The NBA’s 30 best go-to players (#17: Derrick Rose)
Every NBA team has a go-to guy, and there’s really only room for one. And it’s not strictly who takes the last-second shot. It’s the guy who regularly gets the ball when things are getting tense in the fourth; the guy expected to calm things down when teammates are getting sloppy; the guy called upon to snuff out an opponent’s rally, or spark a rally of his own; the guy who’s not just supposed to make shots, but make the right decisions. Bottom line: Who do you want the offense to run through when everything is on the line? From #30 to #1 (one per team), these are the League’s best go-to guys…
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#17: DERRICK ROSE, Chicago Bulls
“Now I know this is gonna come as a huge surprise to everyone, but … I’M the artist. That’s right, people. I know — amazing, ain’t it? So young … so young.”
-Riley Freeman
The most tempting carrot in the race to rate Derrick Rose is to overrate him based on his prodigious potential. With a stellar rookie season (16.8 ppg, 6.3 apg) as the only work experience on his NBA resume, Rose — who just turned 21 years old yesterday — operates under the assumption that what we’ve seen from him so far is the worst that we’ll see; that each season he will raise his game notch after notch until, inevitably, he takes his rightful place beside Stockton and Isiah and Archibald on the point guard pedestal.
The most common evaluation of Rose: “When he gets a jumper, it’s WRAP.” I’ve said it myself, and still believe it.
But what if he never gets a jumper? How many evaluators made that same call about Sebastian Telfair’s two-pointer, or Monta Ellis‘ three-pointer? For some players, no matter how hard they work on a skill, sometimes it just doesn’t happen for them. So we shouldn’t take it for granted that Rose will get his jumper to a level of a Deron Williams or a Steve Nash until he’s actually done so.
That said, Rose in his current form still belongs not too far from, and yet not too close to, the best go-to players in the game. While he generally deferred to Ben Gordon in the most crucial moments of last year’s first-round playoff series with Boston, the rookie still had his time as the lead dog. Game 1 belonged to Rose (36 pts, 11 asts); he was the leading scorer in Game 4 (23 pts, 11 rebs, 9 asts); and his offense and defense were instrumental in Game 6 (28 pts, 8 rebs, 7 asts). In other words, in the games Chicago won in that series, Rose was the star, not Gordon.
With the ball in his hands, Rose’s speed, quickness, strength, ball-handling ability and understanding of driving angles allow him to get into the lane against literally any defender, where he can then finish with dunks instead of layups. When he turns distributor, he makes offensively-limited teammates like Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas better, and knows how and when to find his shooters for open looks in rhythm.
Last December, I argued that O.J. Mayo is a better overall player than Rose, a claim I honestly didn’t believe when I began writing but had convinced myself of by the time I was done. (I’ve since changed my mind.) At the time, I compared Rose to Baron Davis for his athletic ability, but on second look, realize he is instead a favorable blend of Chris Paul and Tony Parker.
Like CP, Rose has the ability to control tempo, make teammates better, and seamlessly transition from primary scorer to omniscient passer. And like Parker, Rose has a knack for the big moment. He showed it in the Boston series, and at times throughout his rookie year when he won games with his shot or rebounding or passing or defense. (Late in games, his jump shot becomes unnaturally reliable.) He showed it in college when he guided Memphis to the national title game, and in high school when he made his name in competition against the best players the country had to offer.
Like a true go-to performer, Rose more often than not brings his game to properly match the stakes.
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18. Chris Bosh
19. Andre Iguodala
20. Tracy McGrady
21. Baron Davis
22. Michael Redd
23. Devin Harris
24. Kevin Martin
25. Al Jefferson
26. O.J. Mayo
27. Stephen Jackson
28. Nate Robinson
29. Boris Diaw
30. Rip Hamilton
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October 5th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Kobeef says:
Chris Paul and Tony Parker?
Until Parker starts doing windmill dunks, Rose is a perfect blend of Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade.
But yeah, the jury is still out until we see what happens with that jumper. It is really a problem.
October 5th, 2009 at 10:16 am
vince says:
as long as he doesnt have better range rose is not deserving of top 30 go to status
October 5th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Shrink This says:
@ Kobeef
I agree with your comments on the blend of Wade and Paul, as well as Rose’s suspect outside shot.
His speed, strength and/or combination of the two is somewhat reminiscent of Wade’s game and I think underlies his ability to flat out abuse defenders on the court.
October 5th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Mellmeister says:
i agree with kobeef… the jumper is a li’l awkward, it’s like a jumping leprechaun on st. patrick’s day, but mayne… his ability to take it to the hole, wade-like… reminds me of d-wade back on his hay-days…
chris paul comparison? i’d see him more as a deron williams type of point… his game gets more appreciated with his scoring… and his timing of sharing the rock to make his teammates better. 
October 5th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Ian says:
Kobeef
The parker comparison was based on his playoffs performance not if he can windmill or tear drop.
Austin
How did gordon do on those three games the bulls won? Can’t I go the other way and say they lost 4 because rose couldn’t do it for the whole series? They won 3 when the bulls played well and lost 4 when they didn’t.
