BARCELONA, Spain– Derrick Rose has spent most of this FIBA World Cup for basketball trying to rediscover who he is and what he can be as Team USA prepares for Thursday night’s semi-final game against Lithuania at Palau Sant Jordi.
The Chicago Bulls’ 6-3 point guard, who was the NBA’s MVP in 2011 but missed most of the past two seasons with two severe knee injuries, is just starting his comeback and has found himself in an unfamiliar role as a distributor coming off the bench who struggled finishing plays instead of major impact player when most of these blowouts have yet to be decided.
Some of that started to change Wednesday night when Rose transformed himself back into into an aggressive offensive player. He contributed 12 points and 5 assists in 18 minutes and displayed more of that dazzling quickness he has when he takes the ball to the basket, a quality that helped transform him into a huge star when he first entered the NBA in 2009 as Team USA decimated Slovenia, 119-76, in the quarters.
“I had a long talk with Coach K and he gave me the green light,” Rose said. “It felt good especially coming from someone like coach. He just told me to be who I am, don’t worry about getting other guys into the game, just be aggressive and keep going. It just kind of eases your mind. It gave me a lot of confidence. I’m not lacking in confidence but when the head coach tells you go go out and play with a lot of confidence it makes you think in another way.”
Rose was expected to be one of the shining stars on this team if healthy. But he wound up backing up Kyrie irving, who is more of a off guard, and Team USA chemistry has struggled at times because Stephen Curry, the team’s best pure shooter, is not getting enough touches or receiving the ball in the right spots for open looks.
“I’m kind of used to it,” Rose admitted. “But at the same time I know when I come into the game, I have to come with huge energy, pushing myself to the wall defensively and seeing what’s open on the court. When I come into the game and you’re up 15 to 20 points, you’re just trying to see what the game is missing and try to fix the holes., make the game easier.”
This is the best Rose has looked in this competition. His confidence level is high and he appeared to be in a comfort zone. “He gave me the light and i was just trying to take advantage of it, like back when I was in Chicago.”
“It was good to see. Offensively, I thought he was in an attack mode from the start,” Team USA assistant Tom Thibodeau, who coaches Rose on the Bulls. I just want him to improve every day and be who he is. When Derrick’s playing up to his ability, he’s a great basketball player that’s not anything he can’t do. We want him to be who he is we don’t want him to be something different. be who you are. go out there and help us win the game.
“Find ways to help the team win. He can win games a lot of different ways. We can win games with his defense, can win games with his penetration, can win with his shot. He can score the ball, makes shots. He’s going to play the game the right way. If you double team him, he’s going to hit the open man.
Each day he’s getting a little more comfortable. There’s going to be some ups and downs This is not going to be an easy thing His mind set is terrific. He just has to keep building.”
Team USA is playing with a great confidence through the first seven games. That happens when you are winning every game by 30. But going forward, Team USA will need Rose to make more of an impact as a scorer if it hopes to beat a team like Spain, which has nine current or former NBA players, more experience that Team USA and will have the luxury of playing in Madrid if the two teams do meet in a projected Gold medal game Sunday.
I wouldn’t say that,” Rose said. “tonight, all my baskets were in transition, a missed shot, get the ball, rush it down the floor and if i see something, take it. But people are going to catch on to that and I just got to adjust, make the game easier, find guys in rhythm and make the game easier for everybody.”
The one constant Team USA has gong for it is team defense and the ability to transform mistakes by opposing teams into a huge runs. The Americans scored 40 points off 25 Slovenian turnovers, taking over the game in the third quarter when they outscored Slovenia, 37-22 with a flurry of transition field goals to take a 86-64 lead.
“They were making shots at the beginning, but we just kept coming at them in waves,” Rose said. “At the end, you could see they were pretty tired.”
