in the game.
Watch Rondo when he plays. He is constantly talking out there. When a break in the action occurs, he gets his teammates into a huddle and gets them all on the same page (If you watched the blue and white game, you could see him doing it there as well). If free throws are being shot, he is either talking to Doc, making a round communicating with different teammates, or working a ref. If he is off of the ball, he is often directing traffic, calling out when to rotate the ball, pointing out to the ball handler who to pass to..... especially when some of the less experienced players are out there. Hell, if he is on the sideline, you can often see him barking out stuff to the guys on the floor, pointing to where they should be. Rose? A lot of the time he is just out there not saying a damn thing. Stuff like that counts, and he needs to work on it, because a point guard needs to be able to RUN HIS TEAM.
