Several NBA teams are crunching their numbers and gauging their rosters to see what trade they can make at the deadline. When Waddle & Silvy asked Bulls Executive Vice President John Paxson about any deals in the works for his team, he suggest trading Derrick Rose from the bench and street clothes, to back on the court.
“We’re up against what’s called a hard cap,” Paxson said Friday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN Chicago 1000. “In order for us to do something we’re not in a position to take on any real salary so we’re kind of limited in what we can do. I think our team has grown — it’s not always pretty, let’s face it; we’ve had some ugly games this year and that’s kind of who we are right now. But we do grind it out and play hard.
“You’re always on the lookout to do certain things, but I think our move hopefully will be bringing Derrick back into the fold.”
Paxson made it clear Rose would determine his return, but he does expect his star guard to come back soon.
“We don’t have the defined plan yet because Derrick is still progressing,” Paxson said. “The way he feels and what his body tells him is going to dictate how we do things. But I can tell you one thing — and this is for certain — he’s going to have to have a high volume of practices and contact and where he’s comfortable on the floor doing things that he used to do naturally. And that takes some time and he’s just starting that process now.
“We can’t sit here today and say he’s going to be back in three weeks or after the All-Star break. Those things are a hope, but his body is going to tell us and then when we get to that point that’s when we’re going to have to sit down and determine, after we talk to our doctors and everything, then determine our gameplan of minutes and how best to bring him back.”
“We don’t want to bring him back and then have a setback because he wasn’t totally ready,” Paxson said. “We want this to be a progression where he comes back, he starts to play and every week he gets better and feels better.”
The return of Rose will definitely be the best deadline move any team could hope for.