Bulls' Thibodeau on whether Rose can return to form: 'You know it's in him'

The initial excitement over former MVP point guard Derrick Rose's return to the Chicago Bulls was quickly replaced by concern and trepidation.

Rose, quite simply, has not looked like anything close to his old, explosive self this season. He's shooting the ball miserably, posting his worst percentages in any season (excepting his injury-marred 10-game stint last year). He's attacking less and settling for more jumpers, launching more 3-pointers than ever and hitting a paltry 28.7 percent of them. 

His assists are down and his turnovers are up. He's had some historically poor performances - in one case shooting 1-of-13 and failing to make a single two-pointer, in another turning the ball over 11 times while recording just one assist. The Bulls have performed just as well with him off the court as they have with him on it. 

The 46 games Rose has played in this season don't exactly qualify as a small sample, but Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau is trying not to read too much into them. 

"I think it would be premature to put a lid on it," Thibodeau said after his team's practice Tuesday, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. "Who says he can't come back and be great again? I think he can.

"He's already shown times when he's been great. You know it's in him. You have to keep grinding away. You're not going to be great every night, but he can play well when he doesn't shoot well and that's what makes him special, what he can do with the ball." 

After two major reconstructive knee surgeries and multiple other intermittent lower-body ailments, Rose has played just 95 games in the past four years. For that reason, said Thibodeau, his struggles shouldn't come as a surprise. But it also doesn't mean they'll be permanent. 

"I expected it to be bumpy," Thibodeau said of Rose's return. "He's been out a long time....

"When you miss the amount of time that he's missed there's going to be some bumps in the road. I want him to have the mental toughness to get through it. Just go onto the next game, you learn from each situation, he had a great rhythm going before the break, he'll get right back to it." 

At the end of the day, the Bulls are still winning basketball games. They're 36-21, despite a cruel, unrelenting spate of injuries, and even if they haven't quite looked like the juggernaut many expected them to be, they're perched comfortably in third place in the Eastern Conference. 

Rose may not be experiencing the individual success he was once accustomed to, but Thibodeau knows that's not what matters most. 

"You measure your point guard, really, by how the team plays."