Derrick Rose admits to feeling rusty, still coming to grips with offense

Derrick Rose wasn’t bad on Tuesday night with 17 points in his New York Knicks debut, but the point guard admitted that he’s not all the way up to scratch yet.

Rose, who admitted to feeling nervous before the game, turned the ball over four times to just one assist in the first half, and admitted that it was a combination of rust and coming to grips with the triangle offense.

“I felt good, but a couple of finishes I’m still trying to shake the rust off,” Rose admitted, via Marc Berman of the New York Post. “But I was happy the way I was still able to get to the rim.”

Rose did admit that there are parts of the offense he doesn’t have down yet.

“Just getting used to the offense,” Rose said. “Of course I want to pick-and-roll every time down but with the triangle … you got to get used to it so it’s not that foreign. We got a lot of room to make up on that side of the ball, too.”

It’s not really a huge surprise that Rose wasn’t perfect, given how much of the preseason he missed due to his civil rape case. One of Rose’s teammates predicted that we might see a sluggish start. It doesn’t help that the team was up against the Cleveland Cavaliers.