http://www.suntimes.com/sports/12192882-419/derrick-rose-out-for-the-postseason-with-torn-acl.html Just when Derrick Rose was on the brink of alleviating fears that he would be unable to fully recover from a nagging ankle injury, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, making an impressive playoff victory seem more like a loss and all but dashing the Bulls’ title hopes. Rose landed awkwardly after a jump stop and fell to the floor with 80 seconds left in the Bulls’ 103-91 victory over the Philadelpha 76ers in Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series at the United Center. The team later announced that Rose had torn his ACL and will miss the rest of the postseason. It’s the sixth injury Rose has suffered this season. “It’s the saddest win,” Kyle Korver said. “But we have to pick ourselves up. We’ve played a lot of games without him. Maybe it was just getting us ready for this.” Rose sat out the regular-season finale and has played in only five games in the last six weeks because of a nagging right ankle injury. After shaking off a slow start in which he missed six of his first seven shots, he looked anything but rusty in finishing with 23 points, nine assists and nine rebounds in 37:13. Sixers coach Doug Collins waved for Bulls’ trainers after Rose went down. Rose was writhing in pain and clutching his left knee before being helped off the court and into the locker room by trainer Fred Tedeschi and assistant trainer Jeff Tanaka. Rose was taken to Rush University Medical Center, where an MRI exam revealed the ACL tear. He was told his recovery could take eight months, according to a source familiar with the situation, meaning he might not be able to return until January.
Thonus http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-b...se-has-a-torn-acl-how-do-you-like-your-panic/ So at a minimum, Derrick Rose will miss the rest of this season and almost certainly the start of next season. A groin injury no longer seems so bad. The worst thing about the injury is there's no telling just how much it will affect the Bulls. At a minimum, they've lost any realistic shot at the title this year. The downside is much, much worse For an athlete like Derrick Rose who relies on his explosiveness, to tear an ACL can be a career changer. Typically the recovery time for an ACL is nine months to a year, and many people never come back. Fortunately, the recovery from ACL surgery has come a long way in the past decade. It used to be that when an elite athlete tore an ACL they rarely came back the same. The injury certainly isn't the death sentence it once was. Also, the recovery from any injury is always easiest when you're under 26, so Derrick stands a very good chance at completely recovering. The bad news is that the Bulls chances at the title this year are effectively over, and their odds for next season are going to be significantly reduced as well as even if Rose comes back towards the end of the season, he likely won't have regained his explosiveness by the playoffs. There's also some chance that this is a complete career changer, and Rose never comes back to play at the same level he played at in the past. In the worst case scenario, this injury could effectively end Rose's run as a top five player in the NBA.
http://www.blogabull.com/2012/4/28/...on-immediate-pain-long-term-fallout?ref=yahoo The actual diagnosis of a torn ACL is completely devastating. My heart sunk when I first read it. That's not just series-alterting, it's seasons-altering. It can change an entire career, and a franchise. Given the recuperation time for Rose's injury, they may have lost next season as well. Given how his athleticism drives his success (Rose is, ultimately, a small player), the Bulls may have lost several. You can be positive and look to see how modern medicine has changed the comeback chances for this injury, but it's also fair to question just how much this ruins everything. Not just for Rose, but the status of a team built to play around him, and one becoming a very expensive one to maintain. And it can affect the status of a coach who is rightfully credited for the growth of Rose as a player, but who also incurs some culpability for these injuries. It's completely legitimate to question Tom Thibodeau for having Rose in that game at that time. The Bulls were up 20 with 4:30 to go. If that's too early, a more logical time was up 16 with 3 to go and timeout. Like Alex said in his recap, the Sixers took out Elton Brand around that time (and later Andre Iguodala). Though their lead was closing due to some sloppy play, the Bulls offense was essentially running out the clock at that point. And the Sixers make 12 point leads seem like 40. After the game Thibodeau defended himself by basically saying that these things can happen. And that's true. But such questions aren't about this one, completely devastating, injury. It's a season-long philosophy of taking unnecessary risks in games well in hand. If you're of the mindset that Thibs can't receive some blame for this, then you're basically saying you wouldn't fault a coach for playing any player as much as possible, as 'injuries happen'.
