Posted by Kevin Arnovitz
Derrick Rose is putting up monster numbers during his first month in the NBA: 18.8 ppg on a very respectable .468 from the field, just under five rebounds per game, and he's working himself five FTAs a night. That's good for a 17.87 PER, and pole position for ROY.
All well and good...except that Chicago is struggling offensively under head coach Vinny Del Negro. The Bulls are 3-5 and they rank 17th in offensive efficiency. Del Negro is employing a D'Antoni-style offense in Chicago, albeit without the full range of personnel Phoenix had at its disposal during its salad days.
Anthony Macri says that Chicago's drive-and-kick scheme is putting a lot of pressure on Rose to carry the offensive load -- and that's exactly what he's doing:
The Bulls' style is open, with at least good spacing, and it is designed as a penetrate-and-pitch scheme, which again favors the skills that Rose brings to the table. Similar in scope to the offense used by John Calipari at the University of Memphis (dribble-drive motion), the Bulls are still discovering the actions that will yield real results. This gives Rose a lot of the responsibility as the Bulls figure out what will work best. With willing (and sometimes capable) perimeter shooters like Kirk Hinrich (when healthy), Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and others, there is not a lot of help on dribble attacks from Rose. Instead, the defense forces him to finish, and since that is one of his true strengths, he is more than happy to oblige.
The biggest question early this season is whether this type of play truly helps Rose in the long term. Right now, he is called upon to attack and score and he is more than capable of doing that. However, can he both score as he has been and make his teammates better at the same time? Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets typifies the best kind of answer to this question. A gifted scorer, Paul can dominate one game without scoring a point, then score 45 the next night. Will Rose be able to approach that kind of production on behalf of his team? Only time will tell. He should not change his style--rather, he must continue to aggressively seek out and take what the defense gives him. Right now, it is giving him scoring opportunities.
As teams gameplan for Rose and his teammates and scheme, expect defenders to slough off of him and force him to make perimeter shots rather than expose themselves to his ability to drive. In addition, teams will start to run doubles at him as he penetrates further toward the basket. By doing so, they may expose the occasional poor decision-making that is sometimes covered up, right now, by his freakish athleticism.
As defenses start to sag, Rose will have to distribute the ball to guys off the pick/roll or along the perimeter. Rose currently ranks 36th in the league in assists/48. This is more a function of the Bulls' offense [the Chicago big men don't exactly lend themselves to easy side screen/rolls, do they?], than any selfishness or lack of court vision on Rose's part. Right now, he's taking what the defense gives him.
The question is what happens when the defense gives him a little less?
