Stop Expecting Derrick Rose to Be Something He Never Was

For Derrick Rose, the 2016-17 NBA season is a chance to start over. New city. New uniform. New teammates. 

For the rest of us, his move from the Chicago Bulls to the New York Knicks is a long-overdue wake-up call—the ultimate reminder that Rose needs this clean slate. 

We assume the ACL tear in his left knee during the 2012 postseason derailed an all-time career trajectory. We rationalize the 27-year-old’s future and place in the league by assuring ourselves he can be a quality point guard, maybe the outline of superstar, because of what he accomplished in 2010-11, as a 22-year-old. 

Three knee surgeries and countless injuries later, the “youngest MVP in NBA history” distinction Rose once wore like a crown has, in essence, become a multiyear millstone. Even with all that’s changed, he is still linked to notoriety from his past—and bound to an unfair vision of his future.

The Real MVP?

“I think I’ve been snubbed a year or two,” four-time MVP LeBron James told the Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd in February of his Maurice Podoloff Trophy collection. “I should have probably five or six right now, to be completely honest.” 

It doesn’t take much effort to pull back James’ thin veil.

He finished a distant third on the MVP ladder in 2010-11, receiving only four of a possible 121 first-place votes. Rose cornered the market with 113 first-place nods, nearly doubling the total score of runner-up Dwight Howard.

Justifications for Rose’s landslide victory, in retrospect, read more like excuses.

Carlos Boozer posted the second-highest usage rate on that Bulls team! Joakim Noah appeared in just 48 games! James had two superstars, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, on his side! Ugh, come on, James just secured two consecutive MVP awards; it’s someone else’s turn!

Yes, Rose was indispensable to that 62-win Bulls squad. They played like a top-10 offense with him on the court and devolved into a smoldering heap when he sat, with a 98.9 offensive rating that would have ranked dead last. That they finished first in the Eastern Conference at a time when the Miami Heat’s villainous Big Three was supposed to steamroll the rest of the NBA played a pivotal part in Rose’s ascension.

But the Bulls’ calling card was still their defense. They fielded the Association’s best points-prevention system—one that improved when Rose stepped off the floor. He barely ranked as an above-average defender that season, according to NBAMath.com.

Historically, MVP winners dominate some of the most common statistical measuring sticks, including win shares per 48 minutes, player efficiency rating (PER) and box plus-minus (BPM)—the latter of which shows how much better the average team is per 100 possessions with a given player on the court. Rose’s 2010-11 efforts never held up to that billing.

Twenty-three of the 37 MVP winners from the three-point era have finished inside the top three of each category. James led all of those subsections in 2010-11; Rose only ranked in the top three of one (BPM). His average placement across all three departments was seventh, which is the fifth-worst mark for an MVP since 1980. He’s ahead of …

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