Derrick Rose has missed 22 games this season, but the Chicago Bulls haven't been doing so bad without him as they currently stand with a league-best record of 43-13. However, they're going to need their star player heading into the playoffs.
For the past twelve games, Chicago has been without Rose after he was out with a groin injury. After a long wait, the Bulls star point guard says that he'll likely be able to play Sunday against the New York Knicks, who have been doing well despite injuries to Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin.
Rose says that he doesn't feel any pain at all in his groin now.
"I'm feeling good," Rose told ESPN Chicago. "My groin's not bothering me. I'm happy to move on. My spirits are up. Today is my first full practice. Just practicing with the guys felt good out there and hopefully I'll be playing Sunday."
Rose says it's up to him if he can play tomorrow.
"It's really not up to him [Tom Thibodeau], it's up to me," Rose said. "Where if I'm feeling good, I'm going to play. If I think that I need some more days, I'm going to take some more days. But more than likely I'll be out there."
Rose is currently labeled as a game-time decision for Sunday.
"He's good," Thibodeau said. "Went through the whole practice. He keeps getting better. He's very close. We'll see (Sunday)."
Thibodeau doesn't know what to expect from Rose.
"You won't know until he gets out there because of the amount of time that he's missed," Thibodeau said. "He's never missed an extended amount of time like this before. But every other time when he's come back, he gets up to speed pretty quickly. He's been putting a lot of extra time in, so hopefully he'll be ready once he's out there."
Thibodeau also may limit his minutes in the first quarter, since hasn't played a game since March 12.
"He's missed quite a bit of time, so probably shorter minutes initially," Thibodeau said. "Again, the important thing is we want to be smart about it."
Rose wasn't too happy with this past month, as he just couldn't handle not contributing to the team.
"It's been hard," Rose said. "It's definitely been hard, but God does everything for a reason. And I really don't know the reason right now, but I know it should be good."
We'll see what Rose does in his return.
