For the first time this season, Derrick Rose is listed as being “day-to-day.” As he continues to make progress toward his eventual return to the basketball court, is this change in status reason for increased optimism?
Well, that depends on what you glean from the words of Tom Thibodeau – words that you’ve no doubt heard before – after the Bulls practiced Tuesday in San Antonio.
“There’s a lot of people that have to weigh in on it and obviously he knows his body. Everybody’s got to sign off on it. Whenever he’s ready, he’s ready. Nothing has changed for us,” Thibodeau told CSN Chicago. “It’s day-to-day. Whenever he’s ready, he’s ready. We just want him to continue to improve, focus on his rehab and then, when he’s ready to go, we’ll all know. Everyone has to remain patient.”
At this point, excitement rooted in patience -- spurred on by episodes of 'The Return' campaign and videos of D. Rose running, working out, practicing, taking jump shots and dunking the basketball -- has morphed into an almost numbness and relegation at the prospect of not seeing Rose wear his Bulls uniform at all this season.
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Chicago only has 22 games left before the playoffs begin, so there’s not much time for Rose to come back and get his playing legs under him, especially considering he’ll be under a strict minutes limit when he does suit up again.
So does "day-to-day" mean we could see D. Rose in an upcoming game? Who knows.
Of course, this is the same Tom Thibodeau who announced a month ago that D. Rose would be ready for full-contact practice “sometime this week” and it ended up being the next day. That’s not to say Derrick will suit up against the Spurs on Wednesday or on Friday at home against the Utah Jazz, but at this point, anything is possible.
All you can do is hope for the best and continue to expect to see Rose on the sidelines… for now, at least.
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