Last February, Derrick Rose's NBA career was at an all-time low. After a miserable failure of a short run with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Derrick Rose was traded to the Utah Jazz as mere salary fodder in a three-team deal that also featured the Sacramento Kings.
In the deal, the Cavaliers got George Hill, the Kings got Iman Shumpert and the Jazz got got Jae Crowder and what was, at the time, thought to be the essential corpse of Rose.
Right after the trade, Utah released Rose, and had it not been for the fact that Tom Thibodeau were the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who knows if Rose would have gotten another opportunity last season.
But Thibodeau was the coach of the Timberwolves, and because he knew Rose better than anyone else, he decided to give him a chance.
Derrick Rose, who reportedly considered retirement during his time with the Cavaliers that was wrecked by an ankle injury, only played in nine games with Minnesota last season, averaging a mere 5.8 points per game, which was not exactly an indicator of future success.
However, Thibodeau remained loyal to Rose, and the Timberwolves opted to re-sign him at the onset of free agency back in July.
And wow, did that loyalty pay off, as Rose is enjoying a Renaissance season, registering 18.9 points, 4.8 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game while shooting 48.6 percent from the floor, a shocking 46.2 percent from three-point range and 83.8 percent from the free-throw line.
So, did the Jazz make a mistake here?
Honestly, probably not.
Derrick Rose is currently flourishing under Thibodeau, a coach he is incredibly familiar with from his prime years in Chicago. Would he have had the same success under Quin Snyder? Possibly, but we'll never know.
Utah made that trade last year specifically for the services of Crowder, who, while not the same player from his Boston Celtics days a couple of years ago, is an enforcer on the defensive end of the floor and possesses the ability to guard multiple positions. Also, why he is not exactly a knockdown three-point shooter, he is a threat from the perimeter, and teams must pay attention to him on offense for that reason.
Obviously, things have not gone too well in Utah this season, with the Jazz sporting a surprisingly poor record of 18-20. Remember: this is a team that some thought would be a top three or four squad in the Western Conference this season, so its inauspicious performance thus far has been a bit blindsiding.
That being said, Crowder was certainly huge for the Jazz last year, playing a pivotal role in their first-round win over the Oklahoma City Thunder due to his defense and his leadership ability.
Oddly enough, in spite of Utah's worse season overall, Crowder has actually been better this year than last year, averaging 12.4 points and 4.7 rebounds across 27.2 minutes a night, making 42.2 percent of his field-goal attempts, 35 percent of his long-distance tries and 74.5 percent of his foul shots.
Also, Crowder is just 28 years old, so it is entirely possible that the Jazz see him as a long-term solution in Salt Lake City, providing the team with a versatile defender who can muck things up once in a while.
But the Rose question still lingers, especially given the fact that Utah is currently in desperate need of some perimeter scoring behind Donovan Mitchell. Yeah, Kyle Korver can shoot the ball, but he isn't going to be a big-time scorer for you. Dante Exum is mainly a defensive stopper, and Ricky Rubio is a distributor who has never been known as a scoring point guard.
So, yeah, Derrick Rose would certainly help this Jazz team right now, even if he weren't as effective as he currently is in Minnesota.
However, is this something that Utah is really going to regret long term? Nah.
After all, the Jazz did not give up anything significant in return for Crowder and Rose, merely sending an aging and declining Hill to the Cavaliers and shedding his salary in the process.
Utah should be more worried about putting young talent around Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, because it is obvious that this team currently does not have enough to make any sort of noise in the Western Conference.
The good news is that the Jazz do seem to have a couple of cornerstone pieces in Mitchell and Gobert, so it's just a matter of adding the necessary pieces around them for the future.
But patching holes with veterans like Rose? That won't solve anything, as Rose, as good as he has been this year, is not making the difference between the Jazz challenging the Warriors and doing what they are doing right now.
Basically, Utah didn't lose much by releasing Rose, but Minnesota certainly gained something. At least for the moment, anyway.
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