New York Knicks: Derrick Rose Says Winning Is Priority As Free Agency Looms

New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose says winning is his number one priority as his impending free agency looms

According to a report from ESPN, New York Knicks guard Derrick Rose, an incoming unrestricted free agent this summer, has made it clear that all he wants is to win.

Via ESPN:

"“Not even thinking money. I’ve got more than enough money saved. If I stopped playing basketball now, I’ll be all right. I want to win. I want to be happy and feel at peace with myself wherever I’m at. But being at the negotiating table, you never know. I’m not going to negotiate with people where money is the No. 1 thing I’m asking for. I want to win.”"

Derrick Rose, a former NBA MVP, has battled through a lot of injuries for the past six years. It has not been an easy road for him, to say the least. He has become a mere shadow of who he once was.

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Unfortunately, as his athletic powers abruptly abandoned him, the game, in general, has evolved as well. All of a sudden, shooting became a must. A lead guard has to shoot well from three-point distance to be an effective one.

Otherwise, unless you are Russel Westbrook- like (who D-Rose WAS before), it would be so difficult for a guard to succeed in today’s game.

The Deceiving Numbers

At first glance, the numbers (via stats.nba.com) that D-Rose has put seem good enough. In 64 games played, Rose has averaged about 18 points, four rebounds and four assists per game in 33 minutes of action per game. His field goal percentage is at 46.5 percent while shooting a very solid 87.2 percent from the line.

Still, three-point shooting is the biggest downside of all his numbers. Derrick Rose has only shot 21.7 percent from three-point country. More importantly, he has only averaged one three-point shot attempt per game, while averaging 0.2 three-point shots made per game.

Even if his advanced stats would say that D-Rose has a True Shooting Percentage (TS%) of 52.7 percent and a decent Player Impact Estimate (PIE) of 11.0, these would never compromise his lack of three-point production. What makes it even worse is that at 28 years old, D-Rose has never been a decent three-point shooter.

During his MVP year, Derrick Rose only shot 33.2 percent from the three-point area. Ironically, this was his best shooting mark from three in all his seasons in the league, where he played at least 51 games.

Was it really about Winning?

The real issue is not whether D-Rose cares about winning basketball games over a potential max money. In fact, this is probably his last option to convince someone that he is still worth looking at.

Obviously, with analytics now playing a big part in today’s game, it would be very hard for any GM to invest big money on Rose. He has had career-threatening injuries which have all robbed him of his athletic gifts. Furthermore, he has historically been a very poor three-point shooter with no clear-cut potential of getting better.

To simply put, Rose is in a very tough spot. Forget the max money. No one would dare give him that, for sure.

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The bigger question to ask is, have we seen the last of D-Rose as a starting point guard in the NBA? If the answer is a most likely yes, then, it would be very tough to swallow for a former MVP who is only 28 years old. Maybe, this is exactly why winning has now become his top priority.

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