Westerlund: Scorer-Distributor Balance An Ongoing Focus For Derrick Rose
By Cody Westerlund-
CHICAGO (CBS) – First, the disclaimers in assessing Bulls point guard Derrick Rose's performance Tuesday night.
Directed by a lame-duck coach as rumors swirl that franchise cornerstone DeMarcus Cousins wants no part of the new leader the organization is zeroing in on, the visiting Sacramento Kings were in complete disarray and one of the sorrier teams to visit the United Center this season. On a good day, their starting point guard in Ramon Sessions is a poor defender. On a disengaged evening like Tuesday, he'd have trouble staying in front of even the slowest of mammals.
It was against such a backdrop that Rose submitted one of his best performances of the season: 23 points on 10-of-17 with seven assists and zero turnovers. While he didn't deal with much ball pressure, it was only Rose's second turnover-free game of the season – he entered Tuesday tied for the 10th-most turnovers per game in the NBA at 3.3 – and it left coach Tom Thibodeau believing his X-factor to a championship has found more of a comfort zone.
"I thought he played terrific," Thibodeau said. "I just think that he's got a good rhythm going. He's got a good balance of the shots that he's taking. He's getting penetration into the lane. He's getting the attack to the rim. He's taking the threes that are the kickouts. And I think he's gone back to what his initial strength was when he came into the league in getting some of those mid-range pull-ups. When he does that, he's impossible to guard because he's hitting you in a lot of different ways."
For Rose, the season-long theme has been inconsistency. He's shown flashes of brilliance and spurts of being the floor general Chicago needs him to be, but he's also puzzlingly fallen in love with a jump shot that's streaky at best and maddeningly bad at worst, an affair that's taken away from his aggressiveness to the hoop.
Too often, it seems Rose has overthought the game. At various times this season, he's focused on shooting more floaters, premeditated a plan to get teammates involved early and been insistent on hoisting 3-pointers to keep the defense honest.
While some of that was understandable, the approach was also counterintuitive in that it went against a main belief of Thibodeau's: The game will tell you what to do.
"The road's been bumpy," Thibodeau admitted. "And when you miss the amount of time (he did) – look, it's hard to come back after missing one year. And so he's navigating through it."
At first, Thibodeau simply wanted Rose to play night after night after major knee injuries cost him nearly two full seasons. Then Thibodeau wanted Rose to get his attacking mindset back.
Now, it's about finding the elusive balance in being a scorer and a distributor. Ideally, that means playing naturally and reacting instinctively, which Rose did Tuesday against a poor foe two nights after dishing out a season-high 11 assists in Orlando.
"He's playing with better poise now, mixing up the facilitating and the shooting," said Bulls center Pau Gasol, who added 26 points and 16 rebounds. "So I think he's got a good balance going on right now."
Nearly two-thirds the way through the season, a truth has emerged. Because Rose isn't his old explosive self, the only way the Bulls can be true title contenders is for him to be effective while also playing under control, both in taking care of the ball and his shot selection.
In games this season in which Rose has had two or fewer turnovers (and not left the game early with injury), the Bulls are 10-2. It's no coincidence that some of Chicago's best performances – a 23-point shellacking of San Antonio and a 129-point outburst against Toronto, for example – occurred within that statistical parameter.
That's a reflection of Rose controlling the game, of him simply playing and reacting like he did Tuesday, when for at least a night, the actions backed up the words.
"Just playing," Rose said. "I'm just playing through my mistakes, seeing what's out there.
"I just tried to make the game simple."
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
