This is likely to be the story for the remainder of the season. Oh, sure. The Bulls could be hard-working and grindy enough to make the playoffs in an appalling Eastern Conference, but this season's hopes for any sort of deep playoff run were vanquished as soon as Derrick Rose—fresh off missing an entire season—went down a mere 10 games into this one.
The Bulls quickly announced Rose would be out for the season. No playoffs, no nothing. Year over. End of story. Commence talking about the possible draft pick even though management will have to publicly dismiss any discussion about possible benefits of tanking.
It seemed we would get through another painfully disappointing regular season, but things were considerably worsened when Rose talked about a possible return if the "situation is right" in his first public comments.
*SIGH*
Which means for the rest of the year, the media is going to be obligated to have headlines just like these ones. I'm casting my vote early: He won't be back for the playoffs and I'm not holding out any hope for the team even he does. Like many of us thought, this year appears destined to come down to Miami and Indiana in the East, with the rest of the field being a sideshow.
I really don't know what I'm going to write about for the rest of the year with this team. Luol Deng suitors? Possible draft picks?
The loss of Rose considerably damages the bigger picture goals of this organization, as the star player has now suffered injuries to his knees that are widely expected to alter his future playing ability. This year's draft class could have some potential for those fortunate enough to secure higher picks, but the Bulls will probably not be lucky enough to secure yet another No. 1 pick. With Thibodeau coaching, this team is going to still be better than enough teams in the East to secure a lower playoff spot—possibly (likely?) even with a losing record.
At this point, it's hard to have much of any interest in any Bulls broadcast. I don't think I've caught them on TV yet this year (we recently dropped the cable ... finally), and what I've heard on the radio has not been a lot of fun. Certainly nothing like, say, the other United Center tenants. Again, I'm not really counting on my interest changing this year and I'll get tired of the "possible Rose comeback" stories fairly quickly, so I'll be hoping for some other type of pretty big news to emerge in the next 61 games for me to really say that this year's Bulls team has much hope of capturing the attention I feel more inclined to show the other three Bs. Sorry.
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