Jimmy Butler News

With the short NBA season over for the Bulls, rookie Jimmy Butler had a great first season.

Luxury-tax penalties ominously loom over the Chicago Bulls next season, but the Bulls can avoid cutting into their profits by readjusting their financial commitments.

With little Chicago basketball news of note lately, we are forced to prematurely take a look ahead rather than dwell on the past and look at what the 2012 NBA Draft holds.

From July 13- 22, 23 NBA teams, including 11 that participated in the NBA Playoffs, as well as a team of NBA D-League Select players will compete at the Thomas & Mack Center and the COX Pavilion on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

The NBA Draft Combine will be held again this year in Chicago and the names have been released of the 60 players who will participate in the event.

In just six playoff games, the elite status that the Chicago Bulls had worked so hard over the regular season to achieve was worth nothing.

It's very unlikely the Chicago Bulls will use the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer this summer, because it's quite apparent that such a maneuver will not free up extra cap space.

Derrick Rose collapsing on that jump-stop might have been my saddest moment as a Bulls fan outside of Jordan, Pippen, Jackson being broken up when they had at least 2 or 3 good years left at the end of the 1998 championship season.

Ronnie Brewer has played with Kyle Korver for the past five seasons, but with the Chicago Bulls holding options on both players for next season, the run likely will end.

The news on Derrick Rose 's surgically repaired knee isn't great, but it also isn't the end of the world, so the Bulls must proceed as if he's never coming back.

The Bulls ' offseason will be a little complicated, as they'll have to navigate being over the salary cap.

MAY 08: Omer Asik #3 of the Chicago Bulls knocks the ball away from Elton Brand #42 of the Philadelphia 76ers in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2012 NBA Playoffs at the United Center on May 8, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois.

As the Bulls rip the confetti of the Sixers' win from their clothes and the debris from their most disappointing season since 1995 from their souls, the future seems to hold a tremendous amount of uncertainty.

As a rookie, playing time can be difficult to come across. Should one prove to their coaching staff that they are capable of consistent production, however, the time on the court is likely to see a serious rise.

But Noah missed his second straight game with the injury, which he suffered in the third quarter of Game 3, and his return isn't imminent.

Cancel the parade in Grant Park. The Chicago Bulls are unofficially done. An 89-82 loss the 76ers in Game 4 has the Bulls scrambling for answers.

It's about as official as it gets, as Tom Thibodeau referred to Noah after his gruesome ankle sprain as "most likely out" . Omer Asik is a possible start, being the backup center and all, but with the Sixers not being as big themselves up front I'd think they could easily go with any combination of Boozer/Gibson/Deng at the 4-5, too.

PHILADELPHIA Derrick Rose is out with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

In both Game 2 and Feb. 1 win over Bulls, Philly had edge in rebounds, 2nd-chance points, fast-break points and points in paint Throughout the two foggy practice days between Derrick Rose 's season-ending injury and Game 2 of the Bulls - 76ers first-round series, coach Tom Thibodeau 's mantras repeated as if on a tape loop.

The support Derrick Rose received from within and outside the Bulls organization since tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament has been well-documented. One avenue, however, has resonated strongly with Rose, who arrived at the United Center for Game 2 on crutches with his left leg immobilized.