Dennis Wierzbicki-USA Today Sports
On Monday night, the Chicago Bulls missed an opportunity to eliminate the Brooklyn Nets and advance forward to the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Bulls can’t dwell on their most recent postseason defeat because the tides now turn back to the Windy City as Chicago looks to take care of business at home and in six games.
With a 3-2 series lead, the Bulls are in control, looking to advance to the next round where the Miami Heat await the winner. Now of course for the most daunting question — if Chicago does advance, should they bring back Derrick Rose for the conference semifinal round?
Rose tore his ACL a season ago and has not played a minute while recovering here in 2012-13. While there isn’t much headway into a possible return it’s only natural to think that it could happen. In fact, Rose did win the MVP in 2011 — so why wouldn’t you want him back in the lineup? Everyone automatically thinks that if Rose returned to the lineup, he’d take Chicago to the next level and instantly make them a championship contender. On most occasions, that’d be the case, but this season has been different while he has recovered. Chicago can already be considered a championship contender, this is the playoff remember? In fact, the Bulls are one win away from going further in the playoffs than they did a year ago.
Sure, Rose could supply the boost that the Bulls need to potentially win a championship here in 2013, but what if he returned and Chicago still lost to the Heat? Would there be criticism? Probably. It’s not necessarily a win-win situation although that could be the easy assumption. This isn’t exactly a no-brain decision, whether Rose is fully healthy or not.
The Bulls have their own identity this season, one that has molded this group together through 87 games without Rose. If Rose came back, would that limit the minutes of Nate Robinson? Some might say, “yea, but who cares?” All Bulls’ fans should care if that was the case — Chicago isn’t leading their series with the Nets without Robinson and his production. And that’s just one example of the potential repercussions. This group has chemistry, plain and simple.
Chicago needs to focus on finishing off the Nets and moving forward to their series with the Heat, should they secure one more victory. Nobody has given the Bulls a chance to succeed the way that they have this year without Rose, so they have already gone above expectations. Who’s to say that they can’t continue that trend when (if) they square off with Miami?
Follow Paul Seaver on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS
