just watched the Bucks-Bulls game, now, the Bucks are prone to huge offensive droughts, so i won't effusively praise the Bulls D here, but man, D-Rose was amazing down that stretch!! he was aggressive, set up his teammates and scored, and ended up with 30-17 and going 12-12 from the line.

i think back to 2 years ago, when Rose was a rookie, and he and Rondo were going head-to-head. Now Rondo has improved, with regards to his jumpshot and play-making but Rose has improved his shooting to the point that he's now actually a threat from beyond 15 ft. i can't help but feel a little jealous right now as to how much Rose has progressed in comparison to Rondo. anyone else feeling the same way?

Yes - I'll admit that Rose has improved..he is playing quite well this season.

Rondo has not improved his jumpshot, at least to me.

But I'll still take our PG any day.

I guess I will make a final determination on Rose's abilities after Boston goes past them on the way to LA.

Rose is good, of course; but I didn’t see much defense on the Bucks part down the stretch.

Quote from: alley oop on March 26, 2011, 11:30:01 PM

Rose is good, of course; but I didn’t see much defense on the Bucks part down the stretch.

well, the Bucks are one of the better defensive teams in the league, playing for their playoff lives, and Rose just embarrassed them down the stretch. aggressive drive, floater, turnaround midrange jumper, and that was the ball game.

I saw what he did, and while he played well, the Bucks made it too easy IMO.

I'm impressed by his free throw shooting.  He's still not a phenomenal jump shooter . . . he just takes a hell of a lot of shots.

D-Will, CP3, and Nash are all still much better jumpshooters.  But Rose's ability to get to the line and make his shots there when he does, especially compared to where he was a year or two ago, is remarkable.  Rose used to have a reputation as a point guard who didn't get to the line often enough (even this year I read an article about that), but he's been carrying the Bulls by muscling his way inside and getting to the line many times a game.  Oh, if only Rondo could do the same.


All of that said, I still think Rose is a weak MVP candidate.  If I'm building a team, I'll take LeBron, Dwight, Wade, or Durant before I'll take Rose.  If he's healthy, I'll take Chris Paul, too.  I am very impressed however, with the leap Rose has taken this season.

Having watched the Bulls a bunch recently, more than a small amount of a 3 game. Quite a bit.

Plus, he's playing with great intelligence, defending well and distributing the basketball well. Right now, Rose is playing as well as any point in the league and there's no indication he's going to slip.

I look forward, win or lose, to the Bulls game next month. The potential there for a wakeup call for Mr. Rondo is substantial.

Quote from: vinnie on March 26, 2011, 11:55:01 PM

Derek Rose should win the MVP hands down this year. An amazing season.

Honestly, it's really not. I keep harping on this - but it's easy to pick out a huge game against a non-playoff team, when he only has two of those games out of five games. Overall, he's still shooting close to 40% for the month. He's an MVP candidate shooting around 44%? That's not very good. He's not top 10 in PER. Heck, he's not even the best point guard in the league. Chris Paul has a better TS%, PER, W/S per 48, better rebounding rate, more assists...but he plays on a team that started Sasha Pavlovic this year. He's getting overhyped because of the defensive system instilled by Thibs and a very underrated supporting cast.

Its pretty hard to argue against Rose for being MVP. His numbers are pretty solid across the board and he has really bloomed into an incredible leadership role for the first place Bulls. At this point I dont really see anyone else slipping in to win the award.

First off Rose has been great,  not taking anything away. However the good shooting thing is a myth. Between 10-23 ft he is shooting much worse this year according to Hoopdata.com. His 3 pt shooting was solid the 1st couple of months but has dropped to below 29% the last two. Basically he is taking more shots and doing a better job of getting to the line.