(Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune)
Everybody witnessed Derrick Rose’s horrific three-point percentage last season before and after his surgery. At times it was almost surprising if he made a shot from behind the arc, most of the time he left fans cringing in their seats as he bricked shot after shot. It didn’t help that he attempted nearly 5.3 shots per game from behind the arc. To put things in perspective, Kyle Korver averaged barely 6 threes a game. The difference was, Kyle Korver shot 50% from behind the arc while Rose shot 28%.
Recent breakdown by Fox Sports helped us understand why Derrick Rose had such a poor shooting season, and what makes us hopeful for him to improve drastically in that category for the upcoming season. Sure, a lot of poor shooting can be blamed on rust. Rose hasn’t played in two consecutive seasons, it’s only fair that rust plays a factor. However, there’s no way Rose could be rusty all year long. It’s worth mentioning Rose’s three-point attempts per game increased in the playoffs at 5.5 shots per game but his percentage skyrocketed as well to 34%.
A lot of poor shooting can be contributed to the bad shot selection by Rose. Only 20.4% of Rose’s three-pointers were open shots, which means he took 79.6% contested three-pointers. The study broke down Rose’s open shots even more to say 2.7% of his open shots were truly wide open. Esstientically, Tom Thibodeau’s offensive system, or lack thereof, caused Rose to shoot a lot of contested three-pointers since he was reluctant to trust his knees.
Numbers help tell a good part of the story, but there’s some things that you must wait and see for yourself. All the numbers of Fred Hoiberg running a primarily three-point system indicates Rose will be given plenty of opportunities to shoot wide open threes if he feels the need to give his knees a break. It also doesn’t hurt to have Jim Boylen on the coaching staff who helped skyrocket Tony Parker’s three-point percentage during his tenure with the Spurs. However, if he decides to take it to the basket he’ll have plenty of space to operate with all the shooters spreading the floor.
