GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Most NBA observers probably wouldnt label Derrick Rose as elite at this stage of his career. But Rose believes he fits that description and that its only a matter of time before he shows it to others.Rose was asked after Knicks practice on Monday if he wants to show this season that he still is an elite point guard.Yeah, but I know I am, he said. Thats no surprise to me. Its only a matter of time until I put it together. All the hard work I put in, everything how I dedicated my whole life to this game, what I sacrificed. Its only a few that did it and thats doing it. So its all about just putting it together.Its only natural for players to have confidence in their abilities, but Roses production in recent seasons has fallen short of elite levels. Last season, Rose averaged 16.4 points on 42 percent shooting and handed out 4.7 assists per game for a Bulls team that missed the playoffs.Knicks president Phil Jackson traded for Rose in June and would, obviously, love to see the guard return to the elite form he showed earlier in his career, when he was named the youngest MVP in league history in 2011. Since that season, Rose has dealt with several significant knee injuries; due to those injuries and various others, the 28-year-old and has played in less than 40 percent of his games in the last five seasons.Rose missed a little over two weeks of training camp earlier this month while attending a civil trial in Los Angeles over allegations that he and two friends gang-raped an ex-girlfriend. He returned to the Knicks on Friday after a jury found Rose and his two friends not liable of the accusations. Rose has spent the last four days working with coaches and teammates ahead of the Knicks season opener Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.Im very excited. We got a lot of great pieces, Rose said after practice Monday. Were learning how to play together. Were learning chemistry. But it comes from experience and it comes with playing with each other.Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said Rose has looked strong in recent workouts. But Hornacek would also like to see Rose look for his own shot more often in certain situations.I think theres going to be times when Im going to have tell Derrick be more aggressive, Hornacek said Monday. There are times hes trying to set his teammates up, which is great for a point guard. But a lot of the early offense in the open court hes a hard guy to guard. Hell be on the attack.... He feels hes got great players on his team that he can rely but theres going to be times that hes going to have the advantage and were going to want him to attack.Rose believes that the Knicks will be difficult to guard in the pick-and-roll with players like Joakim Noah, Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, Courtney Lee and Brandon Jennings.Its pick your poison, Rose said. My job is to create a double team so the weak side has a hard time closing down on shooters.Hornacek has said Rose may need some time to get used to the offense after being away during the civil trial. Knicks doctors have been keeping a close eye on him over the past few days to monitor his stress levels following the trial.Anthony expects Rose to grow more comfortable with repetition after being away for the civil case. He also believes Rose will benefit from expectations in New York that are different than those he faced in his hometown of Chicago.I dont think hes playing with any type of load on his shoulders, hes not thinking about injuries, Anthony said Monday. Whereas before he was coming into training camp rehabbing, now he got a chance to just practice and put everything behind him and focus on basketball. So when you have a talent like that who is coming into the season with a clear mind and a focus that he has, it can be exciting. Cheap New Orleans Saints Jerseys .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. Cheap Los Angeles Rams Jerseys . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. http://www.wholesalejerseysstore.net/?tag=cheap-cleveland-browns-jerseys . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. Cheap Houston Texans Jerseys . John Lucas, signed as a mentor for rookie Trey Burke, showed he can score if required, scoring 12 points of his 16 points in the second quarter as Utah built an 18-point lead. Cheap Tennessee Titans Jerseys .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. As President Obama might say, my daughter is a badass. I dont say that just because shes my daughter. As the president did when he met the members of the U.S. womens national soccer team after they won the World Cup last year, I offer that description up in the broadest of terms.That same term applies to many of my daughters teammates through years of club soccer that have seen us travel around the South and across the country. Ive seen them get knocked down and bounce right back up. Ive seen them limp around the field, trying to shake off a twisted ankle to stay in the game. Ive seen them suffer difficult losses and play in pouring rain and frigid cold.Im glad my daughter, Lucy, is part of it. And Im glad I have been there to see it.I am a soccer dad, twice over. My son is in college now, but he also played travel soccer for years. I loved watching him play and seeing his confidence grow as he kept moving up to better teams through the years. But soccer wasnt as critical to my relationship with my son as it has been with my daughter.We have some differences, she and I. My daughter has a clear sense of fashion, while I shop