Chicago Bulls: 15 best scorers in franchise history

Despite the obvious sadness that comes when discussing Derrick Rose‘s eight seasons with the Chicago Bulls, let’s not forget how well he produced during that time.

When he entered the league back in 2008, the staple of Rose’s game was his speed and quickness. He continues to carry that trait with him to this day in spurts, but it was at its peak in the Windy City.

There really wasn’t any player capable of staying in front of D-Rose when he turned on the jets. He was just too fast. One minute he was at the top of the key, the next he was at the rim. And in transition, it was as if someone had pressed fast forward on only Rose as he zipped by the other nine players on the court.

Coupled with his elite speed was a great finishing ability around the rim. Never one to embrace contact, Rose would instead maneuver around it, contorting his body in the most eye-popping of ways, avoiding defenders and laying the ball up at incredibly difficult angles.

Rose’s scoring prowess obviously peaked in 2011, when after a summer of honing his outside shot, the former All-Star averaged a career-high 25.0 points a night.

Even after recovery from his horrific ACL injury back in 2012, Rose still found ways to get buckets in the years after, as those elite bursts of speed weren’t as frequent as they used to be, but they certainly didn’t disappear completely.

Rose wasn’t a great scorer in the sense that he had this elite offensive bag of tricks with multiple ways to beat his defenders. Rather, he was simply great at getting to the rim, and he used that to his advantage on every possession in order to make defenders look silly.

So while Rose’s career may not have turned out the way many had hoped, his abilities still made him into a very, if not great scorer at times, creating with it some amazing memories in the process.