Derrick Rose needs to remain in the starting lineup
Derrick Rose needs to remain in the Cleveland Cavaliers starting lineup.
Derrick Rose receives so much negative publicity it seems hard for some to accept and acknowledge that while he may not be the same relentless force he was when he won MVP, or nearly the same athlete, he has so much natural talent and athleticism that regardless of the way injuries have impacted his career, he’s still an impact player in the league. There’s deliberation abound about Rose’s best fit, not just on the Cleveland Cavaliers, but on any team.
Is he a starter? A sixth man? Simply an above-average backup point guard?
The truth is that Rose can be all of those things and when he signed with the Cavs he planned on being the backup point guard while possibly envisioning himself as the Cavs sixth man. However, after Kyrie Irving’s trade request and a return that netted them an All-Star point guard but one out indefinitely as he rehabs a torn labrum, Rose became a starter.
This isn’t a situation unique to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Milwaukee Bucks reportedly had serious interest in bringing in Rose this offseason and it’s hard to see him playing backup to Malcolm Brogdon, whether or not the young guard one Rookie of the Year last season.
On the Cavs, Rose fits what the Cavs need as a starter for a plethora of reasons.
First and foremost, Rose plays with the pace Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue has been preaching about since last season. In the Cavs’ season opener against the Boston Celtics, Rose played at the highest pace of any Cav. However, you didn’t need the numbers to tell you that.
Rose consistently attacked the teeth of the defense whether he was in the halfcourt or leaking out in transition.
Playing at a high pace allows the Cavs’ slashers to open up space for shooters after they collapse the defense. In addition, playing at that pace makes the Cavs’ (and LeBron James) harder to guard in transition. It’s not exactly Mike D’Antoni’s ‘seven seconds or less’ system but the underlying principle is the same: attacking the defense before they have time to get set.
A player like the 35-year-old Dwyane Wade is more methodical in how he attacks, especially because he likes to score using post-ups. Post-ups require rhythm and timing and aren’t the type of shot regularly rushed by players. Iman Shumpert is a player who can play with great pace but he has yet to prove himself as starting caliber point guard on a championship team. A player who his teammates trust to help control the flow of the offense, set up teammates and to score (especially at the rim) both at a high volume and consistently.
Rose has started in 99.8 percent of his career games (regular season) and never averaged less than 4.3 assists per game in any season while averaging as many as 7.9 assists per game in his career. Rose has also talked about how being a facilitator when he entered the league but his early role with the Chicago Bulls turning him into a scorer. Rose’s abilities as a facilitator from the point guard position and the amount of experience he has as a starter are significant. In being trusted to create for others, Rose has the advantage as well.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers are a team that will need a player to step up as a secondary ball-handler in Thomas’ absence and those are big shoes to fill from the standpoint of scoring and facilitating.
Irving and Thomas both scored above 25.0 points per game last season, while Rose scored 18.0 points per game. Irving (5.8) and Thomas (5.9) each nearly averaged 6.0 assists per game last season while Rose averaged 4.4 assists per game. Rose’s scoring, like his passing ability, is predicated on the threat of his drive. That will allow Rose to hit shooters on drive-and-kicks but also draw enough attention in the pick-and-roll to hit perimeter-oriented bigs on a pick-and-pop or rollers on their way to the rim.
Shumpert averaged 7.4 points and 1.9 assists per game (10.5 points and 2.0 assists per 36 minutes) last season while Wade averaged 18.3 points and 3.8 assists per game last season.
Shumpert and Wade are solid slashers and pick-and-roll players too. However, Rose demands more respect than Shumpert on the offensive end from sheer reputation. On the defensive end, Wade’s inability to keep up with the upper echelon point guards in today’s league (imagine Wade guarding John Wall) is the reason why he couldn’t start at point guard.
That’s an issue Rose supposedly has as well since he’s not seen as a player who can slow down the explosive point guard’s in today’s NBA (he fared pretty well against Irving in the season opener, despite being caught on a few screens). Although Rose isn’t clamping down players on the perimeter by using tremendous athleticism, he’s still quick and knows how to use his size to impact driving lanes and obstruct his man’s vision. In addition, Rose plays with great effort on the defensive end.
Shumpert is the best defender of the trio but, again, on the offensive end he hasn’t earned the trust from his teammates that he would need to be the starting point guard, a scenario that would be ideal for the Cavs if Shumpert had proven himself as capable of handling the role before the start of such a pivotal season.
With Shumpert it’s not that he can’t drive, or finish above the rim, or knock down open jumpers, or make plays as a facilitator. It’s that he hasn’t proven himself worthy of the role. He’s never even averaged 10.0 points or 3.0 assists per game in any season. He hasn’t shot above 42.0 percent from the field in any season. Meanwhile, Rose (a former MVP) has never averaged lower than 10.0 points or 3.0 assists per game in any season. He’s only shot below 42.0 percent twice in his career, with those two seasons coming after Rose’s first (and his most significant) major injury.
Shumpert has been due for a breakout season for a number of seasons and it’s yet to come. While now would be a fine time for such a development, the Cavs are in win-now mode on the court and Keep LeBron-mode with James able to opt-out of his contract after the season.
It just doesn’t seem like an opportune time to be trying these things out, especially since Rose has been the starting point guard — and building chemistry with the starting lineup — since the start of training camp.
Should Wade start at shooting guard then?
The bigger question is if Wade should continue starting considering the spacing issues and the defensive issues that could present themselves in a backcourt with Rose and with Kevin Love, who is far from an upper echelon athlete, at center. However, if Shumpert was to start over Wade and J.R. Smith (who lost his starting spot to Wade after starting for the last three seasons), there’s a real chance that Lue would create issues in the locker room. Shumpert, a combo guard, should stay in the role that Lue has created for him as the first guard off of the bench as a sub for Rose. This doesn’t put him in a role as the team’s primary ballhandler since he shares the court with James and Wade but it allows him to make plays off-the-dribble while relieving some of the defensive pressure from Wade in the backcourt.
Wade’s chemistry and history with James is seen as the reason he’s the starting shooting guard instead of Smith and that may be true. However, Wade should be the starting shooting guard despite the issues they may have on offense and defense.
At the outset of the games, it’s important for the Cavs to create a rhythm and get easy points on offense, which is possible with the Wade-James connection and Wade’s veteran experience and playmaking ability. On the defensive end, there’s no way that Rose or Wade should start a game with dead legs (depending on the amount of games they played within a few days time) so the defensive effort they give, and thus the success they have, immediately after tipoff shouldn’t be a problem. That’s also why Shumpert is in a perfect role because as one of them tires down, Lue can insert a solid two-way player. When the other tires down, Lue can follow that up by putting Smith in the lineup.
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*Unless otherwise referenced, all stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com