When the NBA regular season starts next week,
Derrick Rosewill be full-go.
Chicago Bulls vice president John Paxson said Thursday on The Waddle & Silvy Show on ESPN Chicago 1000 that the team plans no restrictions on minutes or games played for the guard in his return from knee surgery.
"Look, Derrick wants to play. He's been out for an entire year," Paxson said. "He's showing no signs that would make us think along those lines. ... We're all confident that we're beyond that. He's got to push himself. Let's face it, he spent a lot of time and effort into rehabbing this knee. ... He's not coming to us to put any limitations on him.
"As an organization we don't want him playing 48 minutes a night -- that's not going to happen, of course -- but in that 35- to 38-minute range, that's what he was going to do anyway, and I don't see that changing."
Rose, who missed the entire 2012-13 season, is averaging 19.7 points during the preseason and 27.3 points in his past three games.
"We've turned the page," Paxson told the radio station. "Unless he would come up with something that would concern us, but we have no concerns right now.
"He's played six games. In reality, he is only averaging about 27 minutes a game in this preseason, and he has looked terrific. Right now, there is no reason to think that there will be any restrictions, and we're not anticipating that at all."
Rose has averaged 26.3 minutes during the preseason. The former NBA MVP played 35 minutes on Wednesday against Oklahoma City.
"He has been fearless," Paxson said. "The way he has attacked the basket, his ability preinjury to change speed in real tight spaces like he showed with some of those crossovers and sidesteps past defenders, those are things that he had prior to the injury, and he has obviously shown that and more here in the preseason. The fact that he feels the confidence in this knee that you can just see out there on the floor, that's a great sign for him."
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