the clearance rack at Kohls. She uses her phone for endless snaps and selfies, while I use mine to check sports scores and play Words with Friends. And there are certain areas where conversations between fathers and daughters are tricky at best. Soccer, though, has provided us with a shared experience since she first enjoyed orange slices and juice boxes at halftime and ran through tunnels created by the parents outstretched arms after games.I didnt play the game growing up, but Ive come to appreciate it and all that its meant to my kids. Unlike the sports I grew up with, there are no timeouts in soccer. Players have to make hundreds of decisions during a game -- without a coach telling them what to do -- about when and where to pass, when to attack and when to pull back and defend. To have any chance at success, they have to work with and rely on their teammates. Its a game that values speed, technical ability, teamwork, intelligence, stamina, athleticism and the willingness to be physical. (Lucy points with pride to the various bruises and scrapes on her legs, treasuring each one as a memento from various high school and club games.)But where the game has helped me connect with my daughter is off the field, on the drives to and from practice or the road trips to games and tournaments. Weve driven through a West Virginia snowstorm to get to an indoor soccer tournament in Detroit in February, flown to Seattle to play against some of the best teams in the country and spent the holidays in Orlando more times than I care to count. Ive rinsed out stinky jerseys and soccer socks in hotel sinks and made late-night runs to get Gatorade. Im always up for arranging some sort of side trip, having nothing to do with soccer, to check out something interesting in the area.All that travel translates into great family time -- time to play card games, talk about how schools going or watch HGTV together in the hotel room. Occasionally the talk is about soccer.One topic of frequent discussion is the U.S. womens national team. We rarely miss a chance to watch them play, even if its just a friendly on TV.dddddddddddd The women on that team are rock stars to my daughter and her teammates, and I will never forget the thrill it was for Lucy when she got a photo with Megan Rapinoe, her favorite player, when the team played in North Carolina a couple of years ago. So while Im curious to see how Michael Phelps will do in the pool and whether anyone can beat Usain Bolt in the 100 meters, my daughter and I will be most interested in the U.S. womens soccer team as they go after their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in Rio later this summer.I wondered whether the dads of the women on the U.S. national team felt the same as I did about soccer helping their relationship with their daughters. I managed to touch base with Ken Krieger, father of defender Ali Krieger, and Vincent Dunn, father of midfielder and forward Crystal Dunn. Not surprisingly, they also had tales of weekends spent traveling to tournaments and car rides home after games or practices spent listening as their daughters recounted their experience.Both fathers were most interested in talking about who their daughters have become off the field. The thing Im most proud of has absolutely nothing to do with soccer, said Vincent Dunn, a finance attorney in New York. Crystal is just a genuinely good person. She cares about other people and is a fun person.Krieger, a former player who has built a long and successful career as a youth soccer and basketball coach in and around Washington, D.C., recounted an experience years ago when his daughter got a chance to see Mia Hamm play. What she remembered from that day was watching Hamm sign autographs for what seemed like hours afterward. She told her father that she would do the same thing one day if she ever got the chance. Im usually in the bleachers for an hour after her games, Ken Krieger told me, waiting for her to finish signing autographs.My wife and I often talked as our kids moved up (and occasionally down) the ranks of club soccer about how we werent interested in raising soccer players. We wanted to raise kids who would go on to become good adults. Soccer has been one way to do that, imparting lessons in the value of determination, hard work and sportsmanship.Theyve learned how to handle defeat as well as victory. Theyve learned that the calls dont always go your way and that theres nothing to be gained by complaining about it. Theyve learned that while sometimes you have to figure things out for yourself, there are other times when you can rely on your teammates or, more importantly, be there for your teammates. Those are lessons that will serve them well long after their playing days are over.I will also treasure the bonds soccer has helped me build with Lucy. There are plenty of things she would rather talk with her mother about, and Im OK with that. But we have our own connection, and I will never complain about the money and time our family has spent on soccer.Bill Krueger is an editor at the alumni magazine at N.C. State University, where U.S. head coach Jill Ellis started her coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Wolfpack womens soccer team. Wholesale NFL Gear Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Jerseys Throwback NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys From China Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Outlet Youth NFL Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale NFL Womens Jerseys Cheap NFL Autographed Jerseys NFL T-shirts From China ' ' '