DEERFIELD, Ill. -- Former NBA MVP Derrick Rose could suit up for the first time in more than a year when the Chicago Bulls visit the Indiana Pacers for the preseason opener on Oct. 5.
The preseason schedule released Thursday also has the Bulls playing Washington in Rio de Janeiro on Oct. 12 and hosting Detroit on Oct. 16. The regular-season schedule comes out Tuesday.
Rose is expected to be ready after sitting out last season while recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. His status became an ongoing soap opera, with neither he nor the team publicly ruling out a return.
Without him, the Bulls won 45 games and bowed to Miami in the second round of the playoffs.
Nets: Kirilenko dismisses conspiracy theories
When Andrei Kirilenko opted out of a $10.2 million contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 32-year-old forward did so presumably looking for one last long-term deal of his career.
Then the Russian star decided to sign a two-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets that will pay him just over $3 million this season, and the conspiracy theories immediately started. The Nets are owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, so surely there was some backroom, nudge-nudge agreement for further compensation under the table, right?
"No," Kirilenko said Thursday during a conference call. "Those type of rumors I can't control. I guess it comes from the history because of Russia, the KGB. I don't know what to think. I played 12 years in the NBA. It makes it look funny for those type of accusations."
Earlier this summer, Prokhorov chalked up the talk to the kind of suspicion that is rooted in cinema and Cold War thinking, not modern reality (see full story).
Raptors: Daye signs deal
TORONTO -- The Toronto Raptors signed free-agent forward Austin Daye on Thursday.
The 6-foot-11, 200-pound Date averaged 4.5 points and 2.2 rebounds in 55 games last season for Detroit and Memphis. He was traded to Memphis in January as part of the three-team deal that brought Rudy Gay to Toronto.
In 237 regular-season games in four seasons with Detroit and Memphis, the former Gonzaga player averaged 5.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 15.4 minutes.