Day 28: Saying farewell to that Bulls guard who won't be named

(Illustration courtesy of Melvin Rodas)

This is the third time in four days that I'm adorning a Daily with a picture of Derrick Rose, but I feel that I might as well use this art while I have the chance, as there soon won't be much of a reason to talk about him. It was announced the other day that Rose will indeed have surgery to repair his torn medial meniscus, which will effectively put the kibosh on his season. Rose finishes the year with averages of 15.9 points, 4.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game in 10 games.

I'm not sure what the saving grace is for Rose. Yeah, he didn't tear his ACL again, which means he'll probably be ready to go for the first game of the next season. But still... this makes three straight years in which Rose will be unable to help the Bulls in the playoffs. If LeBron James and the Heat win a third straight title, what an awful, awful thing it would be for the Bulls, to know that they could've stood in their path but never even got the chance.

As for Rose, he's probably going to be a mid-round draft pick going into next year, and if you're willing to take a shot at him, he could possess some excellent upside. But... I wouldn't take him. Rose has now fully entrenched himself as a short and longterm injury liability, and those aren't the players that entice me on draft day. The bottom line is that as supremely talented as Rose is, and he very well could be the best point guard in the league when he's healthy -- better than even CP3 -- you just don't know how many games he's going to give you. NBA players have finite athletic lifespans just like everyday people, and there have been a myriad of players (from Penny Hardaway to Tracy McGrady to Yao Ming to Greg Oden to Arvydas Sabonis) who've had their careers cut short because they just couldn't stay healthy. It sucks, but Rose's career is pointing more and more towards the T-Mac/Penny axis these days. Hopefully, it won't stay that way.

I have one more thing to say about D-Rose before I forever cease to write about him (well, for the rest of this year anyway). In the one and only pro league that I'm in -- the $100 one I wrote about earlier -- Derrick Rose, yes that Derrick Rose, was taken with the No. 1 overall pick by a team called "Da Bulls." Why this guy selected Rose is fairly obvious given his name, and for his blatant homerism, Da Bulls was mocked mercilessly in the draft chat. But the misery didn't stop there for him. Da Bulls was doing horribly over the first few weeks, posting the worst record in the league. And that was when Rose was healthy. Since Rose got hurt, Da Bulls has not updated his team. Rose is still in his lineup, and he even has a utility slot open. In all likeliness, Da Bulls has given up all hope, and his lineup will never be updated again.

Just like that, he's become the league's punching bag. The $100 he invested? Down the drain. The moral of the story, folks, is that putting fan allegiance above common sense in fantasy basketball is a really, really bad idea.

And, now it's time to talk about some non-D-Rose players. Goodbye, Derrick. May your rehab go successfully and quickly.

• Kirk Hinrich was pretty terrible in his second game as the Bulls' starting point guard, producing just 1 point and 4 assists in 36 minutes. It's certainly a lackluster outing, but the fact that he got so many minutes bodes well for how valuable he'll be rest of the year. Hinrich is still an excellent pickup for anyone who needs a point guard.
• Joakim Noah had a nice outing for the Bulls, getting 10 points and 13 rebounds. He might have had an outstanding night had he not gotten in foul trouble. Either way, his production is sure to pick up now that Rose is out. He had been on a minutes restriction, but that's probably going away given the circumstances of what Rose's injury will do to their team.
• Enes Kanter sat out the Jazz' game against the Bulls because of a bum ankle. He's likely to return in the relative future and is a fantastic buy-low option at the moment.
• Brandon Knight got promoted to the starting lineup and had 8 points and 4 assists for the Bucks in 21 minutes on Monday. I've been very high on Knight since the beginning of the year, which hasn't worked out so well since he's been hurt a lot. But now that he's back in the starting five -- and now that Caron Butler is back to coming off the bench (that didn't take long) -- Knight is once again worthy of a pickup. Yes, he's an injury liability, but he has loads and loads of upside on a Milwaukee that desperately needs him to step up.
• You'll have to forgive me for the abbreviation of today's article, and how late it's going up (5:30-ish PM Eastern Time). I try to be as timely and in-depth as humanly possible, but I just don't have a lot of free time given that I'm on vacation. If you have any questions or thoughts about any players, you're always welcome to hammer them out in the comments section and I'll get back to you ASAP. All right. Thanks, all! I hope your Thanksgiving week is going well.
• BTW, I'm actually facing Da Bulls in my fantasy league this week. So, obviously, I'm hoping for good results. (I'm going to write more about my team in the coming days.)
• Also, 2 years and $48 million for Kobe Bryant, huh? Yeah, I'll have something to say about that pretty soon too...