MINNEAPOLIS -- First and foremost, Rob McClanaghan wanted Derrick Rose to enjoy his summer in the gym. This was Rose’s first summer in seemingly forever where he could focus on basketball rather than rehab, but McClanaghan didn’t want to make a big deal of that.

“I just wanted him to get back in the gym, have fun, talk trash and get better,” McClanaghan said over the phone Tuesday, Nov. 20. “I didn’t really want to make it a whole work thing.”

But as Rose started to get into the flow of the offseason workout program, he and McClanaghan - who has trained Rose since the 30-year-old guard entered the NBA in 2008 - got to work on the things they generally focus on.

That included Rose’s mid-range jumper, which, McClanaghan said, was “on point.” So, he decided to move Rose beyond the 3-point line. It wasn’t just catch-and-shoot looks, either. Rose was taking long-range shots off the dribble, off screens, in transition. It was one rep after another “in every aspect you could think of,” McClanaghan said.

McClanaghan said he and Rose worked together five or six days a week. Rose estimated he took “20,000-some” shots this summer. And the work is paying off. When Rose was the NBA MVP in the 2010-11 season, he shot 33 percent from 3-point range, still his career high. Through 15 games this season, he is shooting 47 percent from deep, the 11th best mark in the NBA. He hit a career-high seven triples in a loss to the Lakers in early November.

“(Opponents are) giving me the shots I’ve been working on this whole summer,” Rose said.

And he’s making them pay.

McClanaghan notes Rose’s long-range shooting isn’t a product of just this summer, but the past 11 years of hard work. Rose had to work on his mid-range game before he could back out to 18 feet. He had to work on his 18-foot jumper before he could step out beyond the 23-foot, 9-inch arc.

“This was 10 years in the making,” McClanaghan said.

By this summer, Rose was ready to make the long ball a primary focus of his development. There were changes to be made. Rose said he had to find his “one-two” rhythm with his feet. McClanaghan believes shooting starts with your feet and your legs, and Rose is better when he’s taking a shot off a one-two stepping rhythm.

“When he does that, everything else just flows,” McClanaghan said. “We did that day after day, rep after rep, so now he does it without even having to think about it. It’s just instincts.”

As the summer went on and Rose got in better cardio shape and got his legs under him, McClanaghan said the arc on the guard’s shot was improving. Even when Rose was missing, he was missing long - an important development. Earlier in Rose’s career, most of his misses were short, a product of his laser-like jumper.

“Now you can see where when he shoots the ball there’s a nice arc,” McClanaghan said. “He’s shooting it on the way up, rather than shooting on the way down.”

At various points in Rose’s career, there appeared to be a bit of a hitch at the top of his release. Now, it’s a fluid motion. McClanaghan said the ball is smoothly coming off his fingertips. Rose is following through up high, where he used to sometimes push his follow through outward.

Through thousands of reps, McClanaghan said Rose has created the muscle memory and established consistency.

“Not only was he getting up the reps,” he said, “but he was getting up what I like to say are ‘perfect reps.’ ”

McClanaghan said this past summer was one of the best he’s had with Rose in “a long, long time.”

Rose worked harder than ever prior to that 2010-11 season, which had the guard questioning why he couldn’t win MVP. The work breeds confidence. Rose’s time spent on his jumper has had a similar effect. Now, if Rose misses two or three straight jumpers, he has the confidence to let the fourth shot fly.

“That was one of the things I had to get over,” Rose said. “Just stop thinking about it and just let it go. I shoot 20,000-some shots in the summer, so why the (heck) am I thinking about a shot when I get in a game? So once I understood that, it’s good.”

Rose said this is the best he’s felt about his shot in “a long time.” He noted coach Tom Thibdoeau and his teammates all have confidence in him to take those long-range shots.

“Like Thibs said, when you put the work in, he’s going to let you shoot it,” forward Taj Gibson said. “(Rose is) doing a great job. I feel like it’s a lot easier for him now. He’s not winding up when he shoots his threes. He’s just not thinking about it. Just letting it fly, and it’s been going in for us.”

McClanaghan always knew Rose would be a good long-range shooter, he just didn’t know when. Now that the guard’s 3-point shot has arrived, opposing defenses have a problem on their hands.

Thibodeau noted Rose has always been a “great downhill player.”

“Like over-the-top great,” Thibodeau said. “When he puts pressure on the rim, you see it every game. When he’s racing the ball up, he’s got people back on their heels, because it’s the speed with the power that forces people to collapse.”

Add a jumper to that, and Rose has a nearly-complete offensive game. He’s averaging 18.9 points a game, his highest mark since the 2011-12 season. Per ESPN, Rose’s offensive real plus-minus, the measure of a “player’s estimated on-court impact on team offensive performance, measured in points scored per 100 offensive possessions” of 2.79 in ninth-best among NBA point guards. Rose noted as he continues to knock down shots, defenses are starting to chase him off the 3-point line. That only makes things easier for him to drive - the bread and butter of his game.

“He’s one of the most explosive, athletically-gifted point guards this league has ever seen, so when his shot is going in as well, it’s almost unstoppable,” center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We’re very fortunate we get to have him on our team and not be the ones guarding him.”