Hoiberg: Rose may not be ready for Bulls' opener
CHICAGO — Derrick Rose is “most likely” out for the rest of the preseason, according to Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg, and his availability for the Oct. 27 regular season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers is in doubt as he continues to recover from a fractured left orbital.
“They still want him to be a little bit careful with the swelling and making sure his vision is back to where it’s supposed to be, back to where it was before he got hit,” Hoiberg said. “Before they want him to get anything going on with his blood pressure spiking is kind of how I understand it. So he’s probably at least a week away from that happening to where he’s able to get out and work up a sweat, and then hopefully it’s full go from there where we can get him back in some contact drills. Get him back out there running our offense and hopefully get him ready to play. So I think it’s still yet to be determined if we’re going to have him for the opener, but the good new is he’s progressing, he’s getting better, his vision’s getting better and hopefully we’ll get him back here soon.”
Rose initially suffered the injury on September 29 in the team’s first practice and had surgery the following day. He was expected to be out for two weeks before returning to basketball activities, but that timetable has been adjusted because of the swelling around the eye. Hoiberg said that Rose has been unable to be fitted for the mask because of the ongoing swelling. The first year head coach also acknowledged that there is a chance the Bulls decide to hold Rose out for the first week of the season, a stretch that includes three games in four nights.
“That will be in consideration, sure,” Hoiberg said. “We got to make sure — he hasn’t really done anything and that will be a good two or three weeks where he has total inactivity, so just to throw him back out there going 100 percent with your speed and everything, you just don’t want to take any risks, any chances, where it could be a lingering issue. It’s a long season. 82 games and hopefully playoffs, you want to have Derrick there for the majority of that. So again, we will take a cautious approach with it, but if he’s ready, he feels good and our trainers and doctors feel good, then we’ll throw him out there.”
Hoiberg knows that it is good for Rose to be around his teammates again. He added that while Rose isn’t able to run yet, he was able to put up a couple free throws.
“I think for him it’s great to be out of the house and be back apart of things,” Hoiberg said. “That’s very important for Derrick and for our guys to see him out there as well. Going through offense and for him to be there watching that and getting ready to play again. So I do think it’s good for Derrick and his teammates.”
In other injury related news, Hoiberg is hopeful that Taj Gibson (ankle surgery) will make his preseason debut Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons. Joakim Noah is also expected to play after missing the last two games because of knee stiffness.
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