Derrick Rose was hoping to have an injury-free off season and it seemed all was going according to plan until an unfortunate incident struck the former NBA MVP.
This time however it does not have anything with his knees. Rather, it had to something to do with a wayward elbow from his own teammate that resulted in an orbital fracture affecting his left eye during the team’s first official practice.
Rose had already gone surgery to address the unfortunate injury and the latest word around is that the Bulls star guard could be out for two weeks.
"He's still in great spirits, and again, it's not a structural injury," Hoiberg said via ESPN. "When he comes back ready to go he should be able to go right back into it 100 percent -- which, if you have something going on with one of your other body parts, it's going to be you gradually get back. You know, 50 percent load and then move all the way up from mid-restriction. I don't anticipate that in his case this will happen."
The injury of course comes as a shocker considering the injuries that have plagued the Most Valuable Player of the 2011 NBA season.
It remains to be seen if Rose will 100 percent ready by the time the season opens at the end of this month.
The Bulls already have to content with the fact that another player, Mike Dunleavy, will likely be sitting out the early portions of the season. Dunleavy underwent back surgery last Friday and while there is no actual timetable for his return, the safe estimate is that the 35-year-old outside sniper could be out between 8 to 10 weeks.
"I really don't have a time frame," Dunleavy says in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "I'm coming back when I feel good enough and the doctors have cleared me. Hopefully that will be this season."
With regards to Rose, the NBA All Star guard did make a surprise return in the 2014-15 NBA Playoffs and showed shades of his old self. He even passed up the USA Basketball camp held in Las Vegas recently to ensure that he would be entering the 2015-16 NBA season healthy, the first time it would have happened since knee problems started to hamper him in 2012.
The best bet is for first-year coach Fred Hoiberg and Bulls management not to rush Rose into playing if he is not yet 100 percent healthy. Doing so could see Rose sitting out large portions of the NBA season once more as in the past years.
With Rose and Dunleavy out, old hands like Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler may have to work double time and perhaps get some help from other players on the Bulls bench.
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