Even as the Bulls prepare to face the division rival Indiana Pacers tonight, good news has arrived in the form of Derrick Rose actually sprinting in bursts at practice.
But wait. There’s more.
There are rumors he could be only weeks away from actually practicing with the rest of the team. According to an unnamed source: “That’s the belief that a couple of [the Bulls'] players are under.”
Exciting, right?
Well, don’t get too worked up just yet. Returning to practice — if that even happens in the time frame suggested by Mr. Anonymous — is not the same as playing in games. Furthermore, Bulls owners Jerry Reinsdorf has made it abundantly clear that Rose will not return until “doctors tell me that it’s absolutely safe for him to come back.”
Still, any news about Rose’s forward progress is good news.
With Bulls training camp officially under way, we can finally start really thinking about the upcoming season in real terms. There’s been plenty of concern about the dismantling of the Bench Mob — which is reasonable — but the more important subject is the health of the team’s core players.
Derrick Rose. Joakim Noah. Luol Deng.
We keep hearing that Rose is doing very well in rehabbing his surgically repaired left knee. That he’s ahead of schedule even. But the “ahead of schedule” updates don’t always provide an indication of where he is and what he’s actually capable of doing. Well, it turns out he’s about two weeks away from doing any cutting.
Said Rose: ”Right now, I’m not at that stage, where I didn’t starting cutting yet. I’m about two weeks away from that, where I’m starting to cut.”
This is another reminder that we are free to feel enthused about Rose’s stellar progress…but we also need to remember that he’s still several months away from game action. A sentiment shared by Bulls GM Gar Forman.
Said Forman: “Let’s not forget, he’s got a long way to go. He remains focused, committed to what he’s doing. There haven’t been any setbacks. That’s why we say he’s on schedule, but as far as the future is concerned, we’re taking this process step by step. Up to this step, he’s right where we want him to be.”
Actually, “where we want him to be” is “on the court playing,” but we’ll take what we can get.
Still, Rose
And what about Noah? Remember: Jo sprained his left ankle during Game 3 of the Bulls’ first round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers. The pain lingered so long that he decided not to play on the French national team in last summer’s Olympic Games in London.
Said Noah: ”I feel great. I feel ready to go. My ankle is good. I spent a lot of time rehabbing this offseason. I had a very hard decision to make not playing in the Olympics. I know a lot of people were disappointed, especially in France … Just to be 100 percent to be ready for this (training camp).”
Then there’s Deng.
Unlike Noah, he chose to play for the British team in the Olympics, which meant not having surgery on the torn ligaments in his left wrist. As a result, Deng will begin the new season suffering the exact same injury he was struggling with when last season ended.
Said Deng: “The wrist is the wrist. It is what it is. I expect to be asked about it all year. I just have to go out and play and do what I can do, whether it’s one arm, two arms or no arms. I’m going to be the best I can be. … If I wake up tomorrow and I need the wrist surgery I’ll let you guys know. I didn’t want to have surgery and miss a lot of games. I’m at a point of my career I want to play in every game. I had a hard time to make that decision to have the surgery and miss that time.”
Not good news.
Last season, Deng had the lowest field goal percentage of his career (41.2), and his splits show how his percentages dropped after he suffered the injury in January. And he shot 31 percent during the Olympics.
Said Deng: ”I have to say that it’s the most annoying question — I’m going to be honest and say it. I keep saying my wrist is fine but I keep getting asked about it. I don’t know what else I can say. I think I’ll paint ‘my wrist is fine’ on my car so every time I drive, everyone can see it. Maybe they’ll put it on the Jumbotron at the United Center.”
He may get tired of hearing that question, but if his shooting continues to be as woeful as it was in the final months of last season and during Olympic competition, it will continue to be asked.
The article produced some not-so-surprising results (the Spurs had the league’s “winningest” offense and Chris Paul was the top offensive player) and a few that were surprising (such as Charlotte’s even-worse-than-we-could-have-imagined offensive ineptitude and the fact that Tyson Chandler ranked as the league’s second-best offensive force).
From a Bulls perspective, it was somewhat surprising that Joakim Noah ranked as the league’s seventh-best offensive player behind only Paul, Chandler, Steve Nash, LeBron James, James Harden and Ryan Anderson.
