Chicago’s hometown hero might not be donning the Black and Red much longer.
ESPN NBA Insider Brian Windhorst joined ESPN Radio’s “Russillo & Kanell” program Wednesday and insinuated that the Chicago Bulls could be growing tired of former MVP Derrick Rose.
“Here’s how I feel about Derrick Rose: The breakup with the Bulls has begun,” Windhorst began. “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 …”
Rose was asked about his impending 2017 free agency at Chicago’s media day in September and admitted that he had his eye on the expected salary cap increase — like the rest of the league.
“You talk about ‘X’ amount of dollars, it raised everybody’s eyebrows,” Rose said, via FOX Sports. “There’s nothing wrong with being over-prepared.”
Only one team, the Portland Trail Blazers, currently could absorb Rose’s $16.4 million cap hit, and they already have a young star point guard in Damian Lillard. And while there certainly are plenty of teams that probably would love to take a flyer on a 27-year-old former MVP with less than two years left on his contract (the New York Knicks come to mind), the Bulls probably wouldn’t like the low price tag that should come with the guy who’s played essentially half a season over the past three.
In other words, we don’t know when, or if, anything will happen. But the scribbles on the wall read something along the lines of “Jimmy Butler’s Bulls.” It’s only a matter of time.
Thumbnail photo via Sam Sharpe/USA TODAY Sports Images
