Calipari: Rose doesn't have high pain threshold

John Calipari, who coached Derrick Rose in college at Memphis, went on a national talk show Wednesday and sought to defend Rose's reputation as being injury prone. One of Calipari's lines sounded more like an insult, though, when he suggested Rose has a low tolerance for pain.

Here is Calipari's full quote on Fox Sport's Colin Cowherd Show:

"Let me say this. I coached Derrick, so here's what I know: He will defer to his team," said Calipari, now the head coach at Kentucky. "Now I will say this, and he knows this, he doesn't have a real high pain threshold.

"So he's one of those guys and while he's getting injured, he knows, 'I've got to be right.' When you're an athlete like Derrick Rose, it is really important that you're healthy. He's beating you with speed, with explosiveness. If I'm the Bulls, I don't want him at 70 percent. We've got to get him at 100."

What Calipari means is Rose is not a crafty veteran who will find a way to get the job done. His greatest strength is his athleticism, although he's been trying to adjust his game after three knee surgeries.

Rose is off to a slow start this season while playing with a protective face mask and blurred vision in his left eye, the result of a broken orbital bone on the first day of training camp.

"It was a freak hit to his eye," Calipari said, refuting the notion Rose is injury prone. "(The Bulls) are going to win because of Derrick Rose, you watch."

Hoiberg teaches old tricks:

Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg is trying to adjust the offense to include more familiar plays and things that worked well for this group in the past under coach Tom Thibodeau.

"We tried to keep a lot of things consistent," Hoiberg said. "A lot of the actions that were really good and successful - which they had a lot of these past few years - we tried to keep those and add wrinkles to them. Again, we want these guys as comfortable as possible out there on the floor and put them in positions, not only where they've been successful, but put them in spots where hopefully they'll continue to be successful."

McDermott trade revisited:

Wednesday wasn't a great night to declare a winner in the Doug McDermott trade. The Bulls swung a deal with Denver on draft night 2014 to get McDermott, the No. 11 overall pick, for a couple of later first-rounders, picks No. 16 and 19.

The two players the Nuggets received did not play Wednesday at the United Center. Guard Gary Harris was out with a concussion, while center Jusuf Nurkic has yet to play this year while recovering from a torn left patellar tendon.

Nurkic is hoping to return next month. Harris is averaging 9.8 points this season. McDermott is at 9.0 points.

Bull horns:

Backup guard Aaron Brooks was back on the floor vs. Denver after missing four games with a left hamstring strain. … Kirk Hinrich missed his second straight game with a hip pointer. … A couple of former Bulls staffers were back in town with the Nuggets, assistant coach Ed Pinckney and video coordinator Daisuke Yoshimoto