John Calipari on Derrick Rose: ‘He doesn’t have a real high pain threshold’
On Nov. 16, during one of the two good games he’s contributed this season, Derrick Rose sprained his left ankle and removed himself from the game. The Chicago Bulls point guard reported no swelling in the days following the contest, but still sat out the next two games and eight days in total.
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Since his return to action, Rose has missed 51 of 70 shots spread out over the last four games, including a 3-17 effort in Wednesday night’s too-close Bulls win over the Denver Nuggets. That win came just hours after former Memphis Tigers coach John Calipari, Rose’s NCAA hoops coach for his lone year at school, confided that the 2010-11 NBA MVP doesn’t exactly have a high pain threshold.
Well, knock me over with an apple peeler. From an appearance on Colin Cowherd’s chat show, as transcribed by the Chicago Tribune:
“I coached Derrick, so here’s what I know. He will defer to his team. Now I will say this, and he knows this, he doesn’t have a real high pain threshold,” Calipari said. “He’s one of those guys, and while he’s getting injured, he knows ‘I gotta be right.’
“When you’re an athlete like Derrick Rose, it is really important that you’re healthy. He’s beating you with speed, with explosiveness. And if I’m the Bulls, I don’t want him at 70 percent. We gotta get him at a 100. But it was a freak hit to his eye.”
“Oh come on,” Cowherd shot back.
“It was a freak hit,” Calipari said. “Let me say this: They’re going to win because of Derrick Rose. You watch.”
Yeah, we have watched. Still watching. Still waiting.
Rose, when notified of his former coach’s comments, didn’t seem to be bothered. From CBS:
“No, no, no,” Rose said when asked if that was bothersome. “He’s like a father figure to me. I talk to Cal at least twice a month. So to hear that from him, it’s nothing. It’s nothing at all.”
And then there’s this:
But remember, back in 2013, there was also this!
“I’m not in my groove yet, but I’m still able to go out there and control the game a little bit. I guess when I get back into my groove, it’s really going to be scary.”
Rose’s game is scary. As stated above, he’s really only had two good performances all season, and if it weren’t for the trainwreck that is Kobe Bryant’s miserable season the whole of the NBA world would be chiding him for each of these terrible nights out. Rose is driving more in 2015-16, thankfully less reliant on the three-point jumper that he never developed, and we should point out that in fairness a lot of these misses are genuine good looks.
There’s just so many damn misses, though.
Rose is shooting 34 percent from the floor, and he takes a free throw every 12 minutes. His defense is woeful, he often takes far too long to work his way into possessions (a carryover from the Tom Thibodeau era, though Derrick has improved on this as the season has trudged along), and if he’s not directly involved in a play he’ll retire to the weak side of the court and stand out an entire possession. Too often the Bulls will follow his lead as they work their way through Martyr Ball.
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Rookie Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg?
“Well yeah, here’s the thing: I’ve said this all along, Derrick has been awesome,’’ Hoiberg said. “You know, he’s been a guy that’s been very open [with how he feels]. When he hurt his ankle he talked a lot about he didn’t want to make that like what’s happened in the past, maybe lead to another injury.”
[…]
“Hoiberg was then asked if he’s come across athletes that felt like they needed to be 100 percent to play, and responded, “I have not encountered too many of those. I have not played with too many guys like that, and I honestly don’t think the guys on this team are like that either.’’
ACL and meniscus tears are career-altering injuries, but Jamal Crawford tore his ACL 14 and a half years ago, and you could hardly tell in 2015, and Russell Westbrook (the guy averaging 27 points, ten assists and seven rebounds) dealt with the same meniscus issues Rose had to work his way through. Rose shouldn’t be expected to play on a sprained ankle, and the freakish orbital bone fracture will serve as a year-long excuse, but not every injury victim gets to go out and hoist 17 shots a night.
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This is a long way of saying “Derrick Rose has had an awful year,” and as the lead dog on what was supposed to be a knockout offensive team, it’s as much his fault as anyone that the Bulls currently own the NBA’s fifth-worst offense. Luckily, the group’s fourth-ranked defense has helped the team toward its 11-5 record, with Jimmy Butler playing through a heel injury and Pau Gasol having to act as a bulwark in what could be his last year with Chicago.
Rose, owed over $63 million between now and 2018, isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Given the timing of his 2012 ACL injury, it was somewhat understandable that he sat out all of 2012-13, and the subsequent meniscus issues are in a lot of ways more damaging than an ACL tear.
We’re living in a reality, however, that has featured Kirk Hinrich playing better basketball on the whole than Derrick Rose. Rose might have double vision, a balky (if not swollen) ankle, and he might have to be careful about both of his surgically repaired knees.
Talking up how “scary” things are going to be once things get right, or how the Bulls are “going to win because of Derrick” seems a bit empty, 31 months after his ACL surgery. Again, he’s played worse than Kobe, and yet he’s nearly aping Bryant’s usage rate on a team that features two players that made the All-Star team last season.
“Scary” is already here. It’s time for Derrick Rose to merely become solid, again.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