I keep reading anything I can get my hands on, hoping for something that says it isn't as bad as all this. I do think he can come back and be an outstanding player. I do have two concerns. First, that he may never regain close to his MVP form. If he is only as good as Ben Gordon at his best, it's not enough. And that's not saying he's bad at all. Second, that he or the team rushes him into action too soon. The kid is going to want to play. The team has $100M reasons to want him to play. The first article suggests 8 months of rehab, but I read elsewhere that a year is more realistic. If you ask me, I'd sit him out ALL of next season and live with that fact all the way around (team and player). In a few years, we can look back and say it was Jay Williams all over again - top draft pick cut down in his prime. Or we can look back and say it was Vince Carter all over again - injury robbed him of his airness but he was still an extremely good player who had a lengthy and productive career.
Meh, it might not be either. Monta Ellis tore his ACL in high school (admittedly that's a very young age), and we know he has blazing speed. It could be career altering for Rose but it might not be.
Thonus is convincing. And the worse part is that I think Thonus' argument could even be easier. The argument is not that an ACL injury can happen at any time and any unnecessary minutes equal unnecessary risk; it's that Rose's preexisting injuries compounded each other, becoming inclemently more serious over time, until they resulted in a career-threatening injury. Let's go back to that Hornets game on Feb 6, where Derrick Rose came back from an injury sustained a couple days earlier. He hobbled around the court for absolutel no reason. Allowing Rose to play in that game -- and exacerbating his injuries in an absolutely meaningless game the Bulls were going to win regardless -- was the tipping point that sent Derrick Rose into a downward spiral.
Hard to blame Thibs on this. If the medical staff clears a guy to play, he's cleared to play. They have been very cautious down the stretch bringing him back. If that knee was waiting to go, it was going to go. The guy has not been playing right all year. These injuries compound and once your body is moving in a modified way to compensate for injury, you open yourself up to more injury. I don't think Thibs choice to play Rose a little more or not was the difference here. He seemed to be playing more conservative. When your knee goes like that with no contact, it can go at any time. If anything, the argument should be that the organization should not have cleared Derrick to play if he was too hurt to play. This could alter the whole franchise for multiple seasons. When you see a little guy play the way Derrick plays in the NBA, you have to question his shelf life. Its sad to see this. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be that surprised though. Very, very sad.
I can't see Rose playing next season At least he shouldn't Best thing for him is to take 15 months off and rebuild himself properly and come back for 2013 / 2014 season I will come back as to what this means for the team in a few moments But first how did this happen ? Well....the entire organization needs to take the blame on this . The medical staff, Thibodeau , and then Paxson . To me it is clear he just wasn't ready and the amount of time he had spent off his legs with his groin and his ankle injury contributing to his lack of " wind" or game conditioning is one thing. If you want to isolate that issue and think the answer is just game time and endurance wind , rhythm , and getting re- acclimated , then that is nowhere near good enough. At least when your are talking about Derrick Rose and the way he plays Beyond Thibodeau playing him when he shouldn't have , the root of this problem is on the medical staff and the training staff in making sure, and insisting his physical rehabilitation required a certain measure of leg strength in his calves, quadriceps and hamstring relative to a person of Derrick Rose's athleticism and style. By this I mean full " sports science " account of how he plays - the angles he turns at - at what velocity , at what force , resultant tensions and stresses on joints and then finally , what kind of strength / muscle development to support is necessary. This , in my opinion , is where there possibly is gross negligence that sits on the shoulders of the Bulls Medical Staff and the Bulls Training Staff. It was apparent to me , in several plays leading up to that injury that he was pulling up slowly and lamely in his legs on a few plays over the last half of the last quarter. To my eye it seemed more than an endurance issue and more like a strength / power issue to me , which means , inadequate muscle strength in his legs ( fatigue leading to this issue at the end of the game ) And this is where the responsibility and judgement of Tom Thibodeau needs to be called into question , and where , today , he has failed badly. The occurrence of the injury itself wasn't an unusually aggressive angle nor was there an unusual degree of speed on the turn and plant - certainly not for someone of Derrick Rose's unique abilities. The angle turn and plant was probably " low to mid grade" for someone of his abilities . He just didn't have the strength and/or muscle endurance in his quads and calves to support his knee on the planting of his left leg on the turn. So where to from here , if , there is no next season for Derrick Rose ? 