HANG TIME NEW JERSEY BUREAU – When you picture a Chicago Bulls offensive possession in your mind, you envision Derrick Rose coming off a high screen and attacking the basket.
Something like the clip below, where the MVP uses his speed to get around the opposing big man, then finds a lane to the basket, draws a little contact, and finishes strong…
Rose led the league in unassisted field goals last season and ranked second among guards (behind Dwyane Wade) in field goals within five feet of the basket.
Most unassisted field goals, 2010-11
| Player | FGM | Assisted | Unassisted | % Unassisted |
| Derrick Rose | 711 | 195 | 516 | 72.6% |
| LeBron James | 758 | 245 | 513 | 67.7% |
| Russell Westbrook | 614 | 108 | 506 | 82.4% |
| Kobe Bryant | 740 | 278 | 462 | 62.4% |
| Dwyane Wade | 692 | 254 | 438 | 63.3% |
According to Synergy Sports Technology, 39 percent of Rose’s plays last season had him handling the ball in a pick-and-roll, while only 18 percent of his plays were isolations, like this one…
On pick-and-rolls, Rose went with the screen 70 percent of the time and went away from the pick only 18 percent of the time. Going away from the screen does have its advantages, especially when your defender expects you to go with it…
No matter the play or the decision he makes, Rose’s quickness and relentlessness are what makes him so good.
But one criticism of Rose early last season was that he didn’t get to the line enough. Of the top 12 players in usage rate before the All-Star break, Rose ranked 11th in free throw rate, attempting only 31 free throws for every 100 field goal attempts.
But Rose increased that number to 43 FTA per 100 FGA after the All-Star break. That ranked fourth among the top 12 in post-break usage rate. In addition, he increased the percentage of his shots that were attempted from within five feet of the basket.
In the first round of the playoffs against Indiana, Rose’s free throw rate was higher than it was late in the season. And in the conference semifinals against Atlanta, the free throws were down, but the shots within five feet were way up.
Derrick Rose’s shooting within five feet of the basket, 2010-11
| Season/Series | < 5′ FGM | < 5′ FGA | FG% | %FGA | FTA | FTA Rate |
| Pre All-Star | 200 | 359 | 55.7% | 33.6% | 328 | .307 |
| Post All-Star | 123 | 208 | 59.1% | 39.3% | 227 | .429 |
| First round | 19 | 37 | 51.4% | 35.2% | 60 | .571 |
| Conf. semis | 34 | 62 | 54.8% | 41.1% | 42 | .278 |
| Conf. finals | 16 | 38 | 42.1% | 31.7% | 32 | .267 |
%FGA = Percentage of total FGA
FTA Rate = FTA/FGA
Then came the conference finals against the Miami Heat, when Rose’s attempts near the rim were down, his percentage near the rim was down, and his free throw attempts were down.
Rose was obviously the focus of the Heat’s defense and they had the luxury of defending him with either Dwyane Wade or LeBron James, two incredible athletes with length. Rose still got to the rim a decent amount, but when he did, the Miami bigs were there to greet him.
And what Joel Anthony, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem did very well was challenge Rose at the basket without fouling. The five plays you see here were all from Game 2 of the conference finals, when Rose shot 2-for-9 from within five feet of the basket…
The Miami bigs obviously couldn’t keep Rose out of the paint all of the time. But even when they arrived late, they were able to contest his shot enough to limit his effectiveness.
Of course, those late challenges at the rim didn’t always work…
As Anthony can tell you, there’s no fail-safe way of defending Rose. But the Heat did it about as well as you can, limiting his attempts near the basket, and challenging him at the rim without sending him to the free throw line.
With Richard Hamilton in Chicago to help make defenses pay for focusing on Rose, stopping the MVP will be even tougher this season. All teams can do is follow the Miami formula and hope for the best.
***
John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.
