Monday, October 15th, 2012 at 3:10 pm  |  137 responses

Top 50: Derrick Rose, no. 23

The definitive ranking of the NBA’s best players.

by Ryne Nelson / @slaman10

Some people never change. Derrick Rose is one of them.

Yes, Derrick has always cried easily. And yeah, he cried in Chicago at the launch of his third signature shoe this summer.

He’s extremely close to his mom and brothers.

His drive, explosiveness and athleticism are second to none in the League.

Yes, Rose (still) has a sweet tooth. He has since managed to avoid diving on to sharp objects after he ate the most famous apple in Chicago sports history, but according to the directors of Rose’s incredibly successful internet docu #TheReturn, yes, Derrick Rose still just hoops, chills and eats mad candy.

He’s not the loudest voice in the locker room, but he earns respect by being a “giver” on the court—if you put guys around him who can play, he’ll make them better.

Just ask Ben Gordon, who after one season playing alongside Rose, netted a Top-50 spot and $58 million contract from Detroit the following summer.

He made Joakim Noah look like a top-three center and an All-Star. No really, I’m dead ass…

And while he struggled to stay healthy last season, Rose has led a painfully average Chicago squad to the NBA’s best record over the past two seasons. He’s added new elements to his game each season—most notably, becoming a consistent perimeter threat.

DRose has physically overwhelmed opponents at every level, and he wants the ball in a tough game with a minute to go. His quickness and speed are the best in basketball. He’s a dude who achieved nearly every basketball accolade before he turned 23.

Whether he’ll bring the Larry O’Brien back to the Chi is yet to be determined, but his immediate future presents more pressing questions.

Can you rank Derrick ahead of a player like Josh Smith, who’s perfectly healthy entering the ’12-13 season? Considering that Rose’s unlikely to return ’til after All-Star, is a top-25 spot blasphemy?

Yes and no.

Yes, because Derrick is easily deserving of being in the MVP conversation every season, when healthy. And no, because we have no clue how DRose will play when he’s back on the court—an ACL tear is serious business for a player, especially one as incomparably athletic as Derrick.

Everything is up in the air, but one thing’s for sure: He is working harder than ever to come back strong.

He may display an improved jumper. He may arm himself with a stronger core and better understanding of his body. He may just be even more focused.

Every season, you complained about how DRose ranked too high in the Top 50. And every season he outplayed his ranking. You laughed when he said he’d be MVP. And then he won it. After three seasons in the L, Derrick found his way into the top-five.

While I personally ranked Rose much worse this season, here Derrick Rose is at No. 23. It’s oddly fitting, because you can’t help but compare the apathy surrounding the Bulls’ season to when No. 23 left the Bulls in the mid-’90s.

Derrick Rose doesn’t need a top-five ranking. He doesn’t need another accolade. He turned 24 years old last week, and the only thing he hasn’t achieved is an NBA Championship.

If you still don’t believe in Derrick Rose, just listen to someone who’s known him since his high school days.

“In the next 15 years, when they’re talking about the best of the best, they’ll be mentioning him,” John Calipari told me over the phone during his DRose’s rookie season. “In 15 years, he’ll be thought of as one of the greats.”


Where should Derrick Rose rank in the SLAMonline Top 50?

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SLAMonline Top 50 Players 2012
Rank Player Team Position Pos. Rank
50 Greg Monroe Pistons C 8
49 Tyreke Evans Kings PG 14
48 Brandon Jennings Bucks PG 13
47 Stephen Curry Warriors PG 12
46 Ricky Rubio TWolves PG 11
45 Al Jefferson Jazz PF 14
44 Anthony Davis Hornets PF 13
43 Serge Ibaka Thunder PF 12
42 Al Horford Hawks C 7
41 Ty Lawson Nuggets PG 10
40 Danny Granger Pacers SF 6
39 Tim Duncan Spurs PF 11
38 John Wall Wizards PG 9
37 Monta Ellis Bucks SG 8
36 Zach Randolph Grizzlies PF 10
35 Roy Hibbert Pacers C 6
34 Tyson Chandler Knicks C 5
33 Eric Gordon Hornets SG 7
32 Kevin Garnett Celtics PF 9
31 Manu Ginobili Spurs SG 6
30 Amar’e Stoudemire Knicks PF 8
29 Marc Gasol Grizzlies C 4
28 DeMarcus Cousins Kings C 3
27 Paul Pierce Celtics SF 5
26 Andre Iguodala Nuggets SG 5
25 Rudy Gay Grizzlies SF 4
24 Josh Smith Hawks PF 7
23 Derrick Rose Bulls PG 8

