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CHICAGO -- As the Chicago Bulls get set to open the 2014-15 season, there's an interesting philosophical debate going on behind the scenes in regard to the minutes of the Bulls' best players in Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has always believed that players who have been injured for longer stretches of time have to play in order to shake off the rust.  Rose and Noah would fit that category given that Rose has played in just 10 games over the past two seasons because of two serious knee injuries, and Noah didn't play much basketball at all this summer as he recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery. But as the preseason dragged on, Rose's and Noah's minutes never grew as much as Thibodeau would have liked.
To put the differences in perspective, Rose averaged almost 32 minutes a game over the last three games of the 2013-14 preseason. In the last three games of the 2014-15 preseason, he averaged 28 a game. As for Noah, he played only 20 minutes during the 2013-14 preseason because of a lingering groin injury. This season, he averaged about 27 minutes over his past three games. Thibodeau said after Monday's practice that he hasn't heard from the Bulls' medical staff about what the restrictions will be on Rose and Noah as the season opens on Wednesday in New York. That's a declaration that's hard to believe given Thibodeau's attention to detail. When asked if that decision would come from the trainers, Thibodeau said: "Yeah. Doctors, trainers." But Thibodeau left an important group out of that decision-making process: the Bulls' front office. While doctors and trainers play an important role in determining just how much athletes play when coming off an injury, it shouldn't be lost that the Bulls' front office, led by general manager Gar Forman and executive vice president John Paxson, are on board with the plan to limit Rose's and Noah's minutes early on. While Paxson and Forman respect Thibodeau's preparation and work ethic, one of the biggest gripes the front office has had with its coach over his five-year tenure is how he manages minutes throughout the season. After watching the Bulls limp to the finish line over the past three seasons, it's clear that the doctors, trainers, and especially the Bulls' front office want to try something different. It's also clear that the collective decision about the minutes has frustrated Thibodeau. The idea that Rose and Noah would open the season only being able to play somewhere around 30 or so minutes flies in the face of how he's built his coaching career. He believes the best players should play big minutes, especially players as young as Noah (29) and Rose (26). Granted, Thibodeau also understands that Rose's situation is different given his injury history, but the past few weeks demonstrate a shift in how the Bulls are approaching the season. Does this situation really make the Bulls that much different from other teams around the league? No, coaches and executives have disagreements in regard to minutes all the time. But as the Bulls get set for a season loaded with expectations, it will be very intriguing to see when the restrictions on Rose and Noah will be lifted and how Thibodeau manages in the meantime.
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