Should the Boston Celtics Pursue Derrick Rose?
Most of the time, these type of trade rumours are far fetched and unlikely to happen and as it stands now there is no reason to believe otherwise with Derrick Rose. LatinoPost.com has speculated that the Chicago Bulls may look to trade Rose in order to clear up cap space.
If this speculation has some truth to it then the Boston Celtics are likely to be one of the teams linked to him. They have all kinds of cap space and are still looking for an alpha dog on their roster. Rose can be just that. The former MVP has the potential to be a top point guard in the NBA and his impact could immediately change the face of the Celtics franchise.
Jan 3, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) drives past Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) during the first quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Rose would immediately be given the keys to the Celtics offense and there is no doubting he would be the go to scorer. The Celtics went from Rajon Rondo to Marcus Smart with their last two point guards. Neither of those guys come even close to the scoring capability of Rose. Rondo was always a pass first player and Smart has much more of a defensive than offensive impact.
Rose would be the best player on the team and if he managed to stay healthy he alone could turn the Celtics into contenders in the east. The problem is that it is a very shaky and concerning if. Rose has never been able to stay healthy since winning MVP and other than momentary flashes, he has yet to return to his MVP form.
Let’s have a little fun and imagine that Rose does stay healthy and he is capable of retuning to his MVP form. In his MVP season Rose averaged 25 points and 7.7 assists. No one on the Celtics comes remotely close to those numbers right now. He has the potential to be the main scorer and the main facilitator. In fact, there’s a decent chance those numbers could look even better with the Celtics.
The Celtics play with a lot of ball movement and that will allow Rose to show off his passing ability. The Celtics need a point guard that can distribute and while Rose is a scorer first he has the ability to dish it out when necessary. Rose only saw his assist numbers dip after his injury as during his first four seasons he averaged at least 6 assists per game.
Apr 27, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) looks to pass the ball against Milwaukee Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams (5) in game five of the first round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
The Celtics’ great ball movement will also give Rose an opportunity to have easier baskets. Rose can play the Isaiah Thomas type role for the starting unit where he just manufactures points by driving to the rim when the offense goes cold. Where things get even more exciting is when the offense is functioning well because that will create a lot of open looks for Rose. Even in his MVP season he shot under 35% from three and under 50% from two point range. 35 and 50 may be a little unrealistic but Rose certainly has the ability to be that player in an offense that brings out his efficiency.
Once again, the problem is that even if Rose manages to stay healthy he may never return to that MVP season and acquiring Rose would only be worth it to the Celtics if he returns to that form. If Rose gets hurt again then the Celtics will regress and if Rose does not return to his prime then the Celtics are better off giving Smart the more prominent role.
The Celtics got more than they could have expected out of Smart last season and he actually shot the three pointer about as well as Rose shot it in his MVP season. Don’t get me wrong, Smart is not even slightly close to the offensive player that Rose is but he has shown enough potential that he deserves a chance to develop while running the offense.
Throw in the added dimension of Smart’s defensive game and Rose is simply too much of a gamble to trade for. The Celtics struggled on the defensive end and reducing Smart’s role could do a lot of damage. Acquiring Rose means the Celtics may not have the cap space to go after top free agent targets and there are enough free agents that they can be more confident in than Rose, who at the same time won’t get in the way of Smart.
The Celtics believe they have found their point guard of the future in Smart and there is no reason to threaten that by acquiring a player who cannot stay healthy and has regressed significantly since his MVP season.
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