Derrick Rose has played 100 regular season games total in the last four NBA campaigns. That’s out of a possible 312 games. He’s had surgeries to both knees (an ACL and a meniscus), hamstring injuries, toe injuries, back injuries, and the list goes on and on. The number of minutes former coach Tom Thibodeau asked Rose to play (not to mention the rest of the team’s core) was one of the reasons he was forced out.
Which is why this comment from new coach Fred Hoiberg at Bulls media day raised some eyebrows (and sounded more like spin than reality). Courtesy PBT’s own Sean Highkin, who was at Bulls media day:
Rose is going to get nights off this season. Hoiberg would not have this job if he didn’t plan to reduce minutes and load on the core players, with the goals of having them stay healthy and be fresher for the playoffs. It’s not just Rose, Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol are going to get some breaks, and younger guys like Jimmy Butler are not going to get run into the ground.
I think this was more about Hoiberg saying “Rose looks like Rose again.” Which he had only in flashes last season, we’ll need to see more of it before I fully buy in. However, Rose is feeling confident, as noted by Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com.
Rose on expectations of 2011 Rose: "I know I’m great. I know I can hoop. A lot of people don’t know that."
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) September 28, 2015
On another note out of training camp, in the half court in particular look for the Bulls to try to play off the high IQ game of Pau Gasol.
Hoiberg plans on playing through Gasol a lot, either on the block/high post or pick and roll
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) September 28, 2015
That’s a good plan, although at 35 Hoiberg needs to make sure Gasol gets some rest, too.
