After an uninspiring win against the Utah Jazz Monday night, Tom Thibodeau had some surprising things to say about the performance and mindset of his star point guard Derrick Rose. The unwillingness of Rose to play when there is any inclination of an injury has apparently frustrated Coach Tom Thibodeau.
King James Gospel
Derrick Rose has been sidelined with a hamstring strain that he suffered against the Toronto Raptors almost two weeks ago and has missed 4 games as a result of the injury. Rose made his comeback from his most recent setback Monday night against the Utah Jazz and scored 18 points on 5-10 shooting. He made a critical and one at the very end of the game to put the Bull’s in the lead for good, but besides that much of his production was from the perimeter. Rose continues to play complacently in his return from the litany of minor injuries that he has sustained this season.
Nov 24, 2014; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau reacts during the first half against the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports
Last night against the Denver Nuggets, Derrick Rose was unable to stay healthy yet again. Another game, another injury for Derrick Rose. He left the game in the second quarter after re-aggravating his hamstring during a scramble for a loose ball rebound. Rose played a grand total of 10 minutes and scored 2 points and dished out three assists in his limited playing time. Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago revealed that the injury is minor, only hamstring tightness. According to Friedell, Coach Thibodeau suggested that Rose sit for the rest of the contest after injuring his hamstring in the second quarter. Regardless of the extent of the injury, Rose’s inability to finish a game unscathed by injury is frustrating to everybody emotionally invested in the Bulls franchise. It is nice to hear that the incident tonight was minor involving Rose’s hamstring, but this news doesn’t sweeten the fact that the reeling Bulls lost another game against an opponent that they should have beat.
Plain and simple, the Bulls just aren’t a very good team right now. They have lost 4 of the last 6 games and barely escaped Utah on Monday night after having a significant lead in the second half.
Nov 25, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) drives to the basket against Denver Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo (10) during the second half at Pepsi Center. The Nuggets won 114-109. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
Rose’s inability to stay healthy for any extended period of time has apparently been secretly upsetting his coach Tom Thibodeau. The boiling point came yesterday after the Bull’s win against Utah, in which Thibodeau surprisingly stated his displeasure with Rose’s injury problems this season and his apparent reluctance to play unless completely healthy. Take a gander at Thibodeau’s comments following the game Monday when asked by reporters whether he thought Derrick Rose looked fatigued in his return.
"“Oh, I don’t know. Jesus. He’s got to get out there and play,” Thibodeau said. “I thought he did a lot of good things. You could see he’s not real comfortable with the ball yet, but that will come. When Derrick strings some games together, he’s going to take off. He’s got to go. That’s the bottom line. He’s got to go.”"
These comments were extremely unexpected because Thibodeau has vehemently defended Rose through all of his injury woes and questionable decisions. Thibodeau doing a complete 180 flip-flop on his stance regarding Rose is out of character for an even-keeled coach who usually provides stock answers to the media and defends the decisions of his players.
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Just a few weeks ago, Tom Thibodeau came to the defense of his star point guard after Derrick Rose committed a ridiculous PR mistake that made him look like a buffoon in from of the entire nation. We all remember Derrick Rose’s comments about when he decides not to play games now he is thinking about the far future so he won’t be sore during the graduation of his son and business meetings. The strangest part about these comments was that Rose went off on a tangent with them; the initial question by reporters didn’t even regard his ongoing litany of injuries that has plagued the career of the former MVP. Anyway, here are the comments.
"“I’m thinking about long term,” Rose said. “I’m thinking about after I’m done with basketball. Having graduations to go to, having meetings to go to, I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past. [I’m] just learning and being smart.”"
Coach Thibodeau, and several of Rose’s teammates for that matter, were quick to come to the defense of Rose. Thibodeau told the media that he doesn’t question Rose’s desire to play and that the injury woes are part of the recovery process coming back from two major knee surgeries.
"“I know Derrick, and I know he wants to play. You have to take a look at what he’s just gone through. It’s been two and a half long years, two major injuries. So, there’s a lot going on there.”"
Fast forward two weeks and the coach has completely reverted away from his initial defense of Rose. Tom Thibodeau is a wise man, and his recent comments about how Rose needs to step up and play are spot on. The team is struggling right now, and part of this stems from the lack of continuity since so many players have been in and out of the line-up. Derrick Rose looks like a shadow of his old self in many of the games that he has played this season because of his lack of game-time play and his unwillingness to aggressively drive towards the basket like times of old. The only way that these ailments can be righted is by Rose toughening out some games and playing through the pain of the injuries that he is sustaining. He is only going to be’ comfortable with the ball’ (a.k.a. not commit turnovers) and will only regain his ‘wind’ and not be fatigued if he is consistently out there fighting on the court with his teammates. Tom Thiboeau was spot on with his comments, and maybe being called out by his coach will serve as a wake-up call for the Bull’s point guard who seems to have lost focus of his purpose for being on the Bull’s team. Nobody cares about the long meetings and graduations that he will have to sit through in the future, all that maters is the here and now.
Nov 25, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Nuggets guard Ty Lawson (3) prepares to shoot against Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) during the first half at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
Derrick Rose is becoming less defensible by the day. However, I’m still giving him the benefit of the doubt. He has been the unluckiest professional athlete on the face of the earth in terms of staying healthy. Naturally, when you get injured this much, doubts start to creep into your mind and you begin to defer from playing every single night. He is only human; he has the same inner-demons that impact every great athlete. Rose’s problem is he has to learn how to deal with them in order to be successful and in order for his team to be successful. On a brighter note, I still believe that Rose has the ability to transcend these mental demons and he will do this eventually this season. As Thibodeau said in the recent interview, he just needs to string together a few starts where he finishes unscathed and the confidence and pain tolerance will inevitably grow.
Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago tweeted an interesting tidbit of information regarding Rose in a recent tweet on his twitter account.
Rose has not started and finished two consecutive games yet this season.
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) November 26, 2014
Rose needs to get over the mental barrier of finishing a game without getting injured. The injuries, although unlucky, have been piling up to the dismay of Bull’s fans everywhere. The only way that Rose regains his confidence, elevates his game to his pre-injury level and beats the stigma of playing through injury is by stringing together multiple productive, incident free starts. It is going to be hard, transcending mental barriers always are, but he will be able to do it.
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In another bi-polar Coach Thibodeau whim, the head coach of the Bull’s chose to take Rose out of the game for good after the point guard cited hamstring soreness in his leg after a second quarter play. Thibodeau has flip flopped his attitude twice this year already regarding Derrick Rose. First he vehemently defended every decision that Rose made. On Monday he said that Rose needs to be playing more, but the very next day he takes Rose out of the game because of hamstring soreness. These are strange days here in Chicago and Derrick Rose and Tom Thibodeau are becoming difficult to figure out.