Bulls will not limit Derrick Rose this season

Chicago Bulls vice president John Paxson , via ESPN, said gaurd Derrick Rose has looked “fearless” so far in the preseason, and the team will not limit his games or minutes as he returns from a knee injury.

According to Paxson, per ESPN:

"We’ve turned the page. Unless he would come up with something that would concern us, but we have no concerns right now. You look at his preseason, and I think [coach] Tom [Thibodeau] has done a really nice job of kind of amping up his minutes. He’s played six games. In reality he is only averaging about 27 minutes a game in this preseason, and he has looked terrific. Right now there is no reason to think that there will be any restrictions, and we’re not anticipating that at all.Look, Derrick wants to play. He’s been out for an entire year. He’s showing no signs that would make us think along those lines. Tom has a good gauge of these things, and we’re all confident that we’re beyond that. He’s got to push himself. Let’s face it, he spent a lot of time and effort into rehabbing this knee. … He’s not coming to us to put any limitations on him. As an organization we don’t want him playing 48 minutes a night — that’s not going to happen, of course — but in that 35- to 38-minute range, that’s what he was going to do anyway, and I don’t see that changing."

Rose missed all of last season after a knee surgery in May 2012. This preseason, the first time playing for over a year, Rose as looked good, averaging 19.7 points for the Bulls, and 27.3 points in the past three games. The Bulls are 6-0 this preseason.

“He has been fearless,” said Paxson. “The way he has attacked the basket, his ability preinjury to change speed in real tight spaces like he showed [against the Thunder on Wednesday] with some of those crossovers and sidesteps past defenders, those are things that he had prior to the injury, and he has obviously shown that and more here in the preseason. The fact that he feels the confidence in this knee that you can just see out there on the floor, that’s a great sign for him.

“He’s such a terrific young man and he cares so much about the game and what he means to the game, to his teammates, to see him play with this kind of confidence is great, and we’re all really happy for him. That’s the best part about it, to see him feeling good about himself.”