Return of the WindyCity Assasian

Watch­ing team USA bas­ket­ball lately looks like a come­back party for Chicago native and Bulls star Der­rick Rose. The blue vs white scrim­mage was like the fancy invi­ta­tion to D-rose’s come­back party. I think Rose showed more high­lights and flashes in the first quar­ter of the Blue vs White scrim­mage than he did in the 10 games he played the last two years. He looked stronger, faster and most impor­tantly his con­fi­dence was out of the build­ing. For an ath­lete to get injured and come­back to get injured again is tough, but main­tain­ing con­fi­dence is the tough­est obsta­cle an ath­lete has to over­come. If your a bulls fan you should be super excited to see Der­rick Rose ham­mer­ing home a strong Tom­a­hawk dunk in a scrim­mage game with­out any thought of his landing.

Many peo­ple includ­ing he D-rose believe he is back as an elite level player. Here’s what Team USA’s Coach K had to say about Rose. “I think he’s excep­tional in every way. He went right at it. The first defen­sive exchange in the camp, he was all over the ball han­dler, mov­ing his feet, attack­ing him. There was a buzz right away because it was basi­cally his say­ing, ‘Look, I’m not just back. I’m back at a level that’s elite.’”  Bulls Coach and Team USA assis­tant Coach Tom Thi­bodeau is also pos­i­tive about D-rose’s return. “The way he looks right now, his body is strong, he’s feel­ing great. It’s been two years now since he’s had the ACL injury, and I think he feels good about where he is phys­i­cally, and men­tally he’s doing very well.”

The Biggest con­cern for the Bull’s Is can Rose play late into his 30’s and keep the Bull’s as con­tenders in the East­ern Conference ?

Here’s what Rose had to say about play­ing smarter and safer. “I’m able to con­trol my body a lit­tle bit more, using my speed more, being smart with my speed rather than just run­ning wild out there, I’ve become a smarter player, but I’m mad it took me seven years to learn it.”

“Try­ing to use a lot of floaters, a lot of pull-ups, stuff like that so you aren’t touched as much,” Rose said.

When you look at D-Rose’s game he only played at an MVP cal­iber player when he was draw­ing fouls at the rim, attack­ing the bas­ket­ball and being wild in the open the court. For him to still be aMVP cal­iber player he will still need to per­form few of those skills. It’s ok for him to be con­ser­v­a­tive and want to avoid con­tact, but if he’s has to watch being too con­ser­v­a­tive if he wants to return to his MVP form.  

Make sure to watch Der­rick Rose’s next game as Team USA takes on Brazil in an exhi­bi­tion game at the United Cen­ter on August the 16, 2014