Second-team All-NBA center Marc Gasol seems destined to miss significant time with injury, but the primary concern around the league seems to be for Derrick Rose, whose worst-case scenario appears more dire than Gasol’s. It’s not another torn ACL as the Bulls feared, but the torn medial meniscus in the former MVP’s knee could have seismic consequences for Rose and his team. Here’s the latest:
- The specter of another lost season for Rose gives Tom Thibodeau less reason to remain as coach of the Bulls and put up with behind-the-scenes discord in Chicago, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Rose is among the players who support Thibodeau in his alleged feud with GM Gar Forman and others in Bulls management, according to Wojnarowski, who adds that the point guard and Luol Deng also harbor some hard feelings for the front office. Thibodeau is a fan of Deng’s, but the team’s braintrust places a higher priority on keeping Jimmy Butler around long-term, Woj says. For the record, Bulls vice president of basketball ops John Paxson denied any turmoil between the coach and management shortly after Wojnarowski wrote about it last month.
- If Rose has the meniscus repaired, he faces about six months of recovery, and while he could opt to remove the meniscus and come back in a matter of days, that could compromise his athleticism for the rest of his career, notes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Whichever choice he makes, Berger figures the Bulls will release a firm timetable rather than let questions linger about when he’ll return, as they did last season.
- Rose may never again be an MVP-caliber player, but the 25-year-old still has plenty left, opines Ian Thomsen of SI.com. A long absence for Rose would probably knock the Bulls out of title contention, but it wouldn’t keep them from the playoffs, Thomsen adds.