Returning superstar Derrick Rose continued to turn heads in the ongoing USA Basketball minicamp in Las Vegas, enough for Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim to name him as the most impressive player in the training camp.
In an interview with ESPN Chicago, Boeheim, who is also one of Team USA's assistant coaches, admitted that he was surprised with Rose's performance in the first two days of the camp.
Boeheim said that he did not expect Rose will be that sharp coming off a long layoff due to a torn meniscus in his right knee, which cut his 2013-14 NBA season short.
"That's my biggest surprise coming in here," Boeheim said of Rose's performance. "The one thing I was worried about is whether he would be able to step in after so much time off."
Rose has only played in 10 games over the past two seasons after missing the entire 2012-13 NBA season due to a torn ACL in his left knee, which he sustained during their first game of the 2012 NBA Playoffs.
But despite spending so much time recovering from two major knee injuries, Boeheim said that Rose did not show any rust, pointing out that he is as good as the player who took the starting point guard job during the 2010 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Spain.
"He looks, to me, as good as when we had him in the World Championship in '10, when he was at full strength coming into an MVP year," Boeheim said of Rose. "He looks very, very good. Obviously, [when] he gets in some games it will be a little different, but it's not like he hasn't had success in games. He had a lot of success. He's been the most impressive guy here."
USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski was also impressed with Rose's performance, saying that Rose is not holding back despite fears that he might change his game after sustaining two major injuries.
"He was phenomenal [Monday], and he was today too," Krzyzewski said. "He hasn't held anything back. The neat thing about today was we went hard [Monday], and we went hard today, and he hasn't been in this [practice] environment, and he was as good or better today."
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