Fred Hoiberg Appears Ready To Clear Derrick Rose For Season Opener
By Paulo Acoba
Looks like Hoiberg is ready to let Derrick Rose start in season opener.
It’s like déjà vu all over again as there are a couple of variables still in the air that might see Derrick Rose not playing to his full potential in the Chicago Bulls season opener.
According to Chicago Tribune’s Bulls correspondent K.C. Johnson earlier Friday via twitter, it looks like Bulls’ head coach Hoiberg will let Derrick Rose start and continue to play on the condition that Rose is looks good during the team’s final preseason tune-ups.
Hoiberg said if Rose reacts favorably to game action, he would be cleared to play in season opener.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) October 23, 2015
During late September, Rose suffered an injury to the face that resulted in a left orbital fracture. Since then, it’s been touch and go in regards to whether Rose would make it to the season opener altogether.
Just yesterday, K.C. Johnson reported that Rose still was seeing double despite the fact that according to Rose, the swelling in his eye has gone down considerably and was still much improved, enough to practice hard.
Rose sounds like he'd play Friday even if he has double vision.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) October 22, 2015
We imagine that Rose is raring to go and has been pestering Hoiberg to try his best to get him into the season opener against the Cavaliers. Rose has played a full season’s schedule just twice during his NBA career and has not done so since the 2010-11 season.
The way we see it, it’s equal parts “getting the rust off” of a long summer of training and wanting a fresh start with their sights aimed at redemption against LeBron crushing their championship run last year. For now, we’ll have to tune in later today during Chicago’s last preseason game.