This season, the American sports media fell in love with a point guard in Chicago. He wowed us with his dazzling moves and his unbelievable scoring ability. He lead his team to the top seed in the Eastern Conference and was deemed the most valuable player by almost every media outlet.
After a revolutionary summer which lead to the vilification of LeBron James, the media needed to find a new basketball icon to fall in love with. Some thought it would be Kevin Durant, some felt it would be John Wall.
But out came Derrick Rose like a raging bull, scoring from anywhere on the court. His astonishing ability to score buckets made his Bulls one of the top favorites heading into the playoffs.
So we head into the playoffs and the Bulls are matched up against a sub-.500 Indiana team that was 17th in the league in points allowed this season. One would expect with all the hype that Rose is receiving that he would demolish the Pacers. Each game would be a blowout and the Bulls would cruise to the second round.
But that's not what we have seen. We've seen the Bulls barely win three games and lose one.
Let's give credit to the Pacers, who have played very hard in each and every game. They are a well-coached team that takes a systematic approach to the game, and when combined with hard work, they are able to play tough against good teams.
Despite this, the Bulls should not have troubles against the Pacers. Rose should not have trouble against the Pacers. At least the way the media describes Rose he should not have trouble.
But he has struggled.
Each game has been decided by six points or less. He's going on these scoring rampages, putting up 39 and 36 in Games 1 and 2, respectively, but his scoring declined heavily when the games shifted to Indiana.
More importantly, his assists per game are down from the regular season and he's a point guard. As a point guard, a player is supposed to facilitate the game for the rest of the players and distribute the ball.
After averaging almost eight assists per game in the regular season, he is averaging six APG in the series. And this is against a 37-45 Pacers team.
Even more significantly, despite averaging more points per game in the playoffs, his field-goal percentage is down. He shot 44.5 percent in the regular season. Now he is averaging more points but shooting an atrocious 35.2 percent.
Is this really what an MVP is supposed to do in the playoffs?
Once again, this is against a 37-45 Pacers team that should be eliminated by now.
Granted, Rose did get banged up in Game 4, but that's not a good enough excuse. All great players get banged up in the playoffs, and the best ones shine in those moments.
Rose is also shooting 5-for-29 from three-point land.
Essentially, Rose is the reason why these games are so close. He's holding the ball too much and he's taking a ridiculous amount of shots. This is evidenced by his poor field-goal percentage, despite his point totals being up. His assists are down, which means he's not distributing the ball to his teammates.
And it's not like he doesn't have help on his team. He has talented guys like Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah to go to.
Finally, he's averaging 4.3 turnovers per game. Those surely aren't helping the team much, either.
We've seen it all before. The scoring point guard. We saw it with Allen Iverson in the early 2000s. We saw it with Stevie Franchise. We saw it with Damon Stoudemire. We saw it with Stephon Marbury.
What's the one common stat between all of these point guards?
Zero championships.
Just because a point guard can wow his crowd doesn't mean he can win when it counts. The aforementioned players have numerous accolades. Far more than a guy like Derek Fisher. But it's Derek Fisher who comes through in the clutch and helps his team when it matters most.
Let's talk about an underrated point guard who flies under the radar, yet provides more value to his team than Rose or any other point guard does.
His name is Chris Paul.
Everyone had the Lakers winning in four games. Chris Paul has single-handedly won two games for the Hornets and kept the Hornets within striking distance in the two losses.
He's not going to wow anyone with his scoring. He's only averaged over 20 points twice in his career. But his high basketball IQ and the way he facilitates the game for his teammates is the sole reason why the Hornets were able to make the postseason this year and win twice against the Lakers.
Just look at his line from Sunday night: 27 points, 13 rebounds, 15 assists. All in a desperate situation when his team needed him most.
Oh yeah, he's also shooting 57 percent in this series against the Lakers stifling defense, not the Pacers.
Paul has also never had significant help on his team, which explains why he has never won anything. Put Paul on the Celtics or Lakers or even the Magic and he'll have more of a chance to win a ring than Rose ever will because of the way he plays the game.
As Colin Cowherd says, Rose is closer to Iverson and Marbury than to Magic and Rondo on the point guard spectrum.
Derrick Rose and the Bulls should be happy they're playing the Pacers right now. They're lucky it's early and they can right the ship. But in the end, Rose is young and he'll want to take over the game.
Sure he was able to succeed in doing that in Game 2 down by 10 late in the game, but they shouldn't find themselves in that position in the first place. If Rose is truly the MVP, they should have a much easier time against the Pacers.
They aren't.
And it's not Kyle Korver's fault. It's all on Rose. He helps them win games, but his 35 percent shooting is not going to help them beat elite opponents like Boston or Miami.
In short, if things continue like this, the Bulls are going to have their hands full against the Celtics or Heat, because they probably would have lost all four games thus far if they played the same way against an elite opponent.
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