1. CJ Watson has his option picked up 2. Kirk Hinrich becomes a priority in free agency 3. Kyle Korver comes back 4. Jimmy Butler needs to play a lot more minutes at the swing wing spots and Ronnie Brewer is let go. In particular , Butler needs to be developed and Thibodeau needs to not make the same mistake with Luol Deng next season - and probably needs to lighten his load in the remainder of this post season . More Brewer and Butler to protect Luol's wrist now. 5. Omer Asik won't be resigned and will try and fill his minutes with a Reggie Evans type , which means , Taj Gibson will need to step up and become a lot more prominent next season . Taj needs to be instructed to put another 12 to 15 pounds of muscle on his frame and to get working more on his post game and his 15ft J over the summer , and , the Coaching staff needs to develop him as a secondary scorer who has go to moves upfront behind Boozer. 6. The draft now becomes about trying to come out with a lengthy defensive type of big like a Fab Melo and perhaps also trying to come out of the draft with a pure shooter like John Jenkins who is ultimately a lower cost option than Kyle Korver after next season if we have to trim costs further and Derrick doesn't quite make it back. Noah Boozer Deng Hamilton Watson bench Melo Gibson Korver Butler Hinrich Evans Jenkins Next season then becomes about development of young assets in Watson, Butler and to a lesser degree Melo and Jenkins wrapped around the strong veteran presence already on this team that gets bolstered further with the familiarity and pick and roll game of Kirk Hinrich ( that complements Boozer ) and the strong interior defense of Reggie Evans who fits the identity of this team. Correspondingly it also becomes about lightening the load on Noah and Deng in partiucular next season and preserving their mileage for the long haul better - which means we will lean on Boozer, Hamilton and Watson moreso in heavy minutes. Don't misunderstand ...Jo and Lu should still be playing 32 to 33 minutes a game if healthy next season - but nothing past that if you don't want to burn them out for no good reason The upside of all of this is that Watson and Boozer may well work themselves into significant positive value as trade assets. We have a long unknown road ahead but we will all be watching to see how this Bulls organization responds.
Players can regain complete explosiveness after an ACL tear (happens a lot in the NFL. If you want some hope look at Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles). The biggest problem with ACL surgery is the player has to regain trust in his legs which can take awhile. It would be smart not to rush Rose back next year and have him come along slowly (Maybe even keeping him out tell right before the playoffs). This off time will also let all those nagging injuries he has had heal completely, you might have an MVP Rose by the All Star break next year. If it takes a long time to regain trust exploding to the rim you guys could tank the season and get a top 3 pick and pull a Spurs. Seeing how the Bulls played without Rose already this year, that seems like a long shot. I'd expect the Bulls to make the playoffs even if Rose doesn't show up tell after All Star Break next year.
Perhaps Thibs is guilty due to some level of complicity, but I more or less agree with you here. The gametime decision itself is not to blame. Rose's knee just buckled and gave out. It wasn't an unusual play or a freak accident. It was a sign that his body didn't have the strength/complimentary muscle development to support his style of play and the damage from his previous ailments were still lingering in his body....and it snapped. Instinctively I'd like to blame management for this, but the story doesn't really fit the characters involved. GarPax have historically been very conservative with managing players injuries. The medical staff, at least on paper, seems very well accomplished and there's no reason to think they wouldn't have the necessary medical expertise to handle DRose's injuries. Perhaps the organization as a whole was so caught up in championship fever that they decided to play the odds with Derrick's health and they got snake bit. Perhaps Derrick's body is just not well suited to handle his style of play over the long run. It's occurred to me that the root of Derrick's injuries go beyond this season. That's even scarier.