Alvarez writes:
I know we’ll get a little flack from this chart but it’s important to remember that offense is not just about taking shots. Passing the ball, getting the ball and keeping the ball matter too! Players like Joakim Noah, Kawhi Leonard and Tyson Chandler may not jump to mind when we think offense but it turns out their contributions can be quite valuable.
Now here’s where things get a little strange. Alvarez goes on to rank Chicago’s top five offensive players as Noah (by a country mile), Kyle Korver, Omer Asik, Taj Gibson and Derrick Rose.
Seeing Noah and Korver ranked above Rose in offense seems somewhat reasonable. According to Basketball-Reference, they co-led the team in Offensive Rating at 120 points per 100 possessions (Rose was third at 112). Furthermore, Noah led the team in Offensive Win Shares at 4.9 with Rose coming in second at 4.1 (although Rose played 25 fewer games and was injured most of the season).
However, Asik ranked dead last in Offensive Rating — below even Brian Scalabrine — at 97 points per 100 possessions. Omer and Mike James tied for second-to-last in Offensive Win Shares at 0.1. And did I mention Asik has no hands (turnover rate of 25.2) and shot 45.6 from the free throw line?
So I have a slight problem with any metric that ranks Asik as the Bulls’ third-best offensive player.
It does not compute.
Especially when you consider what a devastating defensive force Asik is. If he were really that crucial to the Bulls’ offense as well as the defense…wouldn’t his PER be higher than 13.4? That’s below the league average.
Anyway, it’s more interesting information to toss on the pile. Just not sure I can agree with the notion of Asik-as-more-important-than-Rose-on-offense.
As anticipation grows for the 2012-13 season — Bulls training camp will open on Monday, October 1 by the way — Adidas has released the latest video chronicling Derrick Rose’s rehab efforts. This episode is titled FOCUS.
In case you’re too busy filling out TPS reports to watch the video, here are the words:
Rose:
“I started playing basketball ever since probably, what? Four, three or four and ever since then I just like, always loved the game.
“When I was growing up my biggest thing was just getting to the league. I wasn’t thinking about shoe deals, or a gym shoe, or anything. I really saw what hard work can do for someone’s life.
“My biggest fight right now, I would have to say, is just stayin’ focused. Being patient because I’m impatient. If you think about it I never stop this is the only time in my life where I actually stopped playing basketball. Even in high school I was always going. Then thinking I was going to be able to play in the Olympics this year, it just killed my dreams.
“This injury gives me time to appreciate the people that’s around me. Be grateful for what I have. Just live life.
“I’m 23 but I’ve been in the league since I was 19 so just doing what you suppose to do, that’s all you have to do.
“Hard work pays off and I seen it actually pay off the year that I won MVP. I worked extremely hard so I know that all this stuff is going to pay off one day.
“It’s challenging, I’m just trying not to stop.”
Bulls head athletic trainer Fred Tedeschi:
“Derrick’s progress to date, and it’s excellent progress, has been driven by his focus on trying to get back. You know, it’s not so much necessarily his body chemistry that’s driving what’s going on I think it’s his mind and his, his, passion to get better.”
Said Rose: “My recovery has been good, where (I’m) rehabbing every day, five times out of the week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do lower and upper body and bike workout. I’m starting to shoot now, I started to jump a little while ago, like a couple of days ago, where I’m still improving every week. My leg does get sore sometimes, but I’m able to fight through it, but my trainers and the people that have been working on me have been making sure that I’ve been doing a great job … I’ve been good.”
Rose has come a long way since the May 12 surgery to repair the ACL he tore in Game 1 of the Bulls’ first round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers. There’s a mass consensus (as Miami’s Dwyane Wade would agree) that the Bulls aren’t going to compete without a title until Rose is back and at the top of his game, so updates about his rehab are big news around the Windy City.
Rose continued: ”(I didn’t) work on my core as much as I do now. Sit-ups, so many exercises that I do just to get my core together. That’s a huge part of getting back … basketball players don’t usually have to work on our core like that, because we work on our hips and weights. I’ve been working with my trainers, and they’re making sure I’m on top of that, and that my upper body is strong.”
Of course, life isn’t all rehabbing and getting stronger for Rose right now. As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times (and many other sources), Rose became choked up and cried yesterday during a promotional event for his new Adidas shoe. The tears flowed after video of Rose’s ACL injury was shown.
