The latest Minnesota Timberwolves rumor is that the first move of NBA free agency is to agree to a one-year contract with guard Derrick Rose to return to Minneapolis.
If there was ever any doubt regarding Derrick Rose’s future, well … there shouldn’t have been.
Nearly an hour after free agency kicked off on Saturday evening/Sunday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Timberwolves had agreed to terms with Rose to return to the team.
The immediate reaction of seemingly all Wolves fans was, and rightly so, to wonder what the terms of the deal would be. After all, anything more than the minimum would have brought shades of the doomed Darko Milicic deal in the wee morning hours of free agency several years ago.
But then, Shams Charnia of Yahoo Sports chimed in.
Sources: Derrick Rose has agreed to a one-year, $2.1M deal to re-sign with Minnesota.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2018
Thanks, Shams. You saved a night of angst for many Wolves fans.
Many others, of course, aren’t psyched to have Rose back at all. And it’s hard to blame them.
Despite Rose’s solid playoff performance, during which he averaged 14.2 points per game, he hasn’t been an above-average NBA player since before his rash of injuries began in 2012.
Months ago, I was very clear in stating that I did not want Rose on the Timberwolves. Then, in my post-playoff season review on Rose’s performance in a Wolves uniform, I stated the following…
"…Rose has, for the most part, not even approached bench-player levels of play in the regular season since his initial return with the Bulls.Use any metric you’d like: win shares, PER, essentially any version of plus/minus or adjusted plus/minus. They all tell the same story: Rose simply hasn’t been a good player, and his lack of explosiveness (and continued lack of an outside shot) has simply exacerbated things on both ends of the floor.…It certainly feels … inevitable that Rose will end up with Thibs once again, it’s just hard to tell exactly why. The way that Rose played in the playoffs surely isn’t sustainable, and it’s hard to see his style meshing with the Wolves existing roster. Between Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl-Anthony Towns, the idea of adding a high-usage, inefficient Rose to the mix is tough to stomach."
All of the above remains true, strong playoff performance notwithstanding. Rose is hardly a shell of his MVP self, and combined with the serious off-the-court issues that continue to follow him, it’s tough to see why the Wolves feel the need to bring back a non-3-point-shooting, non-defending player who doesn’t play a position of need.
The Timberwolves already have a great backup point guard in Tyus Jones, and Rose doesn’t have the size or quickness to truly guard opposing two-guards on a consistent basis. And without a strong outside jumper, his off-ball contributions are severely limited.
Next: 10 wing options in free agency for the Timberwolves
At any rate, Wolves fans can hope for something resembling the playoff performances that Rose put on against the Rockets. That, of course, is exactly what Tom Thibodeau is banking on.