Rose to have eye surgery after getting elbowed, timetable to return unclear

The first casualty of Bulls training camp was Derrick Rose. He left Tuesday's practice early after taking an accidental elbow to the face.

Late in the afternoon, the Bulls released an update, revealing that Rose sustained a left orbital fracture.

He will have surgery Wednesday at Rush University Medical Center. A timetable for his return will be determined when the procedure is complete, but it seems inevitable he will miss most, if not all, of training camp.

The incident happened about halfway through Fred Hoiberg's first practice as coach of the Bulls.

"He looked great when he was out there," Hoiberg said. "But he took a good hard elbow."

Several players were questioned about the incident and no one had a confident explanation of what happened to Rose.

"I didn't see (what happened). I just saw him on the floor," Nikola Mirotic said. "I hope it's nothing serious. They say it's nothing serious."

Before the severity of the injury was determined, Taj Gibson sort of confessed to owning the guilty elbow, though it was tough to tell if he was joking around.

"I don't know. It might have been me," Gibson said with a smile. "It was just one of those plays where everyone's going so hard and it's real physical out there. Hopefully he'll be OK."

Any Rose injury draws extra attention and always will. The former MVP missed nearly two full seasons due to a pair of knee surgeries. He played in 51 games during last year's regular season.

Hoiberg praises vets:

New coach Fred Hoiberg shared a few observations from Tuesday's first practice of training camp.

"Jimmy (Butler) was phenomenal," he said. "He's in great shape. All the hard work he put in this off-season you can tell. He added new elements to his game. He was terrific. He was getting to the basket, cutting at the right time.

"When you have players who have played together a long time - again Joakim (Noah) is flashing and getting him on the backcut - those little things that take younger teams a longer time to do that.

"We're a step ahead in that area because of the age of these guys and the fact they've played together."

Hoiberg's first practice lasted more than two hours, but he canceled a night session. He plans to practice twice Wednesday.

"(We worked on) a lot of basics, especially defensively," he said. "Making sure guys are getting in their gaps. Making sure we're getting back with the defensive transition plan.

"A lot of ball screen coverages, post coverages, breaking them into stations. The same thing offensively, talking about cutting and spacing and getting in the flow of our offense."

Butler explains Rose:

Jimmy Butler was asked Tuesday what he thought about Derrick Rose taking time at media day to look forward to becoming a free agent in 2017.

"Man, I don't pay attention to it. It has nothing to do with me," Butler said. "I don't care what the guy talks about as long as he's helping us win games. Whatever he's focused on let him be focused, but I think his objective is to win a championship.

"I'm pretty sure he talked about that as well, and how he wants to help this team win. Everything else, he is who he is."

Rose has said some strange, off-topic things before, but actions speak louder than words.

"He can talk about unicorns and rainbows for all I care," Butler added. "Just help us win some basketball games."