NBA Playoff Confessions Day 1: I’m No fan of Rose’s

It is my intention to write each and every day during the 2011 NBA Playoffs.

That’s how much I love the sport!

That’s how much TheSportsWatchers.com loves the sport!

And that’s how much you all who read my crappy blog must obviously love the sport!

But I don’t want to use this daily diary to give you your “Daily Dime” as ESPN does, or as a number of multi-faceted news organizations can do 1,000 times better than I can. Instead, I’m more interested in confessing something related to the each of the day’s NBA Playoff games.

What exactly will I be confessing?

Well, everyday will bring its own revelations, but rest assure, we certainly have some things in mind. For example, with the Chicago Bulls set to play today, one of the things I will lead the 2011 NBA Playoff Confessions series with is the fact that I don’t like roses.

I don’t think Derrick Rose was the best basketball player during the 2011 NBA season.

Of course, you’ve seen me bring up Derrick Rose before, but as the 2011 NBA Playoffs open, it has become quite clear who is going to win the MVP Race, no matter how erroneous the voters appear to be.

Derrick Rose is not the MVP by any measure. He isn’t the best offensive player in the NBA. He isn’t the best defensive player in the NBA. There are several good players who have a bigger impact on the scoreboard for their teams than Rose does. And on top of all that, Rose is not even the best player at his position.

I say all of that to prove my point, and trust me, the stats back me up. What the stats don’t measure is how quick Rose is with the basketball, how prolific he has been in some games this season, and how big he has come up with in a couple of fourth quarters.

Conversely, the stats will tell you that despite Rose’s quickness, he’s bad at defense player (the second worst on his team in point differential), he’s been average in his shooting (55% True shooting percentage) despite his high scoring numbers, and he’s been wildly inaccurate and turnover prone in “clutch” moments.

So I confess; I’m not a Derrick Rose fan. And it’s not that I don’t think that he’s good, it’s just that Rose hasn’t earned this unbelievable praise that he has been given just because he has improved so immensely.

The NBA MVP?

Are we serious people? He’s been good, and the Chicago Bulls will go far in the playoffs, but Rose is not LeBron James. He’s not Kobe Bryant. Hell, he’s not even Chris Paul yet. He’s a great offensive player on the best defensive team in the NBA, and so he manages to stand out.

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