Derrick Rose isn't one to pay attention to what others say. Or so we think. Behind the driven, yet humble, superstar is someone who loves to prove people wrong. He doesn't come out and say it, but watching him day in and day out, year after year, you can see it on the court.
Take, for example, when people said he couldn't shoot. That was the knock on him coming out of college, and even when he shot 49% last season (5th among point guards league-wide), he was still critiqued for his lack of range. So what did he do? Well, his improvement from the three-point line has been well documented, and was the first hint we got that Rose had a special work ethic.
Early this season, John Hollinger wrote an article essentially bashing Derrick Rose's ability to get to the free throw line. He says, "it's a notable shortcoming when comparing Rose to the other elite players at his position. Until he earns more whistles, Rose won't ascend to the top of the league's point guard mountain." At the time, Derrick was only averaging 5.7 free throw attempts per game, an admittedly low figure for a scorer. But since December 10th, the date that article was written, Rose has upped his FTA per game to 7, while shooting a remarkable 89% during that same stretch.
I will note that both Rose's three point shooting and his foul-drawing ability leave a lot to be desired, and neither have become true strengths. But it would be a farce for anyone to call either a weakness, and in only his 3rd year in the league we should expect to see dramatic improvements in both skills in the coming years.
Recently, as the MVP debate has heated up, there has been a lot of discussion both for and against Derrick Rose's credentials. The main opponents of Rose's candidacy come from the stathead industry, who knock both Rose's efficiency and his true impact on his team. Now, when it comes to efficiency, Rose is no slouch, he's been among the top 10-15 in Hollinger's PER rating all season long. But their argument lies in the fact that a true MVP candidate isn't the 10th or 15th best in the league, he should be the best. One such writer (Hollinger again) detailed this in a March 31st article titled, "Truth about the Derrick Rose story". So what has Rose done in April you ask? Since that article was written, he boasts a league-best true shooting percentage (Hollinger's favorite shooting efficiency metric) of 68%, up dramatically from his 55% season mark. That includes today's game against Orlando, in which he scored 39 points on 17 shots. Oh, he's also climbed to 6th in the league PER (as of tomorrow).
I don't mean to rip on John Hollinger and the advanced metrics community (okay maybe I do a little), but it always seems that these are the people ripping on Rose. Whether it was his shooting, his ability to draw contact, or his overall efficiency, Derrick Rose hasn't quite been the superstar in their eyes that he is in ours. We see him for how he leads, for how he takes over games, and for how truly valuable he has been for this Bulls team. But they just look at the numbers, and find a hole in his game. Fortunately for all of us, Derrick is in the business of proving his doubters wrong, and as long as he continues to do that, he'll be the MVP. Of the NBA Finals.
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