Read more: http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/columns/story?columnist=wilbon_michael&id=6352397 The great ones are almost always precocious. They reveal themselves early. Of all the things he does well, you know what Derrick Rose's greatest attribute might be? Impatience. At age 22, the one thing it appears Rose has is time. His window of opportunity is barely open. Even so, don't dare expect Rose to wait his turn. He's got somewhere to be, like a winner's circle, and step on it. The kid could cross you over before most boys his age could tie their shoes. He was ambidextrous before he was old enough to really know the significance. How will this postseason affect Rose's career? Better to ask how Rose will affect this postseason. Let the people obsessing over his field goal percentage or his only-adequate assist-to-turnover ratio analyze this. Everything he's ever done suggests that Rose is just the leading man your franchise should want. He's had one real basketball hiccup in his life, and that took place as a freshman in the NCAA championship game. The kid's been on the scene for just five years, yet here are the entries on his résumé: In 2006, Rose led Simeon Career Academy to an Illinois state championship. In 2007, he led Simeon to a successful defense of that championship. Hell, the only reason he didn't win three or four titles was that Simeon's venerable coach, Bob Hambric, wouldn't allow freshmen to play for the varsity team. So, that's a championship in 2006 and a championship in 2007 in Illinois, a big-boy basketball culture. In 2008, he led Memphis to the NCAA championship game, laying a 25-point, nine-assist game on UCLA in the process. He went to the NBA right after that, and the first time Rose laced 'em up for a postseason game, he went for 36 points, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for points by a rookie in a playoff debut. It was just the second time in NBA history anybody had put up 35 and 10 assists (Rose had 11, actually) in a playoff debut. In 2010, Rose averaged 26.8 points in the playoffs and exited promising to come back with a legit 3-point shot and a better all-around game. After one summer, he came back with enough new stuff in his game to likely become the youngest MVP winner by taking a team from 41 wins to 62, from eighth in the conference to first. And imagine, he did all this without even taking his talents to South Beach. Calling Rose's career an arc is a total misnomer. The line is virtually horizontal and as high on the graph as it could possibly be, and has been since he was 15 years old.
OK, Wilbon has firmly established himself as a DRose fan. I can't disagree since a few weeks ago I wrote an article marveling at how DRose just keeps turning weaknesses into strengths. Yeah, DRose is F-ing amazing. I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable basketball observer, but I'm still not sure about Rose. There have been very few players who deserve to be called a "superstar" who still seem to be so much on the upward slope of the development curve. He's kinda hard to figure 'cause he's a moving target. This is sooooo much a good thing.
The pleasant surprise about Rose and the team in general is that when we've seen a flaw, they've responded. For example, Rose has increased his APG to a more than respectable level for a PG. Or the team went from being a .500 road team to one of the best in the league. Or Rose isn't requiring 30 shots to score 30 points. Or Deng has boosted his PER to above average. It's not all perfect, but all good in those areas. We still have one of the worst players in the league starting at SG, but we're hopefully going to solve that this offseason!
