According to the Chicago Tribune, Kirk Hinrich will visit a specialist on Monday or a thumb injury that he suffered while practicing before the Bulls game against the Blazers.

On the one hand, an MRI revealed the injured ligament remains attached to the bone, unlike last season when Hinrich tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb and missed 31 games after surgery.

On the other, Hinrich is visiting a specialist Monday, five full days after suffering the injury at a Wednesday practice in Oregon. Coach Vinny Del Negro wouldn’t rule Hinrich out for Monday’s game, but the fact he didn’t practice Saturday and still has swelling doesn’t bode well.

It is hard to get a read on how serious of an injury that Hinrich has right now. It sounds like the injury isn’t quite as bad as what he suffered last year, but how bad the injury appears to be up for debate. The following quote from Vinny Del Negro sheds some more light on the uncertainty of Hinrich’s injury.

Asked if the Bulls have any plans to sign an extra guard, Del Negro demurred.

“We’re going to wait and see what happens with that evaluation on Monday and then make a decision,” Del Negro said. “We weren’t even sure if Jannero was going to practice because of a little shoulder impingement.”

It sounds like the Bulls are completely uncertain of the extent of the injury right now. It sounds like the Bulls won’t truly know how badly Hinrich is injured until the specialist sees him.

If Kirk Hinrich is out for any type of significant period of time, it is pertinent that the Bulls sign someone, as the team will simply fail because of their lack of backcourt depth.

The Tribune lists Wally Szczerbiak, Jerry Stackhouse, and Antonio Daniels as some of the options. Another option that goes unmentioned is Rashad McCants.

Wally Szczerbiak averaged 7.0 points on 58.1 TS% last season in 74 games for Cleveland, shooting 41.1% from three point territory. Unfortunately, Szczerbiak is still rehabbing from knee surgery, and may not be able to give the Bulls immediate help.

Antonio Daniels averaged 3.1 points on 53.1 TS% last season in 61 games with the New Orleans Hornets.

Jerry Stackhouse averaged 4.2 points on 33.3 TS% last season in 10 games for Dallas.

Rashad McCants averaged 10.3 points on 55.3 TS% in 24 games after being traded to the Sacramento Kings at the trade deadline. McCants failed a physical with Houston to begin the year.

The Bulls should immediately cross Antonio Daniels and Jerry Stackhouse off their list of options. Neither player appears capable of positively impacting an NBA team at this point, and would both likely be a downgrade from Jannero Pargo.

Wally Szczerbiak is probably the most intriguing of these options because of his size and ability to shoot the three point shot. However, if he is rendered useless because of injuries, he is not an option. That would leave Rashad McCants, who has health questions of his own.

Even if McCants is healthy, he will not do much to positively contribute to the Bulls. His sole positive contributions would just be being better than Jannero Pargo and Lindsey Hunter, which isn’t much of a contribution of all.

The Bulls of course could explore signing Allen Iverson, but the Bulls front office is unlikely to sign a player like Iverson, and there is also strong rumblings that the 76ers might sign Iverson, so he may not be an option for the Bulls in a few days.

One thing is for sure, if Hinrich is out, the Bulls have to sign someone, and if Hinrich is out, the season will probably get ugly.

According to K.C. Johnson’s Full Court Press blog, Derrick Rose has returned to practice.

For one day, the Derrick Rose questions can cease.

The second-year guard practiced for roughly 40 minutes of the Bulls’ 21/2-hour practice Thursday.

“I felt good,” Rose said. “I was kind of mad they took me off early. But they were looking out for me and playing everything with caution. I could’ve practiced the whole practice but they told me they didn’t want me sore (Friday).”

It’s good to see Derrick Rose return to practice. It looks like he will be ready to go for the season opener, which is great news, as the start of the season is going to be harsh, even with Rose. Just imagine the start without him. Now the Bulls will be more competitive in these games, and can probably get wins against the Heat and Bucks in their first five games.

According to Vinny Del Negro via ESPN.com, Derrick Rose may be forced out of the season opener due to the injury he suffered early in the preseason.

CHICAGO — Derrick Rose is convinced he’ll be ready to play next Thursday on opening night. Coach Vinny Del Negro still isn’t so sure.

Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said Monday it wasn’t out of the “realm of possibility” that Rose would be sidelined when his team opens up the regular-season schedule against the Spurs next week.

The Bulls coach continues to take a day-to-day approach when evaluating Rose, who has an inflamed tendon behind his right ankle and has not played since the preseason opener against Indiana.

“We want to use this time to get him out there practicing and get everybody comfortable with things,” Del Negro said after the Bulls preseason loss to the Magic on Monday night. “But we always want to be smart, knowing the regular season’s around the corner and looking at [the] big picture.”

Rose concedes he is about “80 percent” right now, but he seems adamant about opening up the season against San Antonio.

“I’m playing, I know that,” Rose said with a smile, when asked about the possibility of missing the first game.

It looks like Rose’s injury is a lot worse than the Bulls originally let on. I feared from the beginning that Rose’s injury might be bad. We saw Luol Deng’s 2007-2008 season tarnished with a similar injury, and it’s not like the Bulls medical staff have a good history of diagnosing or properly treating an injury (See them sending Paul Shirley on a plane back to Chicago with a lacerated spleen and fractured kidney).

The Bulls start off the season playing San Antonio, Boston, Miami, Milwaukee, and Cleveland in their first five games. Without Derrick Rose, the Bulls could easily find themselves starting the season 0-5. Hopefully Rose can come back for the opener, or at least early on in the season, and this isn’t one of those injury that we all know where the Bulls, where the injury just keeps getting worse and worse, and the player just keeps staying out longer and longer.

