There’s a weird tension building between Derrick Rose and the Bulls front office, and it’s obviously (at least partially) related to his injury history when compared to his contract.
With Rose being injured and unavailable for the majority of the last three seasons (playing just 49 games in total), the least he could be doing in the eyes of the franchise would be to help lure free agents to sign in Chicago in order to bolster the roster.
But Rose has been historically reluctant to engage in that activity, and that was apparently a sore spot in the Carmelo Anthony meetings this summer -- especially when considering that Rose was much more aggressive in getting involved with trying to recruit free agent Pau Gasol.
From Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times:Multiple sources in the organization say tension was mounting because Rose allowed his own camp to take shots at the franchise. Gradually, there seemed to be less communication between the Bulls and their biggest star. And tensions hit a peak when Rose, who has a five-year, $94.8 million contract, seemed to blatantly resist helping build the roster in a new NBA where stars increasingly double as recruiters. ...
Looking back, it’s clear Rose wasn’t all that interested in teaming with Anthony, who chose to return to the New York Knicks. Rose was much more aggressive in the Bulls’ pursuit of free agent Pau Gasol, not only asking for the veteran’s phone number, but giving a hard sell to the big man on joining the Bulls.
So why Gasol and not Anthony?
“That’s someone that I knew I could play with,’’ Rose said of Gasol. “You think about Pau, him now being in the East, what he’ll be able to achieve with the way we play, the way we dump the ball in the post a lot. It could be great.’’
There’s more in that piece about the particulars of Rose’s involvement (or lack thereof) with Anthony’s free agent visit to Chicago, and the tensions that may exist between Rose’s “camp” and the front office.
But once Rose returns to action, all of this will be in the rearview mirror. Neither Rose nor the Bulls are going to be in the best of spirits while he’s sidelined due to injury, and that’s the only time when this off-court stuff will creep into the headlines and onto the surface.
Rose is there to help the Bulls win games, pure and simple. All indications are that he’s ready to do that once next season begins, and as soon as that happens again, the dissection of what he did or did not do during the offseason will immediately cease to exist.