The Timberwolves need to pass on Derrick Rose
It was reported again on Wednesday that the Minnesota Timberwolves are interested in signing Derrick Rose.
There was once a time that Derrick Rose was a wanted man. Professional basketball teams across the globe would have transferred money into sketchy off-shore bank accounts to have his services on their team.
The times they have changed. Things are different in the world. Teams actually want players who can stay on the court and are above-average. Unless, apparently, you are Tom Thibodeau and the Minnesota Timberwolves. According to ESPN, Rose is a potential off-season target for the Wolves.
Let’s start off with the fact that Rose can never stay on the court. Rose tore the ACL in his left knee in the 2012 playoffs and never has been the same player since. He missed the whole 2012-13 season due to that. In his attempted 2013-14 comeback, he tore his meniscus after only ten games in the season. Subsequent seasons have only resulted in 51, 66, and 64 games a season for Rose.
Rose is, on-average, missing 20 games a season for the past three seasons. The NBA season is long, but not many teams can sustain their success when they lose their starting point guard for a fourth of the season.
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Current Timberwolves starting point guard Ricky Rubio has played in 22, 76 and 75 games over the last three seasons.
Speaking of Rubio, the Timberwolves still do have him signed through the 2019 season. Minnesota also has Kris Dunn, last year’s first round pick, and Tyus Jones on the bench. The Wolves have many options already on the team, plus they could use their top ten pick this year again on a point guard if they so wished.
Back to Rose, he has simply not produced since his knee surgeries. Rose averaged north of 20 points for three out of the four seasons before his missed season in 2012-13. Since his return, Rose has averaged in the mid-teens with his highest average for points per game being this last season at 18 per game.
More concerning is the drop in Rose’s assist average. Rose was averaging in the six to seven assist range before his ACL tear and since has never averaged higher than 4.9 assists per game in a season. This last season, Rose averaged 4.4 assists per game.
Not to make it a complete Rose versus Rubio comparison, but Rubio this past season averaged more than double that. The Spaniard averaged 9.1 assists per game this past season. Sure he only averaged 11.1 points per game, but if you take every assist as an assumed two-point basket that means that Rubio was responsible for 29.3 points per game. Put that formula to Derrick Rose and he was only responsible for 27.8 points per game.
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With the current management structure, Rose will always be of potential interest to the Timberwolves. Thibodeau had Rose as a member of his Chicago Bulls during his entire tenure in the Windy City.
That connection does not mean that Rose should be welcomed to Minnesota with open arms. A ‘country club’ mentality is what got the Minnesota Twins in trouble for years and the Timberwolves don’t need to start going down that road and delay themselves from the playoffs for another 13 years.
Rose was once an NBA MVP and one of the biggest stars in the game, no doubt. He was the youngest league MVP ever at age 22. Rose will only be 29 when the season begins this fall, but it looks like his knee is a lot older than that.
Time passes us all by and the Timberwolves can’t let these coming seasons pass them by with the amazing potential that they have. Playoff seasons should start in 2017-18, but true championship-contending might be still a couple years after that. There’s no guarantee that Rose’s body would be able to hold up until then.
The time is now for the Timberwolves to figure out who the point guard will be on those, hopefully, NBA Final bound teams. Be it Rubio or Dunn or Jones or maybe even Zach LaVine. Don’t put your future in the hands of someone who has less than half of the sand left on the good side of their NBA-playing hourglass.
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