Derrick Rose Owners See Red

I’m not sure if I feel compelled to write about Derrick Rose more because he’s Derrick Rose or more because I can hear Jimmy. That’s Jimmy Butler – he of the 20 free throw attempts and 18 makes – the guy playing lockdown defense, big minutes and hitting 50 percent of his shots. He bet on himself in free agency and everything is turning up, um, roses for him.

Swinging on the other side of Miley Cyrus’ wrecking ball of a season are Rose’s continuous false starts. He left last night’s game with the same hamstring injury and it’s hard to keep up with all of his ailments and game-time decisions. Owners are probably getting another of the latter soon after Thibodeau said his decision to remove Rose was “precautionary.”

What’s strange about the Rose situation is that nobody is ever on the same page – not management, not the player, and most certainly not Tom Thibodeau. By many reports Rose is trying to be cautious, perhaps overly cautious, and Thibodeau let some frustration slip on Monday talking to Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago.

"Oh, I don't know. Jesus. He's got to get out there and play," Thibodeau said. "I thought he did a lot of good things. You could see he's not real comfortable with the ball yet, but that will come. When Derrick strings some games together, he's going to take off. He's got to go. That's the bottom line. He's got to go."

Even for Thibodeau, who is known for playing guys through injury, this doesn’t seem like it’s coming from an overly aggressive coach that can’t see the big picture. After all, Rose’s injuries have appeared career-threatening at times and at least until Butler exploded on the scene, most have pegged Rose to be the key to the Bulls’ playoff run.

He is genuinely frustrated with something that Rose is doing and that’s probably where the crux of Rose’s comeback lies. If Rose isn’t comfortable pushing through something he needs to overcome, then it’s a mental hurdle that could last any amount of time. If it’s the coach wanting something he can’t have, Rose is bound to push too hard and find himself where he has been the whole time.

The middle ground is what owners want, but it’s possible that the middle ground doesn’t exist.

In the meantime the Butler is more Batman than Alfred and it remains to be seen if he’ll get demoted to Robin whenever Rose gets back.

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THE BIG NUMBERS

BUSTED

INJURIES

Rudy Gay (Achilles) and Darren Collison (quad) were both ruled out for last night’s game and the Kings still won in New Orleans, and you can check one of my various podcasts (here, here and here) for in-depth talk on this year’s surprise team.

Joakim Noah was diagnosed with a left knee effusion and the Chicago Sun Times wrote in their tweet, ‘A quick medical update on Noah, and why you should be concerned’ before saying what it was. That doesn’t seem so day-to-day, and especially when you consider he hasn’t looked right this year. Suddenly the decision to add Nikola Mirotic (four points, 1-of-5 FGs, seven boards, two assists, two steals, one block) has a bit more upside. The minutes are still going to be rocky since he’s essentially fourth in line, but the three guys in front of him aren’t exactly beacons of health.

Kirk Hinrich (chest) played last night and Aaron Brooks (16 points, 22 minutes) played Tom Thibodeau’s preferred role in somewhat limited minutes off the bench. Both are a lot more trouble than they’re worth if you’re relying on them but if you want to stash Brooks it could make some sense.

Omri Casspi will have at least tonight’s game to back up last night’s season-high 22 points (9-of-14 FGs) with four rebounds and one steal as Gay is hoping to be back by Friday. Collison’s injury doesn’t seem as serious but with the Rockets dinged up perhaps the Kings decide to play it safe. They really want to keep the gas pedal pushed down so my sense is that if he can play he’ll play, so don’t get too comfortable with Ramon Sessions and his 15 points, three boards, six assists and two steals from last night.

Brandon Jennings did not play due to his thumb injury and D.J. Augustin was lukewarm in a start, scoring 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting with one three, two boards, seven assists, one steal and five turnovers. The local writers agreed that the needle didn’t come close to moving and Jennings is still the clear lead dog whenever he returns.

John Henson was helped off the court after spraining his left foot and did not return. He’s averaging just 12.2 mpg and who knows the ball boy might absorb most of those minutes.

David Lee (hamstring) continues to watch the calendar turn pages and his team do the same behind the solid play of Draymond Green. Who’d have thunk it. Lee is now targeting December 2-4 but it’s a loose timeline until he steps foot on the court. As long as he’s deployed responsibly unlike prior seasons, he makes a lethal Warriors team even more so. The fan in me that died when I took this job just reached into my soul and tried to bring me back.

Nene (foot) did not play and Kris Humphries started in his place, scoring seven points on 2-of-7 shooting with 10 rebounds and a 3-of-6 mark from the foul line. If he saw more minutes he could be onto something and he has a history of mid-round upside under optimal conditions, so he’s still a speculative add with Nene not having a timetable.

Mo Williams (illness) did not practice yesterday and normally that wouldn’t be a huge deal but his injury situation has been a mess for a while now. Keep an eye on things and Zach LaVine would get another crack as a speculative spot play if Williams can’t go.

For more injury news check out our injury page.

WELCOME BACK

Andrew Bogut returned from his orbital bruise and scored eight points with 10 rebounds, five assists, one steal and two blocks. It won’t happen, but you could almost make a case for icing Bogut all season until a month or two before the playoffs start. With him, the Warriors have a shot at a title. Without him, they might as well start planning for next season. It’s that simple.

Omer Asik (back) returned and got DeMarcus Cousins as a reward for all that hard work, finishing with three points, seven boards and one steal in 26 minutes. He looked pretty terrible for the most part, but Cousins can do that to folks.

Otto Porter (hamstring) returned to action and scored six points with three boards in 20 minutes. He’ll be better than that on most nights but the minutes are just about right.

PICKUPS

O.J. Mayo stepped into the starting lineup last night and scored 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting with three treys, two boards, three assists and one steal in 28 minutes. The slippery rotation and off-nights have been a damper to his value and my enthusiasm recommending him as a hold or stash, but this development undoubtedly calls for another add in my book. Yes, you might end up ditching him in a week or two, but we’re hunting upside on the wire and he provides that based on past results. He just has to force Jason Kidd’s hand here.

This is speculative pickup territory but Danilo Gallinari has looked much better with a few weeks under his belt. He scored 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting with five rebounds, three assists, one block and a 5-of-5 mark from the line in 29 minutes off the bench in last night’s win over the Bulls. He still runs in one of the most clogged rotations in the league, but he handled the ball a lot down the stretch and the Rooster appears to be somewhat back.

THE MIDDLE

Jabari Parker scored 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting with nine rebounds, one steal and one block in 27 minutes last night. I’ve covered his downsides in detail but it’s worth noting that he has played pretty well over the past week or so. He’s raising his floor to respectable levels, even if they’re short of being a must-own player, but he’s a much better stash now than he was five games ago.

Giannis Antetokounmpo hit just 1-of-13 shots last night to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals in his 31 minutes. The shooting line doesn’t even bother me, it’s the lack of three or blocks in this line and the fact that he’s deficient somewhere every night – something we’ve talked about in this space all year long. He’s worth owning in 12-team leagues for his low-end replacement level value and certainly the arrow is necessarily pointing up. I’m still not ready to call him a must-hold player just yet.

DROPS

I try to keep the drop section from being too obvious, but with just five games it was kind of hard to avoid this. Marreese Speights and Garrett Temple get the nod here and in the case of Temple the move should have already been made in most leagues.