October 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Ian says:
kobeef
shouldnt it be until rose has a mid range game and a teardrop then we can compare him to parker. (actually i dont know if he has a teardrop ive only seen him play twice so scratch that part)
October 5th, 2009 at 11:09 am
sh!tfaced says:
Gotta go with Kobeef, he got it right with the D-Wade comparison. Rose’s game was always compared to Wade since college. Don’t care if you add a Chris Paul or a TP in the mix as long as D-Wade’s is there.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Chicagorilla says:
Did any of you actually watch Derrick Rose play? His Jumper is not the problem. By the 2nd half of the season most of his points came from his jumper because every team would double him off the pick-n-roll (which Del Negro foolishly kept trying to use) or go under the screen forcing him to shoot. And he hit. Not sure what his 2point jumpshot percentage was, but it had to be pretty good because that’s all he was able to do some nights. His jumper is better/just as good as Tony Parkers, TP is much better at getting to the lane (Partly because of Tim Duncan).
October 5th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Chicagorilla says:
What Rose can’t do is create for his teammates on a nightly basis. He has to focuse more on driving to set up his teammates for easy buckets (Taj Gibson got 19pts because of this the other night). That may be more the Coach than Rose, because he seems content to just run the offense, but in the Playoffs he was trying to get the W anyway he could.
KobeBeef,
You want to know what happened in the 4 losses… check how many points Gordon gave up to Ray Allen! Or how many points Noah, Tyrus, B.Miller allowed Glen Davis to score. How many offensive Rebounds Perkins got or Block shots for that matter. There wasn’t much more Rose could have done in the 4 that Chicago lost although he had some bad games here and there. He was also being molested by Rondo the entire series.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
nowwhatyo says:
Up to this point, I don’t see any comparison in rose’s game to CP’s game. I like the wade comparison tho.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Patrick says:
@Kobeef
You would be surprised by Mr. Longoria’s hops. Just because he doesn’t dunk much in games doesn’t mean that he can’t fly. For a long time I thought the same thing, but I was at a spurs game last year I think against the nuggets where he got a steal at half court and instead of taking it in for a weak layup like I was expecting he threw a pretty nasty windmill. It was crazy.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Chicagorilla says:
Pretty nasty windmill? lol, doubt that very much. I seen TP dunk before, but he doesn’t “fly” or anything like that. Chris Paul banged on Dwight Howard pretty nasty once, but that won’t happen again. Derrick has the hops to dunk on cats all the time. Derrick doesn’t try to dunk most times, he usually settles for the more certain lay-in and only dunks when its wide open.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
doc says:
Rose J was way better by the end of the year than it was at the start.Which means its gonna keep improving.And this spot acceptablebecause his career still at the beginning but he gonna jump up this list real fast.Because real shit,he’s gonna be the best PG in the league by next season.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
POPPI GEE says:
Wouldn’t dude being the best PG in the league also have to do with the surrounding cast? I can’t see that best PG by next season talk based on him and his teammates, but yea I think he will be an excellent PG as time goes.
I think 17 is a little high though.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Mo says:
@nowwhatyo, I agree. I don’t see any of CP3 in Rose’s game. It seems that people desperately want to see this though. I just don’t see it.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
J.Hicks says:
“Like CP, Rose has the ability to control tempo, make teammates better, and seamlessly transition from primary scorer to omniscient passer.”
From that standpoint, I see the Rose/CP comparison. Rose can take over and get buckets — I remember one game against the Jazz (Larry Hughes game winner) when he was killing ‘em down the stretch scoring the ball — or get everybody else their shots. What CP has perfected is knowing exactly when to hit the switch, something Rose should get down in due time.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
K Dizzle says:
Will Rose become more of a go to player in the future? Yes
Is he a better one right now than a healthy TMac or a CB4?
No…
October 5th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Ian says:
Dizzle
I agree with u and why is big al so damn low.
October 5th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
semantik0 says:
As much as I love D-Rose’s game and all the potential he has, He disappeared for long stretches in the playoffs, and his team actually counted on Salmmons for their late game buckets… he’s the best player on the team, but not the “go-to” guy (same situation with Dwight and Hedo last year in Orlando).
October 5th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Watchingandhi says:
Rose is WAY too high on this list. Martin, Bosh, and Big Al are all better than Rose. I realize you’re talking about fuzzy intangibles, but the discrepancy in these digits is too hard to ignore: http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=jeffeal01&y1=2009&p2=boshch01&y2=2009&p3=martike02&y3=2009&p4=rosede01&y4=2009
October 7th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
85wasagreatyear says:
he disappears? give him the rock and get out of the way. 2 points.
AND I WANT VIDEO EVIDENCE OF TP’s WINDMILL. not saying you’re lying, but i reaallly wanna see this.
October 27th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Ivy says:
Derrick Rose is fun too watch
go-2-guy or Rookie Of the Year it doesnt matter
gotta admit he breaks ankles like nothing
haha ROSE breaking MILLERS ankle wwas BAD even in HD you could see it coming lol.
last seasons performance was enough for me too put him this high.