Notes
• Rankings are based solely on projected ’12-13 performance.
• Contributors to this list include: Jake Appleman, Maurice Bobb, Rodger Bohn, Brendan Bowers, Franklyn Calle, David Cassilo, Bryan Crawford, Adam Figman, Eldon Khorshidi, Eddie Maisonet III, Ryne Nelson, Ben Osborne, Allen Powell II, Sam Rubenstein, Jonathan Santiago, Abe Schwadron, Leo Sepkowitz, Dave Spahn, Ben Taylor, Tzvi Twersky, Peter Walsh, Tracy Weissenberg, Yaron Weitzman, DeMarco Williams and Dave Zirin.
• Want more of the SLAMonline Top 50? Check out the archive.

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  • pposse

    haaa i aint know you was gonna get all groupie on me. I see right thru you fam. Believe that.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    Don’t factor in health. No one factors in possible injuries when talking about what a player was capable of. Let’s look at what he was on track for. He played in 77 games the prior season. Pretty good. And he played in 76 in the ’10-’11 season which we’re talking about. But we’re talking about what he would have been capable of. If he had played 76 or 77 games again and LeBron had signed elsewhere, he would have had that team at least in the 2nd round of the playoffs with just he and Bosh surrounded by the other pieces on that ’10′-’11 team. So again, the argument that you used basically saying that the Heat would have been worse without LeBron that season than the Bulls would have been without Rose really holds no weight when you look at the fact that Dwyane Wade, a top 3 player at the time, would have still been able to take that team pretty far.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    What excuses? Thibs wanted the ball in his hands to create plays for himself and for others. That’s not an excuse…that’s what actually happened. Thibs said after the game that he got what he wanted. Not one player plays perfectly. All of those guys you mentioned…did you ever watch them play? They all didn’t make the best decisions all the time. Did you really bring up Baron Davis in the same sentence with Derrick Rose? Baron had his moments when he was young, but he was never a top 10 player the way Rose is now when he’s healthy. Rose made bad decisions just like every other player. But not nearly as much as you make it out to be. And not once was he selfish and refused to not pass to a teammate. If a teammate was open and he didn’t find them, more often than not, it was because he didn’t see them. Which can be explained by the fact that he had a 6’8 260 LeBron James guarding him. That’s a 6’2 vs. 6’8 matchup. Who the MVP is to you means nothing. Obviously, the league felt differently. Numerous players like Ray Allen said Rose deserved it before he won it. Coaches like Doc Rivers said he deserved it. That’s really all I need to hear. He had the respect of his teammates and his opponents. That’s just the way it is.

  • Caboose

    I count 8 grammar mistakes in your last comment. Still having trouble getting into University of Phoenix?

  • Caboose

    You “sat on this site”? Accidentally sitting on your laptop doesn’t count.

  • ByAnyMeansNecessary

    You saw what’s real about the Bulls during the playoffs when a team could focus in solely on them. What happened? They still played defense. But what happened to their offense? Thibs couldn’t coach that offense without Rose. If you think a 27 game stretch in the regular season is more important than the 39 other games in that regular season or the postseason when evaluating a team, you’re out of your mind. Again, a team can go on a run without their best player during the regular season when they play defense like the Bulls. When it gets to the postseason, we see what teams are really made of. Without Rose, the Bulls were basically an 8th or 9th seed team in the East…which is why they got beat by an 8th seed team.

  • Caboose

    Word OBO.

  • pposse

    sorry professor, i was never the grammatically correct individual.

  • pposse

    i cannot wait until the bulls led by d rose wins the ring. You will be the first one to get clowned!

  • Ian

    Your rankings are a fucking joke. ESPN, the mothership, has him at #5. And you guys claim you know basketball. Joke

  • Redd

    But you’re ranking someone in a NBA Player Ranking whilst he hasn’t played a minute of a game yet..

  • Redd

    Oh, I said that only to be semi-witty. Didn’t literally mean it.

  • danpowers

    no, chump. nobody in here says the bulls with rose wouldnt be contenders. thats the only team (maybe besides boston) that realistically could beat the heat in a best of 7 series. nobody says anything else. we just say rose ranking is alright or maybe he shouldnt be ranked at all because he probably wont play much or at all during the season. and this ranking is about the probable output during the season. why is it so fucking hard to understand this?

