The Chicago Bulls saw the emergence of Jimmy Butler last season and was hoping with the help of new coach Fred Hoiberg, a relatively healthy Derrick Rose and a solid supporting cast, they could make some noise in a conference east dominated by LeBron and the Cavs.
Well it didn’t go well from the start with Derrick Rose suffering an orbital fracture the first couple days of training camp, he was suffering from double vision for a good part of the early season and then had some nagging injuries that caused him to miss multiple games.
Derrick Rose has been displaying some solid performances nothing like his MVP season but he has been playing very well for a month and you can see that his confidence is growing every game.
I just feel like I’m back. I’m just out there playing. Whatever I can do to get my team a victory, that’s what I’m going to try to do. When I’m out there they’re giving me midrange [shots], they’re giving me drives to the lane. Just mixing up my game and trying to play a solid game while I’m out there.
Bulls’ fans are hoping he keeps this level of play when Jimmy Butler comes back but some of the best Rose’s games have been during Butler’s absence. Butler demands a lot of touches and while he’s not here, Rose benefits from those touches and more importantly he knows he’s the man on the court and doesn’t have to figure out where to fit in because the Bulls for the time being are his team again.
It might be what he needed mentally to finally mesh with Jimmy Butler, we will have to wait and see how they both perform once the shooting guard returns from injury because the Bulls’ fans can only be encouraged with what they see from their former MVP.