Detroit Pistons guard and former NBA MVP Derrick Rose is enjoying his first season in the Motor City. He most recently treated Pistons fans to a buzzer-beating game-winning shot to take down the New Orleans Pelicans Monday night in classic D-Rose fashion.
Though it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing (an unfortunate late-game miscue against the Charlotte Hornets in mid-November comes to mind), Rose appreciates the fact that the team’s coaching staff believes in him enough to still have him on the floor in crunch time.
“It shows a lot with coach sticking with me,” Rose said after his winning shot in New Orleans. “You’re going to have bad shooting nights, but you’ve got to continue to play your game and that’s all I’m trying to do – just keep playing my game, staying aggressive and taking the open shots whenever I get it. I missed a lot of bunnies tonight, but it happens like that.”
As far as the unfortunate ending to that Hornets game, Rose explained that he learned from his mistake and moved forward determined to not let it repeat itself.
“I’m just trying to learn from my mistakes,” he said. “The Hornets game was on my mind every time I think about me being in a late-clock type of situation….I still have a lot even though I don’t talk or boast or brag about it. I still have goals,” he said. “I don’t let the goals put me in a box. I know where I’m at overall as a player and as a person and I believe in myself.
That’s where it all starts – me believing in myself and going to an organization and a team that believes in me. I think this is the spot.”
Rose is averaging 16.1 points and 5.8 assists while shooting 48.8% so far this season while coming off the bench.
“We have a minutes restriction with him, so we’re trying to keep his minutes down and then we knew we were going to get him back in,” Casey said about sitting Rose midway through the fourth quarter. “We told him when he was ready to get back.
“He’s the youngest MVP for a reason,” his Pistons teammate Langston Galloway said. “He closes games. I’m so happy for him. He deserves stuff like this.”
“I still have a lot even though I don’t talk or boast or brag about it. I still have goals,” he said. “I don’t let the goals put me in a box. I know where I’m at overall as a player and as a person and I believe in myself. That’s where it all starts – me believing in myself and going to an organization and a team that believes in me. I think this is the spot.”
