Derrick Rose
This is not a typo. The MVP conversation isn’t much of a contest. There’s Derrick Rose and … Derrick Rose.
Coupled with the consolidation of power in Miami and the eventual downturn in play by Boston and Kobe Bryant, Rose and the Bulls have emerged to be the class of the NBA.
Over the summer, the buzz in Chicago surrounded the LeBron saga and whether or not he’d go play in the United Center. But at the same time, Chicago’s own wunderkind was preparing to make the next step in his game.
And the next step he made.
After announcing the arrival of Carlos Boozer and the snubbing of King James, the Bulls were slated to win the division and hang around in the playoffs, but certainly not factor much in the final decision.
But here we are, at the end of the season and who’s the cream of the crop in the East? The Celtics? The Heat? None of the above. The Chicago Bulls have risen to the top.
The most amazing part, the Bulls big-time acquisition Carlos Boozer and resident bad boy Joakim Noah have missed a season between the two.
Derrick Rose has stepped out of the shadow of Jordan to become his own man. The kind of man who closes games and can and will be the factor in every game he plays.
-Bill Hopkins
Derrick Rose
As of the All-Star break, Derrick Rose had already supplanted himself as NBA MVP in the eyes of many. Since then, naysayers and Dwight Howard enthusiasts have been poking at his statistics to try to argue that he is not worthy. Well, try these stats on for size.
Per game, he’s only two points behind the NBA’s leading scorer, three behind in assists and pulls down rebounds just as well as any other guard.
When venturing into nontraditional statistics, one would discover magical tidbits such as usage rating percentage.
By calculating the amount of times a team runs a play through one player with a calculus-like equation, you find that the Bulls depend on Rose more than any other Eastern conference team depends on one player.
Despite his three-point percentage increasing 63 points, his most drastic improvement has been in crunch time.
While LeBron is jacking up LeBricks in crunch time, Rose’s has sunk what seems to be every shot when the game gets close. In fact, if Rose averaged what he did in the last five minutes of close games throughout a whole game, he’d be averaging 43 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists.
That’s one heck of a stat line.
Now if you do want to pick at Rose’s shooting percentage, go ahead. Rose will just keep on being the MVP.
-Zach Berg