Fred Hoiberg is confident that Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler can co-exist

According to Fred Hoiberg, there is still no timetable for Jimmy Butler to test out his injured left knee by cutting and “exploding’’ on it.

Once he’s able to pass that hurdle the Bulls will have a better idea on when they can expect the two-time All-Star back in the mix.

“Just really based on feel,’’ Hoiberg said Wednesday, when asked about Butler taking the next step in his rehabilitation. “He did more shooting [Wednesday] than he had. He was out there for a longer stretch. The next step is now getting comfortable exploding out there and obviously moving side-to-side.’’

Butler missed his seventh consecutive game with the injury, but maybe an even more important question than when will Butler be back is how will Butler and Derrick Rose play together? Rose, who also missed the game against Washington, had averaged 26 points per game over his previous three starts.

The two have only really looked in sync in a handful of games this season, and Hoiberg was confident that was about to change.

“Well, I think a big thing right now is we’ve had such good movement, the ball swinging side-to-side,’’ Hoiberg said. “We’re making a lot quicker decisions than we were making earlier in the year. That benefits everybody. It’s not always going to be the same person every night. Our guys have to understand that if you play the right way it’s going to give you the best opportunity to win.

“So that’s the thing when we get all of our bodies back, and we’re all looking forward to that, we just have to keep the movement out there, keep the pace going where it is, and hopefully everybody benefits off of that.’’

The problem is that Butler is at his best when he’s in isolation, and that means at times he’s become a bit of a ball-stopper.

“Yeah, Jimmy is obviously a great player and he’s a guy that can flat-out get you a basket,’’ Hoiberg said, acknowledging that fact. “We’re going to need that. Especially a lot of those games early that we lost, when Jimmy when out of the lineup were games we just didn’t close out. Jimmy to date has been our best clutch player, has made a lot of baskets to win those games, so we’ve got those plays in our arsenal and, yeah, it is a balance, but when you’re in the flow of the game for most of the game you’ve got to keep that ball moving from side-to-side, and we’ll run those [isolations] when we need to.’’