Derrick Rose Torn ACL, Chicago Bulls Maintain Threat

Bulls point guard Derrick Rose suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee during the Chicago 76ers game in which the Bulls won 103-91. The injury sustained by rose will cause him to miss this summer’s London Olympics.

With two minutes left in the game and a double-digit lead over the 76ers, Bulls’ coach Tom Thibodeau will likely face harsh criticism from those who saw it as unnecessary to continue playing core players such as Rose.

On the other hand, playing without Rose won’t necessarily be anything new for the Bulls, as the NBA team went 18-9 last season while he was out. They managed to outscore opponents by 8.2 per 100 possessions while Rose was benched, according to NBA.com.

With point guards C.J. Watson and his backup John Lucas III emerging as reliable backups for Rose, the Bulls are certainly a formidable team with or without their starting point guard. There is definitely a chance that Chicago will be playing a few months from now in the Eastern Conference finals.

When it comes to offense, there’s a chance that the Bulls will be ill equipped against top-level defenses as they scored 107.6 points per 100 possessions with Rose and 102.3 points without him. While the different might seem somewhat insignificant, it’s essentially the different between the league’s second-ranked offense and that of an average offense.

Regardless of whether or not the Bulls’ offense will be where it needs to be to ensure four straight series wins, Chicago certainly has a reasonable chance at winning as they wouldn’t be the first combination of an all-world defense and an average offense to reach the NBA Finals, as the 2009-10 Celtics are a great example, si.com reports.

With Derrick Rose out for the season with a torn ACL, what do you think the remaining season has in store for the Chicago Bulls?

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