Chicago Bulls Media Day In Review: Derrick Rose’s Knee, Luol Deng’s Contract and more

If you’re a Bulls fan, and this picture doesn’t make you irrationally happy, then there’s something wrong with you. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

The Chicago Bulls held their 2013 Media Day yesterday, officially starting the clock on the season and leaving us just a week until Derrick Rose makes his return to an NBA court in the Bulls first preseason game. We gave you some things we expected to happen, but here’s what really did.

Derrick Rose is and always will be the center of attention.

We called this in our primer, but it was so blindingly obvious that I don’t think I can really take credit for it. It’s like writing “The sun will rise tomorrow,” and then expecting people to be impressed with your skills as a prognosticator. But yeah, people talked about him and stuff.

Tom Thibodeau gave the quote of the day when speaking about the backlash Rose received for not returning, saying, “The people who criticize him, they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”

Here are three separate articles written about Rose yesterday, one by Sean Highkin of USA Today, one by Steve Aschburner of NBA.com and one by KC Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. All are good, but all essentially just confirm that Rose is back.

I do, however, want to bring your attention to one of the final paragraphs from Aschburner’s piece:

"In a sense, Rose is in a no-lose situation: If he returns like his old self, people will argue that his decision to wait through the summer – and his annual tune-ups in Los Angeles – was the right strategy. If he shows rust or has off-nights – as most who return from his particular injury do – folks can say, “See, how could he have come back in the playoffs?”"

I thought that was interesting, if for no other reason than because I’d never thought of it that way before. I do worry just a bit that people might say that he should’ve come back last season if he struggles to start this one in terms of being less rusty, but whatever. It’s just nice to have him back.

Luol Deng’s contract is expiring and he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Shockingly, Deng doesn’t seem at all interested in discussing his impending free agency, but that didn’t stop anyone from writing about it. Sean Highkin, KC Johnson and Aggrey Sam of CSN Chicago all penned articles about Deng’s professionalism and how Thibs would prefer he stick around.

Again, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. Anyone who really thought Deng would make a fuss about his contract doesn’t know Luol Deng.

Tony Snell gained quite a bit of weight.

Apparently, Tony Snell has gained 18 pounds since being drafted in June, which — aside from being rather unlikely, physiologically speaking — checks the box on our Media Day Bingo card for “[insert player] has gained x pounds of muscle.”

Also, let me now say I’m incredibly disappointed in myself for not thinking of Media Day Bingo earlier and actually making a real card. Alas.

Official Training Camp Roster is official.

In addition to the 12 guys you already knew about — Rose, Deng, Jimmy Butler, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, Kirk Hinrich, Mike Dunleavy Jr., Taj Gibson, Nazr Mohammed, Marquis Teague, Tony Snell and Erik Murphy — the Bulls have added six guys on training camp deals to bring the full roster to 18. Kalin Lucas, Mike James, Dahntay Jones, Patrick Christopher, Dexter Pittman and DJ White all will be given a chance to make the team.

Pittman and White seem the most likely to claim a roster spot, as the Bulls have said all summer they’re looking for another big man. Jones and James — aside from sounding kind of like a law firm, or maybe a pair of Old West cowboys — both are established veterans, though, and James has some familiarity with Thibs’ system, so it wouldn’t be totally shocking to have one or both of them around. We’ll see.

One name notably absent from that list is Malcolm Thomas, which makes me very, very sad. Oh well. We’ll always have this terrible, terrible photoshop of Captain Malcolm Thomas, right?