After he recovered, Rose said: “It’s truly a blessing, man. With all this stuff that’s going on in this city. A kid from Englewood has something positive going on. That makes me feel so good. The shoe is great. All this is great. I can’t explain this. I can’t. I went through so much. To have, like, true fans, that means a lot to me. And I know it means a lot to my family. Because we aren’t supposed to be here at all. But God made the way. This is truly unreal. I’m just happy to have true fans out there.”
I’ve mentioned this before recently, but this injury seems to have made Rose much more aware of his own mortality, certainly his mortality as a basketball player. He’s showing more emotion and willingness to put himself in the spotlight than ever before. When he eventually does return to playing, it will be interesting to see how coming back from adversity affects his game.
Scottie Pippen on Rose’s comeback (via Comcast SportsNet Chicago):
“He’s going to be a bigger, better, stronger player. I think it’s great to have something like this happen if it’s going to happen at a young age (23). He’s going to heal fast, and he’s going to push himself now to be better than he probably would have ever been.”
This sort of keeps with Dr. Brian Cole’s assessment that Rose can potentially get back to 125% of where he was before. I have no doubt Rose will push himself. But the truth is: Nobody really knows how for sure well Rose will recover from his ACL tear. Not doctors. Not Pippen. Not Rose himself. Only time will tell.
And so Bulls fans watch. And wait. And wait some more.
“You just feel bad for [Rose]. We all deal with injuries and every time you deal with an injury, you hope it’s not the big one. You hope it won’t end your season. So to see a guy like D-Rose, who was battling injuries all year, minor injuries, and then it took its toll. And it was sad to see.
“We didn’t want to see it and we want to play the Bulls. We want to play the best teams. We want him and his family to be fine, so to hear he was in high spirits and doing well, outside looking in, as a fan of the game, I’m excited for him.”
Wade — who recently admitted his free agent visit to Chicago “messed me up” — also told ESPNChicago that Rose might eventually change his mind over his refusal to recruit other great players to join him on the Bulls:
“Derrick’s still young (23). When I came into the league (in 2003), when all of us came into the league, you never can tell me that this day would come where I play with guys like LeBron (James) and Chris (Bosh) because I wanted to be the young gun. I wanted to be the one who leads my team to a championship, I had that mentality.
“And then you get to a point where you understand, even with me winning a championship in my third year, it took Shaquille O’Neal, it took Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, James Posey, all these guys to make it possible. This league is very good and you’re not going to win it alone. So when you’ve had a very good team like Derrick has had, you don’t need to recruit, but when you’ve hit rough stages and injuries hit and all these things, and you have a year like we had where we won 15 games (in 2007-08), and now we’ve got to rebuild back, it becomes a little different. Hopefully, he doesn’t have to experience that, but things change.”
The whole “recruitment” thing hasn’t hurt the Heat or the Lakers. As much as I love Derrick’s humility, I wouldn’t mind him working a little more to bring some more star power to the Windy City. Management could probably use the help.
One last bonus quote from Wade, this time on the LeBron versus M.J. debate-that-shouldn’t-be-a-debate-yet, from the Chicago Sun-Times:
“Michael is the greatest player I’ve ever seen play. I think LeBron is in that conversation of one day becoming. It’s all speculation, in a sense. He has a long way to go. He knows that. He has one championship. Michael has six! There’s a lot to say about that. LeBron is a dominant player. .?.?.But Michael Jordan is the greatest of all time.”
Agreed. And that’s exactly where this “debate” should remain. For now.
Derrick Rose and Adidas are publishing a six-part video series on YouTube called #thereturn. In essence, it’s the story of Rose’s rehab…his mental and physical battle to return from the ACL tear that ended his season and the Bulls’ hopes of contending for a title. And not simply to return. To return better and stronger than ever.
What makes this video fascinating is the narration by Rose.
As anybody who follows D-Rose already knows, the kid is humble to a fault and tends to shy away from the public eye. He doesn’t talk trash, rarely says boo to official, and refuses to dance at the All-Star Game. Zach Christman of NBC Chicago once described Rose as “boring as hell” and said “listening to the man talk is like taking Ambien.”
Now he’s talking. Oh boy is he talking.
Rose recently revealed that finding out about his torn ACL was “the closest thing to death” he’s ever experienced. In “Belief,” he describes his post-injury angst thusly: “think of your most downest day and times it by 100…that ain’t enough to describe how I felt at that time.”
