Injury problems run rampant in the NBA nowadays and it’s causing some concern league wide. There’s a bunch of teams that have felt the injury bug bite them and some haven’t recovered. There is one team that managed to stay afloat and stay up top of their conference, the Chicago Bulls.
Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler all seemingly went down at the same time for the team. Coach Tom Thibodeau is no stranger to replacing injured players in his starting lineup but now it seems like he’s facing a minutes restriction from the powers above. It will remain to be seen how it works out for the Bulls and Coach Tibs but I doubt it will continue to go negatively for them.
There is some good news though for the Bulls and Thibodeau, these injured players might be coming back sooner than expected.
Following from Vincent Goodwill of CSN Chicago
Tom Thibodeau’s slight, slight grin belied the way he likely felt inside when he saw Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler fully participate in Tuesday’s practice at the Advocate Center for the first time in quite a while.
Even Derrick Rose (right knee), entering week three of the 4-6 week timetable laid out by Bulls doctors and management, lightly participated, going through non-contact activities.
“It’s the next phase of his rehab,” said Thibodeau, while adding Rose could be slightly ahead of the rehab schedule. “He still has to obviously strengthen the knee. But it was good. He did a lot of non-contact stuff. It’s a good step for him.
Chicago has fallen to fourth in the Eastern Conference, which in all actuality, might be exactly where they want to be to try to avoid the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, as Cavs coach David Blatt has sworn that his team needs to be in that position. The sooner the Bulls get their top players back, the better chance they have of securing home-court advantage for at least the first round. If Chicago hopes to finally make major noise in the playoffs, it’ll require a completely healthy roster, which won’t come immediately but needs to happen before the end of the season.
