Bulls to use Rose in preseason
Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose will play his regular minutes with the starters in preseason games this fall, coach Tom Thibodeau told ESPNChicago.com.
Thibodeau will watch Rose's knee to see how it responds coming back from ACL surgery that kept him out of the 2012-13 season, but he plans to use the former NBA Most Valuable Player in regular intervals and possibly increase his time on the floor.
"He'll play like he normally would in the preseason. Usually, we start off with eight-minute segments for the starters, first and third period, and we'll build from there," Thibodeau told ESPN while in Las Vegas to watch summer league action.
"We'll see what he can handle. I think there's going to be some rust initially, but I fully expect him to get back to (being) the player we all know that he is."
Rose said recently that the knee is to 100 percent and he will be ready for the season.
"We'll see once we get to training camp, and we're going to have an opportunity to get some work done in the fall, but we have to keep in mind he's been out an extended amount of time," Thibodeau said. "So the preseason -- and we look at training camp as the entire month, not just a week -- we'll move him along accordingly."
While Rose was sidelined and during his yearlong rehab, he worked extensively on his shooting.
"We'll see what he can handle. I think there's going to be some rust initially, but I fully expect him to get back to the player we all know that he is," Thibodeau said in the interview.
