The Atlanta Hawks could use Derrick Rose’s mid-range game
The Atlanta Hawks have a really good roster, as evidenced by their run to the Eastern Conference Finals. But with the offseason comes decisions. They have several free agents to address as the fact that no team can stay stagnant in the NBA. The challenge for any general manager is to balance returning the right amount of players with new ones.
One such potential addition that should be on general manager Travis Schlenk’s list is Derrick Rose, who spent the 2020-21 season with the New York Knicks but is a free agent.
Schlenk and the Hawks got a first-hand glimpse at Rose, who is admittedly a completely different player than the one who became the NBA’s youngest MVP ever back in 2011. That guy beat opponents with speed. The Rose of today does it with his craftiness.
The Atlanta Hawks could use Derrick Rose as a change of pace or complement to their usual offense
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That style of play, which has a heavier focus on the mid-range, is exactly what Atlanta needs coming off the bench to spell Trae Young.
Rose’s game is also different enough that the pair could share the floor despite him not being a great three-point shooter and neither he nor Young being great defenders.
He shot 46.2 percent on 2.9 attempts from the mid-range during the regular season.
Rose upped the rate to 4.0 per game in the playoffs he was active from 15-19 feet, in particular, with 3.2 attempts from that distance; good enough for sixth in the postseason.
Only taking his games coming off the Knicks bench into consideration, he led all bench players in attempts from 15-19 feet and canned them at a 42 percent clip.
The Hawks were fifth in attempts and seventh in percentage on mid-range shots during the playoffs, continuing a trend that began when Nate McMillan took over. Atlanta went from ranking 27th in mid-range attempts under Lloyd Pierce to being 12th from the time McMillan took over at the beginning of March.
With Lou Williams set to hit free agency, Rose could make a tremendous replacement. We already know Rose and Young are fans of each other.
Williams led the team in attempts from the mid-range during the regular season, shooting 32 percent. He was second on the bench in attempts from mid-range during the postseason, shooting 35.6 percent.
Rose was also literally right behind Young in pick-and-roll frequency both in the regular season and playoffs.
As for his ability to play alongside Young, a lineup featuring him and Immanuel Quickly (another high-usage guard) had the fourth-best net rating among all the five-man combinations to play at least five minutes together for the Knicks.
Two of the top six Hawks lineups in net rating featured Young and Williams, including the top-rated one. The sample size for the pair was small, though.
One hurdle, compensation. Could the Hawks convince him to give up a potentially longer-term deal with the lure of a $2 million raise via the mid-level exception? They were also going toe-to-toe with the eventual world champs.
The other potentially conversation-ending hurdle is minutes. Rose averaged 35 minutes per game in the postseason and was leading all bench players at 38.2 minutes in the first round.
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He would have a hard time reaching those numbers if the rest of this team stays intact. Williams averaged just 15.4 minutes during the playoffs, even with his two starts when Young was injured. The silver lining is that Rose averaged 25.6 minutes to Williams’ 21.6 in the regular season. That is a much easier gap to bridge.