Big thanks to Mike Jette, who coined the term used in the title and who sparked literally thousands of words worth of back-and-forth conversation regarding the topic at hand. Mike was the kerosene that made this fire burn long and bright. I'd direct you to his Twitter page if he had one, but Mike won't be contained by 140 characters.
Because they are so much fun, let’s start with some statistics.
First:
27.1 ppg (points per game), 7.7 apg (assists per game)
Pretty good, right? These are Derrick Rose’s 2010-11 playoff stats. Let’s move on:
.396 FG% (field goal percentage), .248 3Pt% (3 point field goal percentage), 6.3 3PTa/g (3 point attempts per game) 3.7 tpg (turnovers per game)
These are also Rose’s 2010-11 playoff stats. Not quite so impressive anymore. Note, that despite making less than one in every four three point attempts, he fired up over six of them per game. That’s six possessions amounting to 4.5 points. Chicago averages 93.7 possessions per game, and 97.6 points per game. Rose’s three-point shooting in the playoffs, calculated at 93.7 possessions, would account for 70.3 points. So, Rose from beyond the arc is about 28% worse than an average Bulls possession, yet he still felt the need to fire up threes more often than anyone except Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant, who both shot significantly better than the MVP.
23.4 ppg, 6.6 apg, 3.8 tpg, .350 FG%, .233 3PT%
These were Rose’s stats vs. the Miami Heat in the only playoff series where he faced a formidable threat.
25 points, 8 assists, 4 turnovers, .310 FG%, .250 3PT%
And these were Rose’s stats in the final game of the series, a 83-80 loss to the Heat in game 5. If you watched the game, you’re probably surprised to see only four turnovers; it seemed he hit that mark in the final 3 minutes alone. Speaking of which:
1-3 shooting, 0-1 3PT, 1-2 FT shooting, 3 points, 0 assists, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls (both on made baskets, or “and 1” situations.)
These are Rose’s stats from 3:14 left in the 4th quarter of game 5, when the deciding game went from a twelve point Bulls lead to a three point victory for the opposing Heat. What these stats don’t include are a soft foul as Dwyane Wade took an off-balance 27-foot three-pointer, a shot Wade swished (his first three pointer of the game, for the record), then knocked down the free throw to complete the four-point play, and the last Bulls possession of the game, where it seemed designed to get Kyle Korver, a dead-eye three-point shooter the final shot. As Korver cut behind Rose in an attempt to shake loose from his defender, Rose handed Korver, the ball, thirty-five feet from the basket and with a defender so blanketed on him, they nearly morphed into one person. Korver, not exactly adept at creating his own shot (in the same way Dane Cook is not adept at creating his own comedy), had no choice but to feed it back to Rose, who dribbled into a double-team and forced an off-balance prayer as the buzzer sounded, a prayer denied by LeBron James. To boot, the free throw Rose missed (which his apologists would loudly point out was his only miss of the game) came with twenty-six seconds remaining and the Bulls trailing by one. The miss led to a must-foul situation, where Bosh knocked down two freebies, which led to the Bulls needing a three to try and save their season, a three which needed to be taken by someone other than the guy shooting under 25% from behind the arc the entire series (but who ended up taking the shot anyway due to his inability to manage the clock and feel his teammates positions.) This is where I wanted to post supporting video of the final 3:14, but, no surprisingly at all, I had a hard time finding a clip that included many of Rose's follies. If you'd like to see the last possession, you can check this clip by The Worldwide Leader, ironically enough. It's the 1:34 mark.
One more stat for you before we move on:
1
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| D.Rose looking like he knows I'm right |
Number of MVP trophies Derrick Rose won in the 2010-11 season.
