CHARLESTON, S.C. — Derrick Rose played most of his career under Tom Thibodeau and is apparently happy to get away to a more organized training camp.
“These last two years, I had Thibs,” Rose said Thursday from his camp with the Memphis Grizzlies. “So this one compared to Thibs is, don’t get me wrong we worked. But Thibs is more of like, how can I say it?
“It’s ran different. I’m just going to say that. It’s ran different. Here, it’s more smoother. It’s more fluent. And guys are really getting their work in. And that’s not saying the guys in New York didn’t get their work in.”
Rose didn’t explain why the Grizzlies training camp was “smoother,” but added that he appreciates the continuity of the Grizzlies roster since “they don’t have to do much to tweak things.”
Rose and Thibodeau were together at three different NBA stops, enjoying a connection that seemed to bring out the best in the point guard.
But last season in New York was a strain on the relationship.
Rose, the former MVP, was not only benched, he was pulled from the rotation and played just 27 games.
It was an unexpected development after Rose showed up to the 2022 training camp bragging about how he heeded Thibodeau’s call to drop weight.
After the season, the Knicks declined to pick up Rose’s $15.6 million team option and he signed with the Grizzlies.
The hope is Rose will get playing time and serve as a veteran leader to a roster that was upturned last season by immaturity.
As expected, a current Knicks player had a different opinion of Thibodeau’s training camp.
“He’s very detail-oriented, which I appreciate,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “Going back to my college days, that’s why I’m in the NBA, playing for coaches who are detail-oriented. So, I think Thibs can bring the best out of me.
“It’s just all about angles, all about fundamentals, not skipping over any of the steps. A lot of teams in this league, they just rely on athleticism. They just rely on natural skill set. But Thibs, he takes the details and he lets your natural abilities take over with that and it stands out. And you can see it by Day 3 in training camp.”
Coincidentally, Thibodeau referenced Rose on Thursday as the catalyst to the 2021 run to the fourth seed.
“Three years ago it was more based on our defense and at the end of that year, we turned the corner when we made the trade for Derrick,” Thibodeau said.
When it comes to defensive analytics, Thibodeau prefers the “trained eye” over most of the numbers.
“I haven’t seen a defensive rating system yet [that’s the best] and I’ve studied it pretty hard for a long time,” the coach said. “To me it’s the trained eye, what are things that you value that you think are important to winning? Over time, field-goal percentage has always been at the top of my list, rebounding margin is always at the top of my list. Do you challenge shots correctly? Are you making your opponent take the shots that you want them to take? Are you taking the value shots out of the game? Those are the things I mention.”