Brooklyn Nets vs. Chicago Bulls Series Preview

Derrick Rose

Injuries: 

Injuries will play a major part in this series, especially in determining how Chicago plays. Even though Derrick Rose’s injury questions will be the main story, the Bulls also have many smaller injuries which could play a factor. Let’s look at all the injuries which might effect the series.

Chicago Bulls: 

Joakim Noah:

Noah has been suffering from plantar fasciitis, the same injury that plagued Joe Johnson earlier in the season. Noah has only played in 3 of the past 15 Chicago games and has not started a game since April 7th. In the last two Bulls games this season, Noah played a total of 29 minutes off the bench, but only had 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist combined. He is averaging 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 assists this season, so he is clearly still bothered by the injury. He has also been slower and less comfortable on defense, which is his strength. There is no question that Noah will play in this series, but nobody knows how effective he will be. His 2013 all-star teammate Brook Lopez will be thrilled to see him at anywhere less than full strength. This will give Lopez more easy looks both inside the paint and on his jump shots and it will also open up the paint for drivers like Deron Williams.

Taj Gibson: 

Like Noah, Gibson has played the last two Chicago games but he missed a lot of time prior to that. When healthy, he provides lots of energy, good rebounding, and good defense off the bench for Chicago. He has been suffering from a knee injury which has been nagging him for much of the season. He will likely be more healthy than Noah when the playoffs begin.

Richard Hamilton: 

Hamilton has only been able to play in 50 games this year because of various injuries. He has also missed 5 games in April. He should be good to go for this series, but he will probably need to come off the bench and might not be able to play more than 20 or 25 minutes per game. When healthy, he is still one of the best at coming off screens to get open jumpers.

Derrick Rose: 

Derrrick Rose has been one of the stories of the NBA season and has still yet to play a game despite being cleared by doctors to play for about a month now. As far as we know, nobody knows if or when Rose will play again this year. It seems like he will be a game-time decision for every game, which means there is a good chance of him playing, especially later on in the series. Even if Rose does come back, nobody has any idea how effective he will be. There is a possibility that because he took so much time off and has only chosen to come back when he is 100% that he will not look any different from the player that won the MVP award 2 years ago. If that is the case, the Nets have little chance of winning the series. However, there is also a possibility that Rose can only contribute 15 or 20 good minutes each night and he could mess up Chicago’s team chemistry. He is by far the biggest question mark in all of the playoffs.

Rest of Chicago: 

Even players that aren’t injured have gotten a lot of work lately, maybe too much according to some. In a relatively meaningless game last night, Carlos Boozer played 38 minutes and Jimmy Butler played 43 minutes, which shows that these players were not interested at all in resting. They have been healthy for most of the season, but it will be interesting to see if they might ware down in the playoffs.