Bulls All-Star forward DeMar DeRozan intends to return to action from a right quad strain on Thursday, reports K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
Chicago has gone 1-2 without the 6’6″ swingman, the team’s leading scorer and best player.
“You get a different perspective when you are sitting back and watching from afar,” DeRozan said of his absence. “We were just having too many lapses here and there, whether defensively or offensively, that put us in a hole and made it so tough for us to get back in a lot of games. And we’re still right there.”
If by “right there” he means barely in the play-in tournament bracket, then he’s right. At 20-24, the Bulls currently occupy the tenth seed in the East, though they are tied with the No. 11 Raptors.
There’s more out of the Windy City:
- Bulls center Nikola Vucevic, a trade candidate given he’s on an expiring deal, tied his career high with 43 points in a 132-118 home win over the Warriors Sunday, writes Alex Shapiro of NBC Sports