According to Mike McGraw of the Chicago Daily Herald, Derrick Rose is in a boot following an ankle injury he had in the first preseason game. It is unclear when Derrick Rose will return to the court, as the injury looks worse than what was originally let on.

Derrick Rose missed his second straight preseason game Saturday with a sore right ankle, and he may not be back anytime soon.

Sitting next to Rose at his locker before the game was a walking boot, which he acquired after the Bulls returned from London this week.

“It’s going to take awhile, but I’m being patient with it and just hoping and praying I can do something to make it better,” Rose said before a 98-86 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. “It’s a tendon that runs behind the bone in my ankle. There’s fluid in my ankle, so I’m just waiting for that to leave.”

Rose hasn’t been doing any running or jogging on his injured leg this week and said he has kept the foot elevated at night. The second-year guard turned the ankle in the Oct. 2 game at Indiana but kept playing.

“I just wanted to win the game,” he said. “I knew it was something serious when later on that night I really couldn’t walk.”

What is with the Bulls doctors? It seems like they’re routinely misdiagnosing players, and the injuries gradually become worse than what we were told as time goes on. (See Luol Deng last year).

If Derrick Rose is down for any type of extended time, the Bulls are in trouble. The entire idea of matching last year’s team’s win total or surpassing it was based on Derrick Rose taking a step forward toward stardom. Without Rose, it will be very ugly at times.

According to Bulls.com, Ben Gordon may not play in tonight’s game 5, because of a tear he suffered in his hamstring during the second quarter of Game 4 on Sunday.

Suddenly, the Bulls have an intriguing decision: Sit out Ben Gordon for Tuesday’s playoff Game 5 in Boston between the Bulls and Celtics knowing you are an underdog, anyway, and hope Gordon is more ready to play on his damaged left hamstring for Game 6 Thursday back in Chicago, or let him play at possibly less than 100 percent.

Ben Gordon Gordon finished with a game-high 42 points on 14 of 24 shooting from the field and 6 of 11 from behind the arc in Game 2.

“I don’t know yet (if I’ll play),” Gordon said Tuesday after morning shootaround at Emerson College. “I’m just going to wait to see how it feels and go from there. It’s my call. They said to do what I think is best, go off how it feels. Hopefully I can play tonight. If not, we have another game, Game 6 at home. I’m just going to try to make the best decision possible. It still hurts pretty bad. I’m just hoping for a miracle.”

It’s a stunning development for the Bulls in this series tied 2-2, especially because Gordon has been such a constant for the Bulls in his career. And especially now in this series, where Gordon has been a star as the series’ leading scorer. He had 42 points in the Game 2 Bulls loss and the big shot in the Game 4 Bulls win to send the game into double overtime. Gordon has been something of the team’s ironman, not missing a game this season and in three of his five seasons. He’s missed just 12 games in his Bulls career.

But now it appears questionable whether Gordon can play in Game 5 because of the hamstring strain—he said doctors told him it was a mild tear—he sustained early in Game 4.

I think Ben will ultimately play tonight, because he is such a warrior. But this is a legitimate injury, and if Ben can’t play because of it, he can’t play. The injury was noticeably hindering him in Game 4. He couldn’t move around very well on defense, and there were some plays on offense where he tried to lift off on his bad leg, and ended up getting very little elevation.

If Gordon is out tonight, the Bulls will have to hope for Derrick Rose to put on his best Dwyane Wade impression.

I think Vinny Del Negro should use a little bit of out of the box thinking, and start Tim Thomas, while sliding John Salmons to the shooting guardp osition. Yes, Thomas hasn’t done much as a Bull, but he has stepped up in playoffs past, and when offense goes out, offense needs to go in. If Tim Thomas can go off for 20 or so points, the Bulls could steal this one.

Yes, playing Tim Thomas heavy minutes might sound crazy, but it is going to take some type of crazy to beat the Celtics if Gordon isn’t playing.

What looked like a sentence to a quick first round exit in the playoffs last night for the Bulls, has now turned into a very winnable series. Celtics.com is reporting that Kevin Garnett will miss the entire first round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs.

Celtics To Face Bulls Sans KG

After a morning workout in Waltham, Doc Rivers saw all he needed to see. “He’s not going to be ready. After today there’s no way he can play,” Rivers told WEEI.

“At this point after going through all the rehab and looking so good last week…to where he’s at today, if he can’t get through biking and working out without swelling and stiffness, I just don’t know how he can play in the playoffs,” Rivers said.

The Celtics should still not be taken lightly. The Celtics finished their final 9 games of the season, without Garnett, going 8-1.

The Celtics without Garnett are a team similar to the 2006-2007 Chicago Bulls. That is, they are a team built around a robust defense who just make use of a few scorers to get them their points.

Even with the injury to Garnett, the Celtics are probably still slight favorites. But what was once mission impossible a day ago, is now a possibility.

General Manager John Paxson confirmed today that Luol Deng will not play for the rest of the regular season.

# GM John Paxson confirmed to reporters on Thursday that Deng will not play again in the regular season
# Paxson also said that if the Bulls were to make an extended run in the 2009 NBA Playoffs, he would not rule out Deng’s return if his symptoms have improved

It sounds to me like Deng won’t be back for the first round of the playoffs either. If we have an extended run in the playoffs, Deng could be useful. But we all know that Deng isn’t that good whne he is playing somewhat banged up, so even if Deng begins coming back for the playoffs, the Bulls may be better off just letting him rest and play Tim Thomas as the backup small forward.