The Chicago Bulls are off to a mediocre start to the season as they are 3-2 with both losses coming to teams they are supposed to be better than. The Bulls are loaded with talent and have a mostly healthy Derrick Rose available to them yet things haven't started off as well as they would have hoped. It is being reported now that the Bulls might be growing tired of Rose and that a breakup between the two sides could be coming, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Windhorst appeared on ESPN Radio's "Russillo & Kanell" show on Wednesday and basically said that the Bulls are ready to move in a different direction.
"Here's how I feel about Derrick Rose, the breakup with the Bulls has begun, I don't know how long it's going to last, I don't know when it's going to be complete, but you can sort of see it. The team and the franchise have moved on, to a little bit of a certain extent. It's not Derrick Rose's fault that his knee got hurt, OK? But his attitude has been not terrific. The comments that he made about his contract in 2017, you want to talk about being tone deaf," said Windhorst.
While Windhorst has said the breakup has begun it is unlikely to happen in the near future as Rose is signed through 2017 at more than $20 million per year and it is unlikely that any team would want to take on that contract at this point. Rose made comments this offseason that raised some eyebrows when he said he is already thinking about his 2017 free agency and it may be at that point that he and the Bulls split up.
Since winning the 2011 NBA MVP award Rose has not been able to stay on the court as he has dealt with a number of different knee issues and when he has been on the court he hasn't been nearly as effective. The fact that he hasn't had a great attitude and his work ethic has come into question only adds to the idea that he may not be long for Chicago. Rose is off to a bad start to this season as well even though his legs are presumably healthy (he does have a fractured orbital bone that he says impacts his vision) as he is averaging 10.2 points and 5.4 assists per game but he is shooting just 34 percent from the field and his PER is an extremely low 6.7.
Chicago gave a maximum contract to Jimmy Butler this offseason and it appears that he is now their franchise player that they will move forward with. Rose is still likely to be a Bull for the next two seasons but unless something changes within that time period his time playing in his hometown might be coming to an end.
