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Derrick Rose once again struggled with injuries throughout this past season, but he still ended the campaign on a good note with an impressive playoff run. Despite the stellar play that he showed during the postseason, the Chicago Bulls should still take the step of testing his trade value this offseason and seeing what they could net in return for him should they choose to trade him at some point in the future. This isn’t saying that they should necessarily trade him this offseason, but they certainly shouldn’t be opposed to the idea either.
Throughout the regular season, Rose ended up playing in 51 games. He averaged 17.7 points, 4.9 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. During the playoffs, he stepped his numbers up and averaged 20.3 points, 6.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game.
His shooting percentages were a bit low throughout the season, knocking down 40.5 percent of his shots from the field and 28.0 percent from behind the three-point arc. Whether that was due to the fact that he took contested jumpers or another reason, there are issues that he’ll have to figure out moving forward. Chicago was definitely better offensively with him on the court, but the inconsistency due to health issues are a major concern moving forward.
Rose’s has two more seasons left on his contract, and they are worth $20.1 million and $21.3 million respectively. Chicago has already missed out on him for two years of his big deal, and they can’t afford to risk losing out on any more time if they can get another team to offer them a reasonable trade.
At 26 years old, Rose has the wear and tear on his body of a player nearing the end of his career. This is something which should make the Bulls nervous, so they should consider moving on from him and building around Jimmy Butler and the rest of the core that they have put together.
That being said, trading him would be a very difficult decision for the Bulls to make. He has been a fan favorite and the face of their franchise since he was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. Rose has been one of the NBA’s best players when healthy and has an MVP award to prove it.
If the Bulls do indeed put him on the block, there is no doubt that they will have quite a few teams show interest in acquiring him. He has started changing his game a bit since the injury issues began occurring and isn’t the reckless player that made him so great early on in his career. Rose has developed a new game that is still very dynamic, but he’ll never regain the unique style that he had when he won the MVP.
Don’t expect to see the Bulls end up moving him during the offseason, but don’t be surprised if they do test the trade market. They will always have the option of moving him before the trade deadline if they go that route, but finding out which teams are interested and what to expect in a trade for him would be excellent research to do. Rose still has plenty of time to turn his career back around and prove that he can be an MVP candidate once again.
Evan Massey is a featured writer for www.RantSports.com, and contributes across the NFL, MLB, NCAA and NBA portions of the site. Follow him on Twitter at @Massey_Evan and like him on Facebook.
