If Derrick Rose continues at his current pace, he could become just the second player ever to win Sixth Man of the Year after winning the Most Valuable Player award earlier in their career. As he prepares to return to Chicago to play the Bulls, the team with which he experienced his greatest successes, he deserves praise for his renaissance season, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes.
Injuries derailed Rose’s once seemingly surefire Hall 0f Fame career, but he has rebounded to be an impactful player of the Timberwolves‘ bench. Rose is averaging 18.5 PPG and 4.6 APG in 29.2 minutes per contest in 2018/19. Not only that, his field goal percentage (48.5%) is at its highest mark since his sophomore season and his three-point shooting (46.9%) is over 12% better than at any other point.
“The way he’s getting ready for the game as far as working out, monitoring his body, taking care of himself, he’s a totally different person,” Rose’s longtime teammate Taj Gibson said. “Every game, it’s like he’s in a new form. He’s born again. And it shows.”
Check out more Northwest Division notes:
- The Thunder decided to go with Abdel Nader in lieu of Patrick Patterson to fill in for Jerami Grant at power forward on Tuesday. Oklahoma City head coach Billy Donovan said he went with Nader due to the Rockets going with a smaller lineup, Erik Horne of The Oklahoman writes. “It means a lot that he has confidence to put me in at that time,” Nader said.
- After he served a one-game suspension and hadn’t played since last Monday, Thunder guard Dennis Schroder was thrown into the fire against the Jazz over the weekend, Horne writes in a separate story.
- One noticeable change in the Jazz’s recent play has been an uptick in assists, Ryan McDonald of the Deseret News writes.
Tough tough journey for Rose. LOTS of heartbreak and patience involved. Wishing him the best.
Bro.. did you even read the article or watch any of the games? Dennis Schröder sat Wednesday’s game and played BOTH games against the Jazz and Wolves.
Keep up brodie…
Yes that OKC article was about the Utah game, 3 days earlier, not the Rockets game.
Who was the other MVP to win the sixth man of the year?
Never mind….as a thunder fan I am embarrassed I didn’t know it right away. (Harden)
Is it Harden? The article states that Rose would only be the 2nd player to win 6th man after winning MVP, not the other way around I think.
Bill Walton is the other guy, winning MVP in 78 and sixth man in 86. Harden won sixth man before MVP.
Thanks for the research!
Domanatis Sabonis and Spencer Dinwiddie are the clear cut favorites right now and the analytics strongly back that up