Jimmy Butler Becomes Chicago Bulls' Franchise Player After Derrick Rose Injury

On the court, the transition was already happening organically.

The Chicago Bulls milked every ounce of production they could from former MVP Derrick Rose, but the numbers they were getting from Jimmy Butler were greater in both quantity and quality.

Inside the lines, Butler performed like the Windy City's franchise player. But outside the United Center, the basketball world still viewed this as Rose's team. He is, after all, the main gate attraction, the man with the signature shoes and highly sought-after jersey.

Rose's allure stems from the notable numbers and exhilarating highlight reel that still spin through the minds of hoop heads. Despite the distance his body has created between him and his prolific past, it's hard to abandon hope of him reaching that sensational level again.

"If you had never seen him blend overwhelming power with breathtaking grace, scorch courts with that blazing speed and leave opponents dazed and dizzy with dexterity and gravity-defying levitation, then the devastation and disbelief wouldn’t feel so fresh every time Rose goes down with another knee injury," wrote Michael Lee of The Washington Post.

But the simple, sorrowing reality is that electric player may no longer exist. His first three NBA seasons produced a rapid rise from Rookie of the Year to All-Star to league MVP. However, the past four campaigns could ultimately define his career.

His 2012 playoff run was cut short by a torn ACL in his left knee that kept him sidelined for the entire 2012-13 season. He tore the meniscus in his right knee just 10 games into his comeback last year and has now suffered the same injury in the same ligament in the same knee.

No one knows where his story goes from here. He won't have a timeline for his return until after surgery, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, though multiple sources believe this tear isn't as bad as the last one.

Bulls general manager Gar Forman said Friday the team expects Rose to return at some point this season, per Johnson:

Still, it's yet another trip to the operating table and another round of questions involving his future.

But the most pertinent inquiry on the Bulls' side of things may already have an answer. And it isn't the one Chicago fans want to hear.

"Can Rose still be a capable player, a top-15 point guard? Sure," wrote Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix. "... But can he be a franchise player? That’s more difficult to answer."

But the difficulty of that discussion is more about the emotions involved than the conversation itself.

Rose, a Chicago native and Simeon Career Academy product, was supposed to the city's key to rejoining the championship race. The No. 1 pick in 2008 was the Bulls' greatest source of hope since Michael Jordan walked away, a top-shelf talent capable of elevating himself and his team to an elite level.

Rose is a painfully easy player to root for. Credit his combination of superstar skills and blue-collar mentality for that.

And the arduous journey he's traveled these past few years has put even more supporters in his corner. Injuries can strike any player at any given time, but the brutal blows Rose has been dealt feel like particularly callous acts of the basketball gods.

"It's so unfair," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said, per The Associated Press' Andrew Seligman. "The guy's been through so much. Any time you have surgery, it's tough. ... But the big thing is our concern for him first as a person."

That's what makes it nearly impossible to pull the plug on the idea of Rose as the Bulls' franchise savior. He's faced an inequitable amount of adversity, and seeing him rise above it all would be the type of inspirational tale that transcends sports.

But expecting such an outcome at this point would require the complete suspension of disbelief.

"Coming back from one serious knee injury is a massive accomplishment, let alone two. Three is a tall order," wrote Bleacher Report's Sean Highkin. "Rose can believe that he’ll return to his 2011-era peak, and he can work tirelessly to get there. But if his body isn’t up to it, there’s nothing his mind can do about that."

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No one can say for certain that Rose's best days are behind him, but the odds are not in his favor. The Bulls need a stable base to build their organization around, and their injury-prone point guard is incapable of providing that.

Setting emotions aside, Chicago must find a new centerpiece for its blueprint. And despite the success enjoyed by both, the 34-year-old Pau Gasol and 30-year-old Joakim Noah cannot be that building block.

It has to be the 25-year-old Butler, a player who has spent this season obliterating his former NBA ceiling.

Butler is a do-it-all player of the highest order.

He leads the league in both minutes played (39.2) and distance traveled (2.8 miles) per game. He is equal parts offensive catalyst and defensive stopper. He leads the Bulls in scoring (20.2 points) and ranks third on the team in assists (3.3). An All-Defensive second-team selection last season, he has held opposing shooters 2.7 percentage points below their season average from the field.

"In terms of being a two-way player," Thibodeau said of Butler, per Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver, "he's as good as it gets."

With Rose out of the equation, the Bulls need someone to assume control of this offense. As Bleacher Report's Kelly Scaletta observed, Chicago might be better served with Butler as the focal point of this attack:

While their track records might suggest Rose is a far better option as an offensive leader than Butler, this season's statistics couldn't disagree more with that assessment.

ESPN.com valued Butler's impact as having created 6.73 wins above a replacement player, ranking him 21st overall and tops on the Bulls. For Rose, his number is only 1.93. That slotted him 119th in the league, trailing the likes of Al-Farouq Aminu, Thabo Sefolosha, Kevin Garnett and Jeremy Lin, among many others.

Rose tried to adjust his game this season. His average field-goal attempt has come from a career-high distance of 14.1 feet away from the rim. He had never before spent this little time in the high-contact zone within three feet of the rim (26.2 percent of his shots) or this much of it out beyond the arc (5.5 long-range attempts per game).

In a lot of ways, he took the cautious, calculated approach some analysts thought he needed to adopt. But all that ended up doing was sabotaging his shooting percentages, and it still couldn't keep him off the injury report.

Butler, meanwhile, expanded his offensive game in ways that indicate he's ready for a feature role. He has attempted more free throws (382) than any player not named James Harden or LeBron James. Butler's true shooting percentage ranks seventh among this season's 19 20-plus points-per-game scorers.

His success on that side of the ball has been noticed by opposing coaches, who have built defensive game plans around containing his production. But he's kept himself one step ahead of the defense, attacking when help doesn't come or finding an open teammate when it does. 

"You see his isolations are being doubled. His pick and rolls are being doubled. His post ups are being doubled," Thibodeau said of Butler, per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. "The thing you can’t overlook is his playmaking. He’s very unselfish and efficient."

Butler is a franchise talent on both ends of the floor—and the Bulls will have to treat him as such when he hits restricted free agency at season's end. Chicago has to keep a max-contract offer ready for his signature, because this franchise cannot proceed without him serving as its key component.

Rose's injury, in a lot of ways, should signal the end of one Bulls era and the beginning of another. With $41.4 million headed his way over the next two seasons, he'll still play a role in Chicago's next chapter.

But no player on this roster is more important to the franchise's present and future than Butler.

That changing of the guard was already underway before Rose went down. His latest knee problem just escalated the speed and importance of the transition.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com. Salary information obtained via HoopsHype.com.