Derrick Rose is Injured… and We Miss Him?

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Image: JERRY HOLT, STAR TRIBUNE

Unlike the makeup of his injury-prone lower body, there is no questioning Derrick Rose’s natural basketball talent. Despite the participation trophy era in which we live, the NBA only names one league MVP per season. Rose, at the age of 22 years and 7 months (youngest ever) received the honor in 2011. At that time the Memphis alum, who was the number one overall draft pick just three years prior, was a bona fide superstar.

Since then, as we all know, he has blown out a few proverbial tires:

Even with an injury history almost as long Clipper’s Center, Boban Marjanovic’s fingers, D-Rose still can show occasional flashes of his innate athletic abilities.

On Tuesday, Derrick Rose’s (kinda-sorta) still intact skills, albeit brief, were on full display. During Minnesota’s crucial 123-109 defeat of the Los Angeles team that no one cares about (#Kobe), Rose logged an extremely effective seven minutes (9 points (4-6 FG), 1 assist) of game play.

By every indication known to man/woman, the 29 year-old would have seen more action if not for this mid-game development:

The injury occurred when Rose was called for a charge on Clippers guard, Milos Teodosic.

First of all, damnit! Rose’s first three outings in a Timberwolves’ uniform weren’t pretty. Over that trifecta of contests, he registered a +/- of -37 during 32 minutes of action. For the per minute brains out there, that equates to Minnesota losing by 1.16 points for every 60 seconds that the 3x All-Star was on the court. However, during both the Houston and Clippers, it appeared that Derrick Rose was starting to chisel away some of the rustiness. To be fair, before his current Wolves tenure, the PG hadn’t seen any real NBA action since February, 7th.

Second of all, Tuesday’s ankle sprain marks his second such injury of the 2017-2018 season. However, while the previous harm occurred to his left half, the fresh damage is a right side issue. The vast majority of Rose’s reputation for having legs weaker than this state’s gas station beer, surround the Chicago native’s knees NOT ankles… Naturally, this headache (technically ankle-ache) is puny potatoes in comparison to ACL situations.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Derrick Rose’s return is considered day-to-day. Despite my initial bitterness around Thib’s acquiring this particular former Bull, I’m all for him returning to this team ASAP. The way I see it, he provided a much-needed spark during Tuesday’s first half. Let’s see this little experiment in action again, please.

On the flip side, if this causes Rose to miss multiple contests, I won’t be losing a second of sleep.

Johnny Minnesota @TheJohnnyMN
Minnesota Sports Fan MinnesotaSportsFan.com

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