  • danpowers

    this ranking is a prediction based on what weve seen so far and what slam is predicting. so putting at least the no1 draft pick in here whom we already saw in team usa doesnt seem as a big problem to me.

  • danpowers

    its about the output during the season. rose maybe wont play at all. how can a player who will just play a small part of the season if at all get ranked?

  • danpowers

    arguably the best pc in the league please

  • danpowers

    agreed

  • danpowers

    sure but you have to take clutch stats, not fourth cuarter stats. the majority of games is decided b4 the 4th cuarter. and james is much better in the clutch and also used to be much better in the clutch than people give him credit for. ever checked his actual clutch numbers? ;)

  • http://slamonline.com/ Ben Osborne

    Subtitles have been changed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jacob.ward.73550 Jacob Ward

    that’s kind of ironic…he was voted 23…you voted him 45…..numbers worn by the greatest bull ever

  • Caboose

    There were only 3 in that sentence. Once you can form a coherent sentence, I’ll stop making fun of you. And once you make a coherent argument, I’ll start respecting what you have to say.

  • Caboose

    You said that last year.

  • danpowers

    my bad

  • danpowers

    nobody knows ^^

  • danpowers

    i would agree if we were talking about a 10-15 game stretch but 27 are a big sample of games. that philly series is also just a speculation. noboy knew that rose would go down so they were not able to prepare for it like philly could. another thing is that philly wasnt playing like an 8th seed. they took the celtics to 7 games, come on. i also didnt judge the bulls by their 27 game stretch.
    another argument agains rose is that the mvp should be exchangable. you think the bulls wouldve done any worse with cp3, dwilliams, nash, rondo or westbrook? i dont.
    normally mvps are and should be unexchangable. put another pg on the suns during nashs mvp seasons, they wouldnt have been that good. james off the cavs or heat for any other star-sf. nowitzki off the mavs for any other star-pf. that shouldnt be the biggest aspect but still considered. same with individual domination, impact on wins and alltogether team success. rose influenced his team positively, no doubt. i just disagree that he did that more than james or howard that year. you really cant argue that.

  • LakeShow

    You claim to know basketball and just called ESPN “the mothership.”…

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    i don’t think Ian realizes Dan Patrick made up the term “mothership” because he wasn’t supposed to talk about ESPN anymore, because they are an all controlling media machine that pushes stories THEY WANT YOU TO BELIEVE BECAUSE IT MAKES THEM MORE MONEY. Why do you think they ran a “Derrick Rose or Michael Jordan” article during Rose’s MVP season… Why you do you think the Knicks are supposed to be contenders? Because they really are? LOL. gullible kids.

  • aicomeback

    lol yeah the heat barely beat em the lebron took that crap and ran with it

  • aicomeback

    im a huge bulls fan but ur being kind to rose when u say middling defender

  • Caboose

    ESPN : sports :: FOX : politics

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    yup

  • MackAtttack

    Lol LeBron is the best player in the League soo I’m not too sure who isn’t high on LBJ.

  • http://twitter.com/Jzakoni Verified Account

    still can’t believe the ranking.. smh

  • famo24

    If your not going to rank the former mvp properly then dont rank him at all….If Lebron tore his acl would u put #19 next his ranking It wouldnt even look right…DRose is a top 5 player and MVP respect that…dnt ever put a #23 ranking next to his name ,if he’s hurt wait till he gets back

  • Casey

    I honestly don’t understand this ranking…I mean he’s at 23, but is that because of the ACL tear or is that where you view him even when healthy? I say rank him where you would if he was healthy or don’t rank him at all. Just my opinion. #23 makes no sense.

  • http://www.facebook.com/daniel.trinidad.714 Daniel Trinidad

    When derrick rose is healthy he’s number 1 remember he had an injury pleged season nd didn’t even play like derrick rose for most of last season because he was trying to recover from his injuries while playing. that man is so good he hid most of the bulls mistakes now the bulls r getting exposed this season especially the coach. and don’t say it’s because the bulls got rid of the bench because they got exposed to when rose got hurt

  • deanthony

    Alright, all you guys are fukin stupid, tryna be better then each other. Fact to the matter is derrick rose when healthy is top 5. Give us a durant give us a bosh any other allstar pf or sg, that’s not boozer or hamilton bitc ass, and I wud gaurantee we wud go to the finals. And win!!!!….our defense is the best, and we have the most dominant, pg since magic or isiah. Yes he’s way more dominant then cp3 or rondo. Or westbrook. Easily!

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