Did any of you catch the game? [Link] Got to say it was one of the more interesting games I've seen in a long time. Rose looked really, really good. There wasn't any of those moments where you could really see him jump and compare him to seasons past. But his handling was solid through and through and he was just whistling passes to open shooters. Rose has told us since the day he was drafted that he was more of a distributor than a scorer -- a CP3 type player -- and I never believed him. He may be right, when you pair him with a slew of A-level shooters. Interesting stuff.
There's only one CP3 and there's only one DRose. Both can do some of the things the other can do, but neither can do all of the things the other can do. It's good that Rose is able to exercise his distributing muscles on Team USA. When the games get real, I look forward to seeing DRose exercise his clock-running-out-and-I'm-going-to-score-on-you-and-there's-nothing-you-can-do-about-it muscles. I have no CP3 envy. Give me a healthy DRose.
I'll agree with that. Just thought it was interesting that we've seen D Rose play in a ton of different situations and in more games than we can count, and I don't think I've really ever seen him play like that. It's like, whoa, maybe his game would look completely different if he had a shooting guard and small forward who could actually hit from range.
Talk about rose colored glasses. Paul has been all defense 1st or 2nd team six times. He's led the league in steals 6 times and assists 3 times. His career average is 9.9 APG. His career PER is better than Rose's single season best. Rose's career scoring average is 20.8, about 2.2 PPG more than Paul. Paul shoots .357 from 3pt for his career, Rose .312. He shoots .472 overall to Rose's .460. No wet blanket here, just facts.
To be honest I like Drose more when he's playing like Dwayne Wade than Chris Paul. He's just better playing that way. Rose has done a good job in Team USA of finding the open man and dialing back his scoring, but I don't think he's great at probing the defense. He's best figuring out ways to attack its weaknesses.
I saw the game in real time and quite frankly I was surprised at a lot of the reaction of Bulls fans throughout the net. I thought he played well. Six points, 4 assists! He looked good imo. I was encouraged, considering he had not played for a few days and practiced just once in about a week.