Gibson's Gimpy Ankle

With all the talk of Jimmy Butler turning down a contract extension from the Bulls in favor of shorter-term offer sheets, Taj Gibson was barely on the radar.  Perhaps he should have with the bum left ankle that has favored him for two years.  The issue went to the forefront Friday when it was announced he had successful surgery on the ankle, but will not resume full basketball activities for the next four months.

This means Gibson will have little, if any time to prepare during the preseason and will more or less have to be ready when the real games start.  It prevents Fred Hoiberg from gaining his own perspective on what Gibson can do at full strength during training camp.  You would think if anybody would have issues coming in healthy, it would be Derrick Rose.  Instead, it's the sixth man who has led the bench during this decade.

For Gibson personally, this could be a setback in trying to gain a new contract when his expires in two years.  Teams with their eyes on him now have to more or less reset their buttons so they can see how he responds once he returns.  Gibson may not necessarily pull a Butler in a contract season and make it so everybody wants to fork over millions, but he at least wants to show he's worth something as he approaches his 30s.  The ankle problem, which he's acknowledged will be chronic, has become another challenge he'll attack relentlessly.

In the meantime, the Bulls will have to keep an eye on Gibson so he doesn't re-aggravate it and thus hurt the roster.  Perhaps it will prompt them to select a post player in next week's draft to take some of the pressure off him.  Then again, that largely depends on if Hoiberg shows far less resistance to playing rookies than Thibodeau ever did.  Free agency will be interesting in that regard too.

The good news is Gibson is in his prime NBA years and with the right work, he can brush this off and make it a non-issue like Luol Deng with his wrist a couple of seasons back.  Of course, it could also become as big as Joakim Noah's bad knee by virtue of slowed play.  Whatever the case, he's not going to feel sorry for himself.  He can improve mentally and in the NBA, having that strength does you well no matter how old you are.