Should Derrick Rose Sit the Entire 2013 Season?

It’s a question that will unfortunately not get old anytime soon and one that remains painfully relevant. We asked ourselves endlessly during he season if Rose should sit until he’s healthy and we sit here in May with the Bulls eliminated from the playoffs asking ourselves still should Derrick Rose sit until he is healthy.

But unlike the debate back in February, the proposition by some is that Rose should sit the entire 2013 NBA season.

Obviously suggesting something like your MVP and face of the franchise sitting for an entire season is going to get immediate negative feedback. But it’s not an awful idea.

The main thing that comes to mind when it’s suggested that Rose sit the season is can Bulls fans stomach a lost (or potentially lost) season. We’re now entering the fifth season of Derrick Rose’s career and if he misses the entirety of his sixth many fear we will be back where we are right now — doubting the status of Rose.

Obviously the circumstances will be different but the questions won’t be. We still won’t know how Rose can perform with his repaired ACL and we still will be wondering if we will ever get the same guy back.

But what does rushing Rose back accomplish? We al saw the injury and we are all feeling the mammoth consequences of not having Rose healthy. Such a dose of reality would have been enough to wake Mia Wallace back up in Pulp Fiction, so it’s effect on Bulls fans should be pretty similar.

Look, we all want Rose back as soon as we can get him, but we tried on that shoe this season and it ended up tearing an ACL of the team’s best player. We all saw what happened when Rose’s body was battered and beaten without time to heal itself. So let’s not have history repeat itself.

From here we have one of two options: Rose either sits a very long time or sits the entire 2013 season.

It all has to do with where the Bulls are next February — or does it? If Chicago is in serious contention yet again they will have gotten there without Rose which begs the question yet again, should he play or sit since the Bulls are managing without him? But the flip side of that is Rose should come back and get right back into the Han Solo pilot seat and lead the Bulls like he used to.

The Bulls being down and out around February 2013 may end up being the best thing possible since it may make the Rose decision easier. If the Bulls have little or no shot at the playoffs then playing Rose would be agonizingly stupid. This ties into the theory that Chicago should Indianapolis Colt the 2013 season and tank for a high lottery pick.

Should the Bulls tank they can fill some holes in the draft. Carlos Boozer may be done after next season and Luol Deng is entering the final two years of his deal at the start of this season. The Bulls may also not have their shooting guard situation figured out still and having a high lottery pick would no doubt aide the search.

Hey, it worked for the Spurs didn’t it?

This of course would mean the Bulls would have to bear the scares of tanking and own that as part of their illustrious and luxurious dynasty. Some of the more hard lined critics of the Bulls would begin to try and chip away at he Bulls legacy at that point which isn’t a huge deal but it’s not where we thought we’d be this time last season.

Derrick Rose’s ACL is going to complicate a lot of things moving forward for Chicago. We know he won’t be back until the middle of next season and a wash would mean a wasted year on the contracts of Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer which with the money they are getting is an awful notion.

Then again you could consider this past season as a waste of a year and nothing personifies that more than the fact we are sitting here still asking ourselves the same question we were arguing over three months ago.

Should Derrick Rose sit or should he be able to play before his body is ready to let him?