No one on the planet is more optimistic about New York‘s upcoming season than starting point guard, Derrick Rose. Earlier in the week, he made another pass at the Knicks being some sort of super team capable of winning every single game.
Now, following D. Rose for the better part of 8 years in Chicago, you can file this one under the “Derrick Rose Be Sayin’ Some Things” column, where you’ll find such gems as “needing to stay healthy for meetings & graduations once he retires.”
The Knicks are nowhere near a super team in today’s NBA but it’s a good sign Rose is this confident about their prospects in 2017. Playing all those years under Tom Thibodeau indirectly brainwashed Rose into (rightfully) believing you can, technically, win every single game on the schedule. That belief obviously doesn’t produce a 100% return but it did result in an MVP & 60-win season back in ’11.
It was ages ago but Rose legitimately has a chance to play his best ball since that campaign, when he averaged 25 points & 7.7 dimes/contest. In the midst of a power struggle-injury-plagued (still only played in 66 games)-double vision handicapped season, Rose averaged 16 & 5 on 43% shooting. That’s not terrible.
In fact, if NY abandons the idea of using the triangle and allows Jeff Hornacek to give Rose the same sort of control Goran Dragic had in Phoenix, those numbers are sure to rise.
Rose has never played alongside a pure scorer like Carmelo Anthony & a versatile stretch big like Kristaps Porzingis, whose PnR efforts should benefit off Rose’s penetration. And besides Brandon Jennings, Rose is the only guy capable of running the offense as a primary ball-handler, so minutes should climb back to 34-35/night.
The opportunity is there but D. Rose isn’t doing himself any favors with comments like this – it’s pretty jaded at this point. It puts unnecessary pressure on a team that needs to focus on qualifying for the postseason first, with title dreams in the deepest part of the mind.
That said, I fully expect Rose to bounce back during his first year on Broadway. If relatively healthy, you’ll see a more impressive season statistically, with a shot to return to Top DOG status by the All-Star break.
But in the meantime, we’d all benefit if D. Rose just stopped saying stuff.
(2016-17) Projected Stats: 19 ppg, 7 apg, 44% FG
(2016-17) Projected DOG Status: Top DOG
#delay
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