While Derrick Rose has played decently for the Cleveland Cavaliers; he is not playing with the effectiveness that we expect from him.
Derrick Rose is averaging 14.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game in 26.9 minutes as a starter. On this Cleveland Cavaliers team, that is more than respectable given that his initial intended use was that of a backup point guard.
Rose has been very aggressive during the seven games he has played, which is a good thing. Yet, he seems to be driving into the paint much differently than he once did as a Chicago Bull. His drives were, once upon a time, aggressive and purposeful. Have now become violent and uncontrollable.
In this play, Derrick Rose drives into the lane and finds Nikola Mirotic in the opposite corner for an open three.
Plays like that with the Bulls have become plays like this with the Cavs:
While Rose has shown that he can still blow past defenders he forces up a contested shot rather than hitting Jeff Green in the corner for an open three. These types of plays are where we expected him to flourish as a drive-and-kick player due to the multitude of shooters that the Cavaliers have on the floor.
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Throughout the years Derrick Rose has had his ups and downs but has always been a player that would get into the lane and find open shooters. Rose and Gasol also had their time together in Chicago where they were considered a devastating pick-and-roll/pop combination. We weren’t the only ones to take note of his passing ability. Tyronn Lue had this to say about Derrick Rose:
"Per Cleveland.com: “…I didn’t know he was such a great passer. He makes a lot of great passes and just watching him over the course of these last few days and watching stuff on Synergy, I didn’t know he can make a lot of those plays because he’s so dynamic and you see him dunking and exploding to the basket. But he understands how to make the right play and that’s good for us. Especially with our shooters on the floor.”"
And when asked about his role on the team during training camp, Derrick Rose had this to say:
"Via Cleveland.com: “Before I made it to the league I think I was a facilitator,” he said. “The NBA made me into a scorer. I had to score my first year with the Bulls and I think you’ll be able to see my passing abilities once I’m here. My job is to facilitate, be aggressive at the same time, be a threat always when I get the ball.”"
The Derrick Rose that Lue and Rose, himself, spoke of has not manifested himself as of yet. Contrarily, when Rose does decide to kick out of drives he often does so after getting into the air and causing turnovers, such as these two plays:
Rose pushes the ball into the paint after a rebound jumps off the ground, has nobody to pass to, and throws the ball to Khris Middleton for a turnover.
Again, Rose drives into the paint, leaves his feet and gives the ball away to Tony Snell.
It’s safe to say that most people expected Rose to be primarily run the pick-and-roll, and he has. In fact, he runs pick-and-roll 72.9% of the time he has the ball. However, he looks primarily to score out of those situations rather than to get others involved. Which, for the Cleveland Cavaliers, is not an efficient way of utilizing the talent that is littered throughout their lineup.
Rose is not passing the ball. At least not as efficiently as is expected of him, and his stats definitely show for it. So far, he has 19 turnovers to 12 assists in his seven games played this year. When questioned about these statistics Tyronn Lue said this:
"Per Cleveland.com: “The ball’s not in his hands the whole time,” Lue said of Rose. “With LeBron (James) handling it a lot, with D-Wade handling, he’s not really in those positions to really get assists. He’s attacking the basket, that’s what we need from him and everything else will take care of itself.”"
While it is true that LeBron does have the ball in his hands the most, and deservedly so. Derrick Rose has the second highest usage rating on the team (25.8%) right behind LeBron (29.6%). Meaning that there is really no excuse for him to not be passing the ball; except for the fact that he just hasn’t been looking to. While watching Rose play, it seems like he only looks to score for when the ball is in his hands.
For Rose to be a vital piece for this team he must stay aggressive. He also needs to find open shooters out of drives, look to feed the post when there are mismatches and facilitate out of the pick-and-roll to be the most effective he can be.
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He has the tools he needs to be a great playmaker for this team. It’s on him to make it happen.