When Derrick Rose tore the medial meniscus in his right knee in November 2013, longtime followers of the NBA set to gnashing their collective teeth, and not just because Rose would be sure to miss, in effect, his second full season of basketball in two years. Rather, those who were familiar with meniscus tears were worried not only about the possibility of further surgery beyond the initial operation, but also about an athlete’s propensity for future tears. Even though Rose’s 2012 anterior cruciate ligament tear was technically the more serious injury, the fallout of a meniscus tear can be far more lasting.
Nearly 15 months to the day of that initial tear, we have the dreaded follow-up. Rose has torn his right meniscus again, and though all initial reports suggest he's not dealing with the same severe degree of tear he suffered in 2013, Rose could miss the rest of the 2014-15 season. The Bulls camp — including coach Tom Thibodeau, who spoke with the media on Wednesday — is stressing that this isn’t as significant a tear, but these sorts of remarks may have less to do with the actual injury and more to do with the approach Chicago takes in its operation procedure.
Rose could either have the meniscus removed, a path he smartly declined to take in 2013, or he could once again have it repaired. The latter would lead to a recovery time that would likely bleed into the 2015-16 season, but it would also help limit future nagging injuries, as the meniscus is put in place to help alleviate the painful stress athletic activity could put on the knee.
That option, depending on the nature of the tear, might not be available. Even if it is available, the Bulls, using the same surgeon who repaired Rose’s ACL in 2012 and meniscus in 2013, could suggest that Rose dig in to take that dreaded “snip” procedure. That decision would lead to a quicker recovery time, even if all is lost in 2014-15, but it would also leave Rose far more prone to the sort of pain and “minor procedures” that have plagued post-snip players like Dwyane Wade as they’ve grown older.
Of course, if, after two tears, the meniscus is literally beyond repair, Rose would have no choice in the matter. The doctors would have to remove what's left of it.
The Bulls won’t know Rose’s diagnosis until after he undergoes surgery. He had the surgery two days after his tear in 2013, but his team was also on the road in Portland when the tear was diagnosed. With Rose and the Bulls currently at their home base in Chicago, the team should know the plan moving forward sooner rather than later.
From K.C. Johnson at the Chicago Tribune:
An official timeline for Rose’s return won’t be known until Cole performs the surgery, but multiple sources said the belief is this tear isn’t as significant as the one Rose had in November 2013. One source said the expectation is that this procedure will be of the arthroscopic variety, suggesting a shorter rehabilitation period.
Two other sources said Rose was told after the initial surgery that a future tear was possible, if not likely, and that a second procedure typically involves “cutting” or “snipping” the damage. That generally involves a rehabilitation process of three to eight weeks.
For now, even if Rose is able to make a miraculous comeback to rejoin the Bulls later in the season, Chicago will have to push forward with a roster that was regarded as one of the deepest in the NBA entering 2014-15.
As was the case in 2012-13, Rose’s first injured season, longtime Chicago stalwart Kirk Hinrich will assume starting point-guard duties. Hinrich is rightfully considered to be the weak link in Chicago’s deep rotation. He is a favorite of the Bulls coaching staff because he calls a loud play and hustles, but he is a miserable shooter who also ruins endless amounts of Chicago possessions because of his unwillingness to make what could be construed as a daring pass. His defense is lacking, he remains a sub-par 3-point shooter, and he is currently working with a career-worst 7.2 Player Efficiency Rating. That is hard to do.
Journeyman backup point guard E’Twaun Moore also carries a single-digit PER, but he tends to blossom when given consistent minutes. As is usually the case in Rose’s absence, though, the real bulk of the duties will go to a diminutive, score-first point guard. In the grand tradition of Nate Robinson and D.J. Augustin, the 5-foot-11 Aaron Brooks will likely close most games for the Bulls moving forward.
The 2009-10 NBA Most Improved Player has endured some rough outings this season, including a 2-for-9 performance against the Milwaukee Bucks in Chicago’s last game with Rose, but by and large he has been a fantastic offensive force off the bench. Brooks scores nearly as many points per minute as Rose, and he's shooting a fantastic 43.2 percent from behind the 3-point arc this season. His defense is suspect due to his size, but even with that caveat, he might be an improvement over the version of Rose we last saw.
Derrick Rose was terrible defensively this season. He was continually caught out of position, he refused to box out either his man or the man he decided to weirdly switch over to when shots went in the air, and even the stylings of an aging Hinrich and a 5-foot-11 (if that) Brooks were an obvious upgrade to Rose on that end. It’s true that Derrick was the lead guard on Chicago’s first and second-place defensive showings in 2011 and 2012, but his interest level and execution scaled back significantly in what was supposed to be his first full season back in 2014-15.
Combine this mitigating factor with Rose’s high usage, poor shot selection and dip in free-throw attempts, and you wouldn’t be an attention-seeking contrarian in pointing out that the Bulls could effectively play better overall ball without Rose. Chicago didn’t need Rose to lead the team in 3-point attempts per game, and yet Rose shot 5.5 a contest while hitting just 28.7 percent from long range, killing any interest defenders had in not playing him for a drive. Hinrich has been awful this year and Brooks is no long-term solution, but in the here and now, this could work out for Chicago.
The Bulls never needed Rose to regain his MVP form in order to win a championship. They just needed him to be a pretty good basketball player — and it’s debatable if Rose, who shot 40 percent from the field this season, was a pretty good basketball player in 2014-15. Running the offense through an improving Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol will open up the passing lanes that were previously stagnant in Chicago’s stand-around offense. More shot attempts for All-Star Jimmy Butler, a healthy Mike Dunleavy Jr. (shooting better than 40 percent from long range) and possibly rookie Doug McDermott could be a good thing.
McDermott’s rookie year has been a wash so far, and it deserves scrutiny. Chicago denied McDermott had a knee injury early in the season even though he had begun wearing a knee brace for the first time in his basketball career. After clearly dragging his right leg around, McDermott underwent what was initially called “arthroscopic surgery.” It turned out that the rookie needed a meniscus tear attended to, and on Tuesday, the Tribune’s Johnson revealed this:
We don’t know the severity of McDermott’s meniscus tear, so it is possible that a “snip” procedure was the only available option. If it wasn’t, for the Bulls to make that sort of career-altering choice regarding a player who had not yet turned 23 years old is borderline shocking. It’s not as if McDermott rushed back and into the rotation, either; Thibodeau only plays him garbage-time minutes.
And, sometimes, not even then:
That was after Chicago’s last game, a blowout win over the Bucks. The Bulls don’t even know when Rose tore his meniscus a second time — it may not have even been in or exacerbated by the Milwaukee game — but the fact remains that the intractable Thibodeau plays certain injury-prone members of his set rotation too deep into games that have long been decided.
Chicago’s season isn’t decided. The team could genuinely improve on both ends in Rose’s absence, and there is always the possibility that Rose could not only return this season, but return as a different player. It’s clear he was hesitant and did not trust his body in 2014-15, and that could change after yet another setback.
With the fears of a second meniscus tear realized, Rose could understand that his time is short and decide to go for broke, driving relentlessly and getting to the rim as his fellow Chicagoan and meniscus-tear sufferer Wade has for years. Rose’s knees have already failed him, so what’s the point of handling them with kid gloves upon the Return 3.0?
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