How Derrick Rose Can Become The No.1 Point Guard In The NBA
Derrick Rose has already had a tremendous start to his NBA career as in his first season in the league he won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and in his third season he was honored with the Most Valuable Player Award. What’s scary for opposing teams is that Rose has plenty of room to expand his game.
He has already worked on improving his free throw shooting in his rookie year he shot a solid percentage of 78.8, it dropped to 76.6 percent in his second year, yet last season he shot an impressive 85.8 percent and so far this season he’s at 84.1 percent.
The reason the free throw percentage is important to Rose is because he is one the best players in the NBA at getting to the rim, which gives him a better chance at three point play opportunities. Also, with the improvement he can look for contact more from defensive players and earn two free throws.
For Rose there are two aspects of his game that keeps him from being the best point guard in the NBA at this time. The first is having a consistent jumper from beyond 15 feet and Rose has not been known for his defense.
82games.com has a perfect example of the splits between jumpers and from in close and the numbers are measured from effective field goal percentage. Here’s what his numbers look like from this season so far he’s at 42.5 percent, his 2010-2011 season he shot 44.1 percent, 2009-2010 46.7 percent and 2008-2009 41.9 percent.
In close this season 66.3 percent, 2010-2011 58.5 percent, 2009-2010 55.5 percent, and 2008-2009 57.7 percent.
While Rose has improved defensively he is not at an elite level, yet. Although Kelly Scalleta attempts to persuade his readers with this article “Derrick Rose’s Dismal Defense: Dismissing Disparaging Driveling-drivel” as a case for Rose being an elite defender.
While Scalleta used some interesting logic in attempting to prove that Rose was among the elite point guards in terms of defense. What the numbers failed to show was how many times each one of the point guards on the list actually faced the situation of pick-and-rolls, isolation plays and spot-ups.
The other issue with the article is in regards to the amount of 20 and 30 point games. It’s rare that two excellent players end up defending each other the entire game, most teams now have a defensive stopper to guard that player, so their elite scorer doesn’t have to expand too much energy on the defensive end or get in foul trouble.
Right now there are two point guards that should be ranked higher than Rose and another point guard that is at the level of Rose. The two point guards that should be ranked higher than Rose are Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers and Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets. The reason for this is that both possess a consistent jumper and play at an elite level defensively.
Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder is the other point guard that is at the same level as Rose, although for a different reason. Rose does have the advantage offensively over Westbrook, yet on the defensive end Westbrook has the advantage over Rose.
There’s no question that Rose is one of the best point guards in the NBA! What will get him to being the best is developing a consistent jumper and to bring his defense to an elite level. With Rose being just 23 years of age he should be able accomplish that feat within the next two to three seasons.