I have to admit that statement made me fidget a little. The world can be a pretty dark place. Every day, someone finds out they have terminal cancer or loses a loved one. Both of those situations could be considered 100 times worse than a torn ACL, not vice versa.
But Rose’s somewhat skewed perspective aside, what’s telling here is that Rose was obviously moved by this injury in a way that nothing else has ever moved him. For perhaps the first time ever, he had to face down his own mortality. That’s never an easy thing to do. It makes me wonder how the injury will affect his outlook going forward. Will Rose now hear that ticking clock in the back of his brain? Every professional athlete is on borrowed time. It’s a painful lesson that Rose has learned younger than most.
The big upside of this video is it reinforces what Rose said in an earlier interview, that he is working on core strength and flexibility in ways that he never did before, and Dr. Brian Cole states that his belief is that Rose can not only regain his athleticism but potentially get to “125%” of where he was.
During a recent interview on AM-740′s “The Game” in Orlando, Van Gundy had the following to say:
“I think the interesting one coming up in the future is going to be Derrick Rose. I think Derrick Rose is a great, great representative of our league, and he’s a great player. And he’s got good players around him, very good players around him, but if (the Bulls) can’t get another star there for him is he eventually going to look around and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to work this out on my own and I’ve got to find somehow to get somewhere else so that I will have a chance to play with another star.’
“The league has changed. It used to be the stars wanted to sort of have their own team, they certainly wanted good players around them, but now everything’s changed. I think it started with the Celtics, bringing (Kevin) Garnett, (Paul) Pierce and (Ray) Allen together and everybody saw that and decided, ‘Look, this is the only way we’re going to win.’
“I think sometimes the players get sort of chastised for that, but if you’re a LeBron James and you’re looking at (the situation) you might want to win it in Cleveland, you might want to lead your own franchise, same with Dwight Howard, but you’re looking around.
“Chris Paul I think went through the same thing. You’re looking around and you see Boston and you’re saying, ‘I’m not going to be able to do this alone. I got to find a way, somehow, where I can get with a couple of other true stars. Not just good players, but true stars.’
“And so then LeBron goes to Miami and Chris Paul takes off and goes to the Clippers, which isn’t going to be enough for him, I don’t think. And so if you’re Dwight, you’re looking around and saying, ‘I got to get somewhere where there’s more people somehow.’ Either they’ve got to come here, which if you don’t have a way to do that then you’ve got to go somewhere else.”
They are solid points. But even though Rose has often expressed an ardent “I’m a Bull for life” attitude, he’s still young, and hasn’t had to deal with major hardship and heartbreak on the court.
Make that hadn’t had to.
Rose recently revealed that tearing his ACL was “the closest thing to death, the closest to death I’ve got to right there.”
The former MVP also received a harsh reminder this off-season that basketball is a business when Bulls management dismantled the valued Bench Mob (C.J. Watson, John Lucas III, Kyle Korver, Omer Asik, Ronnie Brewer) and replaced them with Kirk Hinrich and several other low-cost alternatives (Marco Bellineli, Nate Robinson, Nazr Mohammed, Vladimir Radmanovic).
And look for the Bulls to find some way to get rid of Rip Hamilton during the season to avoid the luxury tax.
If the front office doesn’t acquire another star or stars to play alongside Rose, will he — like LeBron, Nash, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard, et al. — demand a trade or start planning a free agent escape?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But it sure provides some incentive for the Bulls to make some major personnel moves in the coming seasons.
Oh glorious YouTube. It has provided Derrick Rose — in an interview with Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago — with a forum for discussing various topics, like his rehab, the exodus of the Bench Mob, his shoes, and so on.
To me, this was one of the most telling quotes from the whole video:
“I’m actually learning how to work parts of my body that I’ve never used before. Naturally, I’m just gifted. My balance wasn’t that good. I remember coming in my rookie year and the trainers and everybody on staff were like, ‘How do you play the way you play and you can’t even balance on one foot for that long? How do you move that way?’ Or not being flexible with the way that I play. One of the tightest guys muscle-wise, just super-tight; they never saw that and me playing the way that I play, it’s just weird. But it’s the beginning and I’m not looking back.”
If Rose is now correcting his balance and flexibility issues — and there’s every indication that he is — it’s possible that this injury could have a long-term benefit of making his body stronger and sounder.