Derrick Rose: The star and the conundrum
If the beginning sets the tone, the Bulls had reasons to be optimistic. Wearing face protection gear and battling a swollen eye, Rose certainly had his limitations. Now he is not the first player to fight through a mask which is hated by players for its inconvenience.
Yet, quite a few managed to excel even with the mask on. Rip Hamilton did it for years, Kobe Bryant had his time as the masked mamba and most recently Russell Westbrook was tearing apart the league in a mask. But the case of Derrick Rose is very, very different.
In all fairness to Rose, his post-game comments seem appropriately rehearsed. Rose when questioned about his mask said, “When I'm playing, I'm so focused on the game that you really don't know that you have it on until it's like a timeout or something like that you got to wipe it off. But other than that, I don't care."
Bulls’ Head Coach Hoiberg also confirmed that Rose was suffering from lack of depth perception and that forced himself to use just his right eye on the court as the swelling on the left eye had still not subsided.
Hoiberg joked that Rose was seeing three baskets and he had asked Rose to aim for the middle one. The Bulls won the game and Rose did grab the headlines. Normal day in office for any franchise star, but if you ask any Bulls loyalist nothing about Rose with the Bulls can easily be that normal. At the risk of repeating myself, it is still very, very different.
So, what is this point of difference ? It is not different because Rose's injury is far more grievous than any other facial injury in the NBA. It is not because people believe he may struggle far more as his is an eye injury. His double vision and lack of depth perception aren't the reasons either.
It is very different because this just reinstates the misgivings and the apprehensions that almost all Bulls fans cultivate in the back of their head. Is their seemingly brittle hometown star on the cusp of another lamentable injury? Is this season too jinxed like the previous few?
They are worried about Rose not being at a 100%, because unlike the likes of a Kobe Bryant or a Chris Paul, Rose isn't the type to fight through niggles and put his body on the line. Rose's reputation as someone who is a consummate professional in managing his body and ensuring he makes the maximum moolah of his talents is not helping the fan-base.
Remember when Jordan played through flu or when Isiah Thomas battled through an ankle injury in the ‘88 Finals? In both scenarios one can argue that Rose would have chosen otherwise.
In 2013 while coming back from a devastating ACL injury, he refused to play in the playoffs even after being medically cleared as he still had some lingering doubts in his head. His team and his coach stood by his choice but his refusal to play despite his team and the city of Chicago bidding for their superstar is reason enough for the fans to be skeptical.
Now, nobody can deny Rose the right to make his own choices. Yes he has a huge contract and the size of the market and the opportunity in Chicago means that he is one of the highest earning superstars in the game. He realizes that a professional basketball player's time in the game is limited and it is imperative that a player does everything in his power to make the most of the opportunity.
But somewhere in his ardent desire to make the most of the opportunity, the passion and the heart seems glaringly amiss. It is his choice, but the city of Chicago deserves better than a reticent self-obsessed star.
He is still admired for his abilities and athleticism and while it is unfair to brand Rose as brittle, the injuries that he has been through and the subsequent consternation the fans have endured surely paint him as a hero the Bulls have, but can't necessarily bank on. At 27 years of age, Rose hasn't played a full season in four years.
In all fairness to him, other than the 2013 play-offs one can hardly fault him for the absence. But if one were to carefully gauge the mood of the city and the fans one would also know that there is a greater sense of disgruntlement in the fans that easily supersedes any sense of empathy. This, from a fan base that heralded Rose to the status of the insuperable Jordan. Sadly despite the platform and the opportunity, the image of Rose has been desecrated to someone who just doesn't seem to care enough.
Now, Rose had a decent game against the Cavaliers. He finished with 18 points on 8-22 shooting and also dished out 5 assists. His movement was encouraging and while his playmaking and decision-making were suspect on occasions, one needs to give him the pass as he still is finding his feet in Hoiberg's offense.
One of the major reasons why the Bulls front office unceremoniously dumped Thibodeau was because they wanted to get a coach who could orchestrate a fast-paced offense and keep the Bulls up with the evolution of the league.
