He's back!

Sorry, preemptive Trey Kerby "back" pronouncement. Anyway, he's not back because there's no basketball to play, but if there were basketball to play, he would be back.

We're talking, of course, about Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls point guard who suffered a torn meniscus in November and missed all but 10 games of the 2013-14 season, leaving him with a total of 49 games played over the past three years.

Rose is well on his way to a full recovery, according to The Chicago Tribune:

As previously reported, Rose began taking full contact in the form of one-on-one or two-on-two or three-on-three offday sessions late in the first-round series against the Wizards. Rose has had no setbacks and, if the season started tomorrow, would be fine to play. He remains on schedule to participate in the Team USA minicamp in Las Vegas at the end of July and hopes to make the World Cup team that will compete in Spain in late August through early September.

That's terrific news for the Bulls ahead of the 2014-15 campaign, although his participation in the Team USA mini-camp in July has to be considered a risky proposition. Should he attend, it seems safe to assume he'll be sheltered, and his potential participation in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in late August still seems tenuous.

[Dap PBT]