The Chicago Bulls have had numerous opportunities to pull the plug on veteran players following the trade of Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings in February. The move appeared to be a sign the Bulls were punting on the season and trying to position themselves for a high pick in the first round.
Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas suggested that while he understands the importance of the 2025 draft, the team wouldn’t stop their young core from trying to make the Play-In Tournament.
However, center Nikola Vucevic isn’t a part of the young core. Chicago could have shut him down following his calf injury around the same time Ayo Dosunmu’s season ended. Instead, Vucevic is playing a starting role for a team that is close to eclipsing the Miami Heat for the No. 9 spot in the Eastern Conference.
Chicago has an opportunity to shut down Ball for the season after he re-injured his wrist. Ball has been ruled out for Chicago’s six-game road trip.
The Chicago Bulls made a stubborn decision
Per Jow Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said this weekend that the team has no plans to shut down Ball for the remainder of the season, and could return as soon as the team’s matchup at home against the Los Angeles Lakers on March 27.
“I haven’t heard anything about him being shut down,” Donovan said. “I think what he’s doing right now is just trying to get himself back to playing. Doctors aren’t saying, ‘Hey, listen, you gotta sit out.’ It’s just when he feels that he can do things on the court that he’s comfortable with. Like he can’t shoot right now, hasn’t been able to do that . . . passing and dribbling.
“Until that subsides, then he’ll be out, but I think he, in my conversations with him, it’s been everything to try to get back to playing. No one has said to me from above, ‘Hey, this goes on a little longer, we’re going to have him shut down.’ I have not heard that.”
The Bulls have 10 games remining in the regular season when they return from their trip. Then they will have some extra basketball to play via the Play-In Tournament because they have stubbornly decided to go full throttle with veteran players instead of giving extra minutes to developing players, like rookie Matas Buzeilis.
It’s helping the Bulls find the win column instead of extra percentage points for the top three draft picks, as a suddenly hot Coby White has helped Chicago win four straight before losing by three points on the road to the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.
Lonzo Ball’s recovery process has been slow
In the case of Ball, the Bulls are willing to risk the effectiveness of the oft-injured point guard next season, as Donovan admitted the recovery process has been “slow.”
“He’s really tough with what he’s been through physically with the knee, with the wrist injury earlier in the year, then reinjuring it,’’ Donovan said of Ball. ‘‘I think he knows, ‘I can’t go out there and be effective and productive for the group,’ and I think he’s working to get that resolved. The hard part is it’s been a really slow process.”
The Bulls decision on Ball wasn’t surprising, as they’re taking a bigger risk by allowing Vucevic to potentially sustain an injury before they can trade him in the summer. It’s just disappointing.
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