In the end, they are paying the guy tens of millions of dollars to play basketball and wow the fans / accomplish great things. There is a huge incentive to play the guy. Derrick of course wants to play as well. There was a window here this season to win a NBA championship. His style of play comes into play as well. I don't think blame is the right thing to be seeking out here right away. If he does not come back the same player, its a crushing blow. Then its back to praying for ping pong balls again. There are big incentives all around for Derrick to play and have a great playoff run. Very hard to balance that with the health of the player. The guy was healthy enough to almost get a triple double last night.
this ridiculous schedule was the culprit. the season should have been cancelled but greed may have irrevocably damaged the careers of several players this yr.
The Bulls have been extremely good or lucky about the health of their players, IMO. However, I do remember Ben Gordon playing against the Celtics in round one with one leg completely wrapped up, and Marcus Fizer was clearly forced to play too soon after his knee injury and before he was fully recovered. They're playing Deng through an injury that has seriously degraded his game, requires surgery, and somehow he's going to play international ball this summer. I genuinely like Thibs as our coach and hope he coaches here until he's too old to go on. Not having a contract extension after being coach of the year his first two seasons in a row (he hasn't won it this year, but he will/should) is like making him play for his contract. A fair question is how his decision process is affected by his contract status. Consider that he has nothing to lose by going all out, playing injured players when he shouldn't, etc., to win; to win a contract with some other team. Or consider that management may tell him they want to see certain players played and for how many minutes, and he's got no leverage to play the guys he wants. The only real insights I've had into the inner workings of the coach/management relationship are his contract status, the altercation between Pax and Vinnie, and a confrontation between coach and management over Noah's PT last season when he was going through injury issues. As I write this, I am furious that Rose played over 37 minutes last night. Philly is a team we could beat with him playing ZERO. I cannot fathom how they didn't play him 12 or 24 minutes and then wait and see how he felt after a night's rest. In fact, I am scratching my head over why Carlos Boozer was brought back into the game late in Q4. The Bulls ran up a big lead against Philly with a lineup of Taj, Asik, Brewer, Watson, and Korver and that was against their starters. Those are the guys who should have mopped up the game.
This is also a great point. I hope Stern and the owners are happy. They helped create a dangerous situation in order to break even after their lockout. It would have been safer for everyone involved and would have resulted in higher quality basketball this season if the season was shorter.
i dont think its coincidence that shumpert tore his acl on the same day. like rose, shumpert was dealing with nagging injuries all year. and that crook billy hunter deserves some of the blame here as well.
The only thing I can figure is the org was trying to get Rose's game legs sturdily under him but instead his game leg gave weakly out under him. If by any chance the Bulls go forward and prevail without the reigning MVP it will be a sports story of the modern era. This is a talented, deep team with a great coach but let's just say I'm not phoning Vegas to place a bet. **sigh**
No doubt he needed to get his wind back, but it didn't have to be done all in one game. It's one thing to clear him to play, it's another to have him out there for 37+ minutes his first game back, and yet another to have him push it by trying to play at his peak level. As you say, TBF, the team is talented and deep. I am still not seeing the point in playing Rose, Deng, Boozer, etc., with 4:00 left and a 20 point lead, or 1:00 left and a 12 point lead.
First off, I'm big-time crestfallen. I mean, this is completely heart-breaking. Rose is a warrior and I know he's busted up because he feels he has let his teammates and fans down. Just so damn sad. Rose is gone and for this season he might as well be dead. Personally, I'm not going to concern myself with Rose's recovery right now. As a fan, I still have a team in the playoffs and they have a good chance of advancing to the next round. I want them to focus on doing this. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that the Bulls getting to the ECF finals has gone from being an expectation to a helluva accomplishment. I can't do anything about Rose. I want the Bulls to get to the ECF. I have no expectations beyond that...even an optimist has his limits. Shit...just shit.
