Who comes to mind when you think of elite point guards in the NBA? Stephen Curry. Russell Westbrook. Kyrie Irving. Derrick Rose?
The Chicago native is back at it again with the hot takes. And although this one is not as outrageous as claiming the Knicks are a super team like the Warriors are, it's still pretty preposterous.
After the Knicks concluded practice on Monday, Rose was asked if he is looking to prove that he is still an elite point guard in this league.
“Yeah, but I know I am,” he said. “That's no surprise to me. It's only a matter of time until I put it together. All the hard work I put in, everything how I dedicated my whole life to this game, what I sacrificed. It's only a few that did it and that's doing it. So it's all about just putting it together.”
Bold words from the former MVP, but he will have a long way to go before he can reclaim the title of elite once again. There are many obstacles he must still overcome, the least of which being the civil trial he just finished with where he and some friends were acquitted of raping a woman in Los Angeles. That is quite a big distraction and it also caused Rose to miss more than two weeks of training camp.
In addition to that, one cannot forget the medley of knee injuries he has faced throughout his career such as tearing his ACL in his left knee and a couple of meniscus tears in his right which have greatly limited the number of games he has been able to play.
Last season was by far his best since his MVP year in terms of amount of games played, although stats wise, his points and assists per game were the second lowest of his career. However, he is now in a brand new environment with a new team and system, and it seems the optimism is rubbing off on him.
With their season opener tonight against the Cavaliers, we will get our first look at this Knicks team and see if Rose can indeed make his resurgence.
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