Rip isn’t going to be that big of a threat if Miami plays Chicago again in the playoffs. Especially with the addition of Battier. I hope he recovers soon so we can see how well he helps.
battier willl be helping
actually rip does take some pressure off becasue he causes the defense to spread the floor so miami HAS to pay attention to him and that take away one less person crowding rose
Compared to Bogans Rip might as well be MJ. His addition takes huge scoring pressure off Rose, teams will actually have to gaurd Rip, they wont be able to double Rose near as much, and Rip will wear down defenders by running all over the court, plus hes a solid defender and a champion that knows how to get it done. Rip turns the Bulls into serious title contenders.
rip is a good defender and he’s very active on offense. you cant leave him alone like a keith bogans for example. both battier and rip should help their teams in the playoffs. i think haslem and battier might be the x-factors for miami in some games.
Very nice! All i hear (still hear…) is that Rose didn`t play well… those ppl don`t understand about the game. Schuhmann showed one of the reasons. Miami did very well against him. IMO, another reason for the Bulls fail was Noah and Boozer… My feeling was that they just didnt play! Boozer was not good anyway, i understand that. But i was waiting for something more from Noah.
Like Schuhmann said, i do think that Rose will be much more effective now playing with Rip. Theres no way to be worse than last season! We just didnt have a guy to play SG! (at least an offenisive one)
Thx again Schuhmann! Im a big fan of you!!! Just hope that the other teams don`t copy this formula! lol
<3Heat for Championship this time.
Rip will make it much harder for the heat to beat the bulls mainly because they won’t be able to double team Rose anymore. Even if the do double team Rose, Rip will punish them with a high percentage shot or will be able to dish it off to Boozer or Noah. It will be an interesting match up.
The bulls gone win it all this year.watch,and Derrick Rose gone get another mvp.
yes sir
they have to adjust there offence against different teams, they just stuck to the d rose drive, they now know what other teams might do, so all they need is to change offences whenever there usual dosent work
Rose can beat the Heat. He is one of the best evolutionary player in the nba history. In this season, he will show you mid-range game for Championship.
Rose didnt get to the line because the refs weren’t respecting him all season long and not giving him the calls a superstar should be getting…hopefully this season he finally should be since he is the MVP…and no offense bro but Battier addition doesnt scare the Bulls one second people forget that series was A LOT closer than 4-1 all we were missing was that key guy to spread the floor. Remember we had Keith Bogans starting and did what we did, the Heat def has to respect Rip’s mid range and offensive threat, if they dont then they are truly stupid plus when you sign eddie curry and waive eddie house your desperate!!!!
MVP shooting under 45% FG its ridiculous…1st video it was a offensive foul 2nd video he made a foul on his dribbling he PALM the ball and carried (thats ILEGAL) then it wasnt a defensive foul…THATS WHY HE IS SO GOOD, he is the new DWADE of the NBA…
for sure rip can greatly help the bulls offense, if his consistent in his mid-range jumpers everything is possible…”championship”
I could watch that dunk over Anthony every hour. Rose is scary good and is just going to keep getting better.
why wasnt the first play a charge ? danny granger had his feet set and took it right in the chest
sorry its not danny granger but that guy did take a charge, and im talking about the first video*
rip will help a lot when he spreds the floor rose will have so much room and dont forget about deng boozer or noah
Rose is gunna come back a ton better than anyone can imagine this year
Great moves from a great player
Who ever commented ahead of me obviously didn’t watch the bulls play last season. Rip is NOT a spot up 3 point shooter, he is a slasher with a nasty mid-range game. so go ahead and put James on rose, then Deng has a mismatch in height, or put wade on Rose, then Rip has a mismatch in height (over the pg). And if you try a line up with Wade/James/Battier/Bosh/Curry(?) Then they will get ran out of the gym, and wade and james are going to have an equally tough time Chasing Rip and Rose Around all night on defense, only to have to go to the other end and take over offensively, Plus the Bulls are DEEPER, so when Rose and RIP are not in, They have to chase around Korver/Watson/Brewer, Not to say Miami Can Not Win or Chicago is a shoe in for the rings, but RIP is a HUGE Difference, not because of what he adds, but what he takes away… Another DEFENDER from ROSE!!!
“Hear me for I have spoken”
The comments here only talks about how the heat will stop the current bulls. how about we reverse it? how the bulls will stop the heat? now the lebron improves his post game. will deng stop lebron in the post? i think not.