I suspect Rose is rather bull-headed but . . . some of the blame for Rose's iffy health falls on coaching/training. Yes, injuries happen, even to the best conditioned/smartest/strongest players. However, there are ways to reduce the odds of continual and/or career-ending injuries. In short, Rose was dumb to continue playing more or less exactly the way he's always played. Yes, his crazy and fearless drives to the basket and his ankle/knee-breaking dribbling/turning is a key part of his game and part of what makes (well, made) him a great player but . . . if he wants to continue playing (if he can continue playing), he's going to have to figure out how to put less stress on his body and still be productive. Rose as role player? Rose as a Livingston-style back up PG? Maybe.
Look at how Curry adapted his play. He had serious injuries to both ankles and (for the most part) he adapted his game to put less stress on his ankles. Watch early clips of him and you'll see him doing stressful dribbling, crazier turns, and so on. Yes, he still does some of that but . . . he does less of it over all and, for the most part, he plays a fairly sane, body-damange wise, game. The other day, when GS needed to beat SAS, he went all-out and played somewhat risky play-off-style ball and . . . apparently injured his ankle/foot and had to sit a couple practices and the next game. I suspect he'll try to mostly keep that stuff under control until the playoffs to, doh, save his ankles for when they count. Rose, on the other hand, has played all-out in every game I've seen him in and he continues to do risky stuff every game, all game long. Why he and the Chicago staff didn't sit down and figure out how to turn Rose's play into less stressful play is unclear. There was talk of such happening but . . . it didn't happen. Who cares if it takes Rose a year or more to learn how to transition into a sold role player or just a different, but starting, PG? He's a fine player overall and he'd still be very useful at, say, 80% of full-on crazy-playing Rose. Players like Livingston who have been forced to make such transitions are still quite solid players, just not nightly superstars. Rose is not going to be a nightly superstar and, if he doesn't change his play, he's likely to out of the league soon. I'm sure Rose is difficult to coach but . . . I think the team should have simply insisted that he play in a more sane manner . . . or get rid of him, even if his trade value was iffy. At this point, his trade value is going to be zero.
