Derrick Rose won't practice on Thursday as he recovers from a toe injury, and Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said the team will "be smart" with its plan for playing the reigning MVP. Rose missed his second straight game on Tuesday, a 118-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns, with what he describes as turf toe but Thibodeau calls "more of a sprain." "Basically it's day to day," Thibodeau said Wednesday on "Carmen, Jurko & Harry" on ESPN 1000. "We'll see how it goes. It's a little bit better today. He won't practice [Thursday], and he will get treatment. We'll see where we are after that." Rose, who missed back to back games for the first time in almost two full seasons, was wearing a walking boot as he sat on the bench in street clothes on Tuesday. On Monday Rose described the pain in his toe as a "six or seven" on a scale of 1-10. Rose gets some extra time with a rare two-day break on Wednesday and Thursday following a stretch of 12 games in 17 days this month. The Bulls return to the court against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. Read more: http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/7476552/tom-thibodeau-chicago-bulls-smart-derrick-rose
This is the cock-eyed optimist in me speaking, but maybe a little bit of time without Derrick is a good thing. We tend to rely on him too much anyways, and it might be easier to establish everyone's best role with him out of the picture for a little bit. I'd love to see Rip, Deng, Boozer and Noah develop an offensive identity together that maximizes their strengths.
Agreed100%. Come playoff time, if Rose gets shut down, the other guys will know better how to score on their own.
