How Derrick Rose can find success again – SB Nation

Success in life is about setting appropriate goals, and fighting like hell to achieve them. Luck (or chaos, depending on your amount of nihilism) plays a massive role. Yet, we each control our own destiny to a degree.

This goes double in the workplace. External forces can derail or enhance your ability to achieve success. But the goals you set and the work you do to achieve them are whats most important in the formula.

This is why Derrick Rose should join the Cavaliers. It would be a departure and a role reversal for the former Most Valuable Player, but it would also set a new path for a career that has grown stale.

First, Rose needs to accept that he is no longer the player who captured the MVP six years ago. Even at just the age of 28, Roses body has already betrayed him. He plays like a 34-year-old point guard who still relies on the athleticism of his peak.

Rose still put up numbers in New York because hes still a high-volume lead guard. What was troubling is that Rose put up those numbers despite being paired with Hall of Fame scorer Carmelo Anthony and burgeoning star Kristaps Porzingis last season. Roses goal was to be a star point guard despite his physical ailments and several seasons of anti-glory. In that quest, he put up surprisingly decent, albeit hollow, numbers.

Despite having his best season since 2012 (when he was an All-Star), Rose was still miscast as a featured player. The Knicks record spells out the bottom line: New York was bad, and only won 40 percent of their games with Rose available.

He needs a different goal as he transitions into the next phase of his career. As the free agent market showed, no one wants that old D-Rose anymore, at least not at the salary hes expecting.

But as several aging former stars have shown us, theres hope yet for Rose. He needs set new goals and work to achieve them.

Consider Shaun Livingston, who suffered perhaps the most gruesome injury in NBA history 10 years ago. Unlike Rose, Liv wasnt yet a star. He was on that path, and then his knee blew it all up.

Liv didnt quit, though. After three years playing sparingly and rehabbing religiously, he set new goals and accepted a new role. He changed his game and his mindset. Hes now an important cog on a two-time champion at age 31.

You sense Rose believes hes more than Livingston, that he can be better than an important cog on a champion. What Rose has to do to look within and determine whats truly better than that while being within the realm of possibility.

Is becoming an All-Star again within the realm of possibility? It could be, in the right situation. History shows us that if you score a lot of points, you have an inside track on winning an All-Star spot. But no team (with one exception) has been willing to give Rose an opportunity to be its offensive focal point this summer. Without opportunity there is no achievement.

Is becoming an important cog on a champion possible? That is absolutely what Rose could become for Cleveland, even though the Cavaliers remain massive underdogs against the Warriors.

Rose is a better player right now than Deron Williams, who arrived midseason to serve as the supplemental shot creator needed to let Kyrie rest and LeBron play off the ball. But Williams was wildly overmatched throughout the playoffs. Rose gives Cleveland a better chance as long as he plays within the system, tries hard on defense, and defers to the Cavaliers brighter stars.

Theres no chance hed score 18 a night as a Cav, or sniff an All-Star nod. But hed be on screens across the world in May and June, and he just might get to hoist a trophy in front of the Q.

Perhaps more importantly, LeBron has the standing to help Rose reset his goals. No one in the league is more successful on and off the court than LeBron. He speaks with authority. Plus, when hes on the court, Rose isnt going to be able to take over the offense. LeBron doesnt let that happen. (Ask Kyrie Irving or Dion Waiters.)

Is Rose ready to sacrifice his personal numbers and his narrow potential for a return to stardom -- potential he likely believes to be greater than what we believe it to be to find a new brand of success? Well see.

The Lakers and Bulls are both reportedly knocking on Roses door. Neither will pay much either, making this largely a decision about role.

On the Lakers, Rose will challenge Lonzo Ball, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Jordan Clarkson for minutes. Hell get plenty -- not start-level as he did in New York, but more than hed likely get in Cleveland. L.A. wont be good, though, and Lonzo is the future. Theres no runway for Rose with the Lakers. Itd be yet another pit stop.

We can all agree that going back to Chicago would just be plain weird. But heres the thing: that team doesnt have any lead scorers other than Dwyane Wade at the moment. Zach LaVine will almost assuredly miss the beginning of the regular season while recovering from ACL surgery, and odds are Chicago will bring him along slowly given the low likelihood the Bulls will be competitive.

Wade remains an incredibly odd fit, and theres a chance he finds a new home before the season begins through a buy-out or trade. Rose is much better than Kris Dunn at this point, to say nothing of Cameron Payne. Theres no scoring in the frontcourt, even with Nikola Mirotic still unsigned, so Rose would get plenty of minutes and plenty of points. Roses best shot at personal success his best shot at putting up numbers like the Derrick Rose of old -- is returning to Chicago, if the Bulls even truly want him.

But thats not where Roses future lies. He almost assuredly cant be a high-volume player on a good team. This is a critical moment in his transition. How he is remembered in the future and how he gets paid in his 30s depend on what sort of career he molds for himself now.

Its all about finding an achievable role and excelling in it. Cleveland offers that. Well soon find out if Rose agrees, or if he still believes hes capable of being a star.

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How Derrick Rose can find success again - SB Nation