Derrick Rose has been doing a lot this offseason. Dunking in Asia, selling shoes for Adidas, talking about adding a jumper. Now he says that during his rehab he has added 10 pounds of muscle to prevent injuries:
“Right now I’m in training, and I’m getting a lot stronger. I gained 10 pounds of muscle,” Rose said. “I don’t know how that’s going to carry over to how I play on the court, but I know it’s going to be very weird. I’m shooting a lot of shots right now, working with Rob, just putting memory back in my leg.
“With me, I was always kind of strong, but the way that I play, I hit tricky lay-ups and all of that stuff because going to the hole in my neighborhood, they don’t call any fouls, so I was just used to hitting all types of shots. Now this year, I got a little more strength behind me, so I think going to the hole, taking those shots, I’ll be able to finish a lot stronger this year. There should be a lot more and ones, hopefully.”
He also explained that gaining muscle isn’t the only improvement he feels:
“I think I’m a lot quicker, a lot more explosive, and I think I’m gonna go this year without that many nagging injuries,” he explained. “Just trying to prevent it by stretching and doing all the things I have to do to take care of my body. When you first come in the League and you’re talented and you’re athletic, you don’t care about stretching or anything. You just kind of go out there and overlook that stuff. But now it’s my sixth year, so you really have to look at that and take that more seriously so I can prevent all of the little injuries.”
I hope that Rose can come back full strength from his injury. For as much as he avoided having to come back last year and be the savoir, he sure is talking a lot this offseason. Perhaps that means he is feeling confident about his knee and knows he can dominate again. Or maybe he just needs to be quiet until the season starts.