Derrick Rose underwent surgery recently following a meniscus tear and will miss four to six weeks. It's the third major knee surgery he's had in the past three years, but the silver lining is he will be back this season, likely for the first round of the playoffs.
How the Bulls can survive without Derrick Rose
While the Bulls are a worse team without Rose, they have the players to survive his absence just fine.
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Of course before reaching the postseason, the Bulls will have to navigate the changing Eastern Conference landscape without their second-leading scorer and top assist man.
Rose was having a good season by most standards, but his efficiency had suffered. He was averaging 5.5 three-point attempts a game despite shooting just 28.7 percent from behind the arc, the worst mark out of any player taking a comparable number of outside shots. His ability to get to the rim and finish when he was there was also suffering, as reflected by a below-average field-goal percentage from close range. He was recently doing a better job of getting to the free-throw line and upping his assists, but Rose simply wasn’t close to his MVP form this year.
The Bulls’ numbers with and without Rose are similar
His impact on the team’s performance reflects his good, but not great, season. The Bulls were just 0.8 points better with him on the court than off. Overall, he made them better in most aspects of the game but not overwhelmingly so. The loss would have been much more damaging if not for the fact that the players that will likely take his minutes have had as much of a positive effect on the team when they have been on the court as Rose.
| Offensive rating | Defensive rating | Net rating | Effective field goal percentage | |
| With Rose on the court | 105.7 | 101.7 | 4.0 | 49.2 |
| Without Rose on the court | 104.8 | 101.6 | 3.2 | 48.4 |
The team with Aaron Brooks on the court has been great on the offensive end, averaging almost four more points per 100 possessions than their average with him off the court. Brooks' outside shot has been reliable, as he's hitting a fantastic 42 percent from three on over three attempts a game. That ability to stretch the floor gives the Bulls' offense a dimension that the other point guards on the roster, Kirk Hinrich and Rose, just can't match. Brooks is not someone any team would want as a long-term starter, but he can fill in for the next few weeks without the team suffering a huge drop-off.
Tony Snell is coming into his own
With Kirk Hinrich surely spending more time at lead guard backing up Brooks, minutes will likely open up for sophomore wing Tony Snell. Until recently Snell hadn’t been good enough to earn serious playing time. In the last 10 games, however, he’s averaged 12.4 points and three rebounds per game on 58 percent from the field and a scorching 52 percent from three-point range. The Bulls have been a whopping 17.6 points better per 100 possessions when he’s been on the court as opposed to off during that period. That number, as well as his shooting efficiency, is sure to go down as his role expands, but he has been so great lately that even with a dip in his performance he would still be a net positive for the team.
The Latest Injury
Brooks and Snell had rough shooting nights in the Bulls' Friday night win against the Timberwolves but pitched in a combined nine rebounds and six assists and the team outscored Minnesota when they were on the court. Equally important to what they provide is the fact that their recent good play will prevent coach Tom Thibodeau from having to rely too heavily on Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich is still a decent defender who can get a unit into its sets but he's better served as a 20 minutes a game role player as this stage of his career instead of getting extended minutes with a lot of offensive responsibilities. In that small role, he can be called upon to check bigger point guards who can take advantage of Brook's size and play off the ball only when necessary, which would highlight his strengths and hide his weaknesses.
The bigs can pass
While the Bulls' shooting should improve with Brooks and Snell getting more minutes, neither of them nor Hinrich are the playmaker Rose is. Even if he wasn't always efficient while doing it, Rose carried a heavy burden as shot creator that the players who will get his minutes just can't match. Fortunately for Chicago, they have a good plan B: in his absence the team could run its offense through their bigs. Last season, Joakim Noah excelled as a passer, averaging 5.4 assists and the team has added another elite passing big man in Pau Gasol. The two can create offense for others and Gasol and Jimmy Butler can create for themselves.
The Bulls are a worse team for having lost Rose for the rest of the regular season and they have a tough road ahead of them, with one of the league's most demanding schedules in the horizon until the playoffs. They currently stand third in the East but only half a game ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers, so it wouldn't be surprising if they slip a spot in the standings. Yet there's a positive spin on Rose's injury and it's that it will afford other players a chance to earn minutes and could allow Thibodeau to experiment with new lineups that could help the team in the playoffs.
It’s never good when a player is out -- and it’s specially heartbreaking that it’s Rose, who has had terrible injury luck for the past few years -- but the Bulls should be fine in the short term and could be a better team once he returns for a playoff run.
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