Derrick Rose hasn't put injuries behind him, yet. (USATSI)
DENVER -- Derrick Rose's latest return lasted just 1.5 games, just 33 minutes across a back-to-back in Utah and Denver.
The Chicago Bulls star has become must-watch, but not for his athletic assaults on the rim or stunning ability to take over the game that made him an MVP three years ago. (Seriously, it's been that long; time flies except it also feels like Rose has been out a decade.) His every move, limp, wince, brick, make and comment is watched over closely, as the entire world holds its breath in fear that he'll fall, as he did in what was supposed to be a comeback season last year.
And so it was Tuesday night in Denver, where after a rough first half, coach Tom Thibodeau spoke with his star at halftime, and recognizing that the Bulls were in a tough spot (they haven't won in Denver since 2006, and before that not since 1998), told Rose he wanted to sit him down for the second half. The Bulls quietly announced Rose would not return with "hamstring tightness" and despite Jimmy Butler's ascension as a legitimate star, the Bulls lost to the Nuggets again.
After a tough game in which his short-handed squad, which was without Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson, fought to make it a game late, the line of questions for Thibs were all about Rose. Again. Not about adjustments or pace, or what lost them the game that night. There were a few questions about Butler ("He's a star," Thibodeau said) but in whole, roughly four out of five questions were about Rose.
So it goes with a team built around a superstar who's being scrutinized closely after last year's debacle which compounded the year-long debacle before that, a team whose hopes hinge on Rose just being able to stay on the floor, let alone reach the awesome level of impact he had in 2011.
“It was really nothing that happened other than I didn't want to take any chances,” Thibodeau said. “The way the game was going, the way we were going, I just wanted to go a different way. He didn't re-injure it. I just didn't want to take a chance.”
Rose had missed four games due to a hamstring injury before returning on Monday vs. Utah. Then, despite all the concerns and caution the Bulls have shown with Rose and Pau Gasol who missed time with a minor injury as well, both started the game in Denver on the brutal back to back.
Rose didn't look right from the get-go, with Ty Lawson picking his pocket and going coast-to-coast for an easy layup. He never looked like the star that Chicago needs him to be in April. And part of the caution the Bulls are showing is in pursuit of that. That's the dominant argument Wednesday as two very polarizing sides develop about Rose. One side says, as Joakim Noah put it, "people need to chill out," that it's OK for Rose to miss time, that they're being cautious and that's good.
But there is starting to be a question of what it's going to take for Rose to be able to provide quality minutes every night, the way he has to in the playoffs. There are individual plays, nights where he looks like both the lightning and hammer he was at his peak. But too often those are followed by either disappointing evaporations, or missing games entirely.
There's no way to know who's right, whether concern over the Bulls' future as an Eastern Conference powerhouse is warranted, or whether everything's going to be fine and dandy, that there's no reason Rose can't get past his injuries ... other than the fact that he hasn't yet. The hamstring he's dealing with isn't related to the traumatic knee injuries he suffered in 2012 and 2013. For some, that's reason to sit back, relax, and have faith in Rose. For others, it's reason for concern, for honest evaluation that the Bulls are again spinning their wheels with a taxing regular season playing ridiculous minutes towards a playoff run in which they will be short on firepower again.
Each player is different, every team is different, but there are patterns that arise with players, with career arcs, and I can't help but relate this Bulls team to another team of great promise that was eventually forgotten and fell due to injuries. Everyone throws Greg Oden or Brandon Roy comparisons to Rose, but those aren't accurate. But when you look at this Bulls team and you compare them to the late-2000's Rockets ... some alarming similarities emerge.
The Rockets had what at the time looked like a superstar stable. Tracy McGrady, after his MVP-caliber years in Orlando, joined the team along with Yao Ming, and the combination of the two's superb athleticism and skillset made them a force to reckon with in the West year after year. But McGrady began to suffer breakdowns physically after the heavy toll he played earlier in his career. He played 78 games in Houston that first season in 2005, and played 71 in 2007, 66 in 2008. But after that first year, he started dealing with injuries that would continually keep him out for longer than expected. He was never the same. Yao Ming on the other hand would suffer with foot injuries that held him back after some of the best seasons of any big man in that decade.
The Rockets never were able to fulfill their promise, despite an MVP-caliber wing, a legit big man, great defense, and the work of a tremendous coach in Jeff Van Gundy. Sound familiar?
There are questions to be asked about how the Bulls are handling it. Why is Pau Gasol at his age playing 39 minutes in Utah in his first game back then playing in the back to back in Denver? Why is Rose playing in back to backs at all? Why don't the Bulls simply do what the Spurs do, and say a player is out in an email a good day in advance of the game, and if his status upgrades, upgrade him? (No coach will mind, they all plan for any player who is even a "maybe" to play anyway.)
Beyond all of this is the fact that none of this is Rose's fault. He's not skipping games with minor injuries, he's trying to avoid being hurt for months at a time instead of weeks. He's suffering and hurting with the pain of the injuries and the frustration of not being able to play. His teammates have his back. There's no reason to blame Derrick Rose for any of this. It's just unfortunate.
But something being unfortunate doesn't make it any less true. And right now, there's concern about the durability of Rose and whether, after three full years of being unable to stay on the floor with injuries (remember that before the ACL tear in 2012, he missed much of that season with a variety of ailments), he can be the guy Chicago needs him to be, the guy they built a championship run around. We can evaluate and analyze the Bulls' championship odds without putting a gravestone over Rose's career. He's already overcome so much to make it this far. It doesn't make him weak for suffering injuries, and it doesn't make us monsters or panicking over-reaction-izers to ask the questions. There's a lot on the line for this Bulls team.
Rose isn't doomed, and he's not absolutely, certainly "going to be fine." But he has become a question mark, for his team, for the fans, for the league, and for the legacy of what his career will be defined by. Here's hoping he breaks away from the history of players who were never the same again after injuries beset them, and instead stands as a testament to the triumph of willpower and work ethic over physical setbacks.
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LeBron James, Cavaliers have kind of game they need to replicate blowing out Wizards
LeBron James was in attack mode from the opening tip — he got to the free throw line eight times in the first quarter on his way to 12 points and 5 assists in the first 12 minutes. He set a tone and the rest of the Cavaliers got in line by playing defense and the Wizards wilted and turned the ball over seven times in the first quarter.
Cleveland went on a 15-2 run and was up 31-18 after one quarter. That was pretty much the ballgame.
The Cavs cruised 113-87 win behind a big game from James — 29 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. It was one of the best games the Cavaliers have played this season, it got them a little revenge from five days ago by the Wizards. The win also brings the Cavaliers up to .500 at 7-7.
The Wizards were without Nene and they are not the same defensive team without him. And they really could have used him against the Cleveland bigs — Kevin Love dropped 21 points on the game and Anderson Varejao was part of the hot first half for the Cavaliers as he started 5-of-5 from the floor.
If you are a Cavaliers fan here is what you should like best out of this game — they played really good defense.
They held the Cavaliers to 94.9 points per 100 possessions and they got good defensive possessions from Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and Dion Waiters. John Wall shredded the Cavs to the tune of 28 points, Irving said he wanted to guard him and in the end Wall had six points on just six shots. Wall can take over a game and the Cavaliers didn’t let him.
If the Cavs can defend like that on a regular basis they will be a lot more, well, like the Cavaliers we expect. This is the kind of the effort they need to replicate.
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