Derrick Rose is following roughly the same career path as Harry Potter

Derrick had supremely unrealistic expectations put on him after his injuries, ironically by his critics and haters that predicted he'd "never be the same." Now when he does play well it isn't good enough, even an MVP season repeat wouldn't appease his doubters.

For active players, Rose is 7th in Playoff PPG behind only Durant, Curry, Lebron, Dirk, Melo & Westbrook. He is 5th in active Playoff APG behind CP3, Rondo, Deron Williams & Westbrook.

In all time career rankings, Derrick is still 16th in Playoff APG. There's a lot of great playoff performers below him, Lebron, Curry, Hardaway, Nate Archibald, Jerry West, Gary Payton, Tony Parker, Dwyane Wade. Derrick is also 26th in career Playoff PPG, sandwiched between Larry Bird & Charles Barkley, above Wade, T-Mac, Elvin Hayes, John Havlicek, Dr J, James Worthy, Blake Griffin, Penny Hardaway, James Harden, Paul George, Pau Gasol. His career playoff PER is higher than Pippen, Worthy, Wilkins, Bosh, Paul George, George Gervin etc.

People act like the guy hasn't already had a tremendous career to this point. They also act as if he's washed up, like he wasn't the star of a 50 win playoff contender during our last run. Derrick averaged well over 19 PPG 6 APG & 4 RPG in the 2015 post-season. If any other guard did that besides the former MVP, the media would be serenading them.

It's not homerism or low standards either, 15 active players have had that kind of playoff run in their careers. Only 7 have done it more than once, only Rose, Lebron and Westbrook have done it more than twice.

That's not Derrick's career, not him being held up by MVP stats, that's his MIL/CLE playoff run against two formidable defenses. With an injured supporting cast no less. Out of active players, only Rose, Lebron, Westbrook, Curry & CP3 have career averages at that level or higher.

/r/chicagobulls Thread