Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose attended practice on Monday for the first time since his eye injury.
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The Chicago Bulls will open their regular season on October 28 when they play host to the visiting Lebron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers and it remains to be seen if Rose will get clearance to play on that day.
Rose was initially given a two-week timetable to return to basketball activities, which would be this Wednesday after his September 30 surgery.
Tony Snell has started every exhibition game, including Monday night’s against New Orleans, and Fred Hoiberg had no immediate plans to change that.
“He’s still got a little blurred vision in that eye”.
“Derrick’s in the building”, Hoiberg said.
In another interview, Hoiberg said he is still uncertain if Rose will wear a mask when he returns, a commonly used protective measure for players in such instances, but it’s a good bet to say he will, at least early on. “I think it’s very important once we get him back to show him and be able to run it first-hand to get the timing right. But he’s definitely making progress from what I saw [a week ago]”. Different guys learn different ways. It will help to get him out here running. Since Rose is an elite athlete, he should be able to get his conditioning back quickly. “It’s a lot of the same things we were doing, just adding on different wrinkles, different options”. From Derrick’s standpoint, the biggest thing is just getting out of the house. The pictures you see of Rose’s son all over his mother’s Instagram account are the absolute best.
Speaking of time off, it appears a broken face allowed Rose the opportunity to throw his son P.J. pretty much the coolest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-themed birthday party of all-time.
“He’s more comfortable with his shot”, Hoiberg said of Portis.
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Even with all the improvements, however, as well as a replacement needed for Mike Dunleavy (back surgery) in the starting lineup, Hoiberg continued to hint that McDermott might serve the team better as a scoring punch off the bench.
