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“The Return” was a much hyped publicity campaign started by Adidas in October 2012, hyping Derrick Rose’s comeback to the NBA after a season-ending ACL injury in the 2012 NBA Playoffs.
Unfortunately for Adidas (and Bulls fans), the controversy surrounding Rose’s return was so big that they quietly scrapped their marketing campaign when things started to turn ugly.
Rose continued to lead the Bulls, their fans and the entire NBA community on during the 2013 NBA playoffs by never specifying a return date from his injury, resulting in a lot of frustration and discussion.
I have no problem with Rose sitting out the entire season, but if that was his intention then let everyone know early so it isn’t an issue.
I suspect that several issues that will never be made public knowledge contributed to his decision not to return, but he had to realise the interest his possible return would generate – for good or bad.
An NBA summer later and we arrive at Rose’s much anticipated return to an NBA court. During the pre-season he looked like vintage Derrick Rose, flying through the air like a madman and finishing off jaw-dropping layups.
He finished the pre-season averaging 20.7ppg, 5.0apg and shooting 44.44 percent from deep. Everyone was rejoicing and predicting that Rose would simply slot back into the line-up and produce MVP numbers from day one.
Unfortunately when regular season NBA action returned last week, he faced the Miami Heat and reality. He only managed 12 points on 4-15 FG with four assists, and also racked up five turnovers.
Given he had been out of the game for 18 months and was facing the defensive greatness of LeBron James and his Miami Heat, this was not surprising.
In the next two games against the Knicks and 76ers he posted similar numbers (18pts, three assists versus NYK, and 13pts, six assists versus PHI) while shooting below 31 percent in both games.
Add to that a combined 12 turnovers in the two games and Bulls fans have started to reach for the panic button.
So what is going on with Derrick Rose?
Some of it can be attributed to being out of the game for so long as he feels his way around a basketball court full of opposition defenders, but there are some worrying signs.
His jump shot – which has never been one of his strongest weapons – isn’t falling, and he keeps forcing the three point shot (26.7 3 percent on five attempts per game).
To combat the broken jump shot he has tried getting to the rim, but this method of attack isn’t proving as successful as it was during his MVP season.
This can be split between finding out what he can and cannot do after the knee injury and his outside shot not falling, but you have to wonder how long he will last with all the crazy acrobatics he performs.
Free real estate on an NBA court is very limited and the paint is where it disappears the quickest.
If Rose keeps flying in against multiple defenders then it’s only a matter of time before either an ankle injury or an aggravation of the knee injury occurs.
Priority number one for Rose should be making outside shots, as teams are only defending the drive when he has the ball. Floor spacing is critical for creating driving lanes and freeing up your big men for easy cuts to the basket.
Right now the Bulls spacing is a mess and won’t improve until Rose commands defensive pressure on the perimeter.
If that means doing more work without the ball then so be it, but the Bulls shouldn’t be relying on Rose for so much of their offence given his historically unreliable jump shot.
By no means am I writing off Derrick Rose, and I fully expect him to bounce back to post good numbers again.
But will he become an MVP quality player again? The jury is still out and he has plenty of work to put in before proving people wrong.
Let’s hope for the sake of basketball that he finds his mojo soon.
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