4:45pm: Wade intends to make his return to the court on Saturday for the Bulls’ game against the Nets, reports Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com (Twitter link).
3:47pm: Dwyane Wade‘s recovery from a fractured right elbow continues to progress ahead of schedule, and there appears to be some optimism that the veteran guard could return to the Bulls before the end of the regular season, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN.com.
As K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune tweets, the plan is to see how Wade’s elbow responds after he scrimmaged with the Bulls today. Then, Wade will practice in New York on Friday and the team will evaluate him after that time and make a determination on whether he can play before the regular season ends.
When Wade originally went down last month with his elbow injury, the Bulls announced that he’d miss the rest of the regular season. However, we heard last week that he had been working out in the hopes of returning for the playoffs, and now it seems he might get back onto the court even sooner than that.
“He says that he feels good,” teammate Jimmy Butler said of Wade. “Which he’s supposed to say because he wants to come back and play. I don’t want him to hurry back and re-injure it or make it worse, but I want him out there on the floor, so it’s kind of a ‘I want you back, but I don’t want you to jeopardize anything.'”
It will be an interesting summer for Wade, who will have to make a decision on his player option for 2017/18 and could land with a new team if he turns it down. If there’s a risk of re-injuring his elbow by returning too early, that’s something he’ll have to consider, but he’s presumably eager to help the Bulls make a push for a playoff spot.
Currently, Chicago sits at 38-40, putting the team in a tie for the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers are also 38-40, while the Heat (37-40) and Hornets (36-42) remain in the postseason hunt.
Who cares? The Bulls are still unwatchable.
Please don’t.
Bulls are going to back into the playoffs it seems. They own the tiebreakers with all 3 teams, so looks like if they win or the Hornets lose 1 more, it is down to either the Pacers or Heat losing 2 more games, and the Bulls are unfortunately in. Bulls managed to lose to the Knicks though so hope survives that they can get a lottery pick instead. Bulls have the best odds right now of all those teams, and a remaining schedule of patsies (but, of course, they lost to the Knicks).
Celtics get a freebie in the first round if they get Chicago. Ideal scenario for us is Chicago-Washington-Cleveland/Toronto. Those last two are assuming no major upsets.
Does it really matter who Boston faces in the first round? The eastern conference is a joke, and you’re still not getting to the finals.