Derrick Rose had been very high on the idea of signing Tracy McGrady earlier this week, back when that seemed like a good idea. You can’t blame Rose. It seems like a good idea to a lot of people at a particular moment in time. This particular moment in time is actually “before you’ve seen him actually play basketball in person past 2008.”
But now that it looks certain that McGrady wont’ be joining Chicago, Rose has cooled, telling the Chicago Sun Times:
''No, not really,’' Rose said after conducting a basketball camp at Joy of the Game in Deerfield. ''Like I said before anything, I’m cool with the team I have right now. I think we have good youth on the team. We should be all right.”
So for the record, we went from enthusiastic to “I don’t care” in a workout. Kids these days. So fickle about injury-prone players with questionable work ethic who can’t actually help their teams.
An interesting side note in the story is that Rose seems pretty broken up about Tom Thibodeau’s decision to remove Pete Myers as an assistant coach, though Myers will remain in the organization in some capacity:
''It hurts a little bit, but he should be somewhere around,’' Rose said. ''Pete is a guy, if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know where I’d be in this league. He’s always there and brings a lot to the organization.’'
These kinds of changes are pretty rote, and a part of a new coach taking over. But as positive as Rose has been towards his long-term future with Chicago, it’s important to note things like this. In an age marked by the abject abandonment of star players’ teams , we’re on the lookout for any cracks in the foundation. This isn’t even really a crack. More like just some dirt on the building.