Hoiberg's appointment has been compared to that of Steve Kerr. However, in reality Hoiberg has an advantage over Kerr. He comes into the NBA with a distinguished coaching career and a reputation that can stand the cynicism of the NBA media and fans. His offensive playbook is revered and the renaissance is evident in how the Bulls have played in all of their pre-season and against the Cavs today.
The spacing is much better and the movement is efficient. The onus is on moving the ball, with the highlights being the use of the weave action moving into a weakside pick-and-roll or a weakside screen setting up a player coming off the curl and attacking the paint. Rose and Butler are both athletic guards who can exploit defensive rotation lapses and in Gasol and Noah the Bulls have two premier pick-and-roll bigs.
Rose in particular, seemed a natural fit in Hoiberg's system. The system opens up multiple driving lanes and if one were to look back at Rose during his MVP days there was nobody better at attacking the paint. However, the start wasn't as seamless as it seemed on paper.
Rose in the past few years has shown a greater desire to become a volume jump-shooter as he believes that defenders were more than happy to slack off and prevent the drive to the paint rather than guard him up close like one would guard a Stephen Curry.
Rose in his desire to achieve versatility developed from being a mediocre jump-shooter to, well, he is still an average shooter. And that identity crisis was evident in the first half as Rose took on quite a few suspect jumpers as opposed to letting the offense play out and find a higher percentage look.
Rose struggled on his way to 6 points in the first half and the half-time talk surely did him a world of good. In the second half, Rose threw back shades of vintage D Rose as he vehemently refused to take the easy shot and had his mind bent on attacking the paint.
The Cavs are a very good defensive team and with the likes of Mozgov and Thompson patrolling the paint, Rose had to throw up some highly contested floaters and heavily twisted lay-ups of the highest difficulty meter. Hoiberg would have loved the enthusiasm but he certainly couldn't be happy with Rose's decision-making.
Often Rose, as was the feature of his MVP days, chose to take on double teams and hoist contested floaters rather than looking for the open guy. His ability to read defenses and to be an astute slash-and-kick guy wasn't ever his strongest point, but in Hoiberg's system the essence is in the decision making.
Yes, Rose walked away with all the headlines, but if one were to objectively look at the game, more than Rose it was Gasol's heroic block on LeBron, Butler's stifling tenacity and Mirotic's big influence in the fourth quarter that got the job done for the Bulls.
Still, it hasn't been oft in the past that the city of Chicago had a chance to rave about their franchise star. They saw a bright spark again. They see another ray of hope. Hope which to many is like the sun, which as we move towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. Hope that the homegrown kid can bring back glory to the house that Michael Jordan turned into the Mecca of the game.
The Bulls franchise still crave the days that Jordan brought them and while a realist knows that it is impossible to replicate the indomitable Jordan, the city of Chicago deserved better than to fall for the fool's gold in Derrick.
Rose is playing through a swollen eye. For the first time he has shown himself to be better than the overtly pompous star. He showed that he cared enough to play through pain. It can be claimed that maybe he has finally matured and is now treating the game of basketball with the respect that is expected of an NBA star.
But consider another theory. Rose is someone who is heavily influenced by his entourage and despite his mediocre past few years still harbors the belief that when healthy he is the best player in the league. His comments from the Bulls media day need to be taken into perspective here where an injury-stricken point guard who has had precious little reputation left comes up and boasts that, “There’s a lot of people that don’t know I’m great, but it’s cool. I know I can hoop.’’
Further on being questioned about the shambling civil lawsuit filed by his ex-girlfriend accusing Rose and a couple of his friends to have sexually assaulted her, Rose had the audacity to cold-shoulder the issue and in his presumptuous witless world gloat about the new TV deal and that in a couple of years he will have a big pay-day.
That is the only thought that is in his head right now. Tactless is maybe too soft a word for such remarks, but for a player accused of such a sinister crime to belittle the accusation and talk about the air castles in his head is bewildering and infuriating.
So, while many Bulls fans would want to believe that Rose has matured and maybe this year is the year when the Bulls can challenge the Cavs and the Heat in the East, it would be better for them to base their hope on the likes of Butler and Gasol. Rose still has a long way to go before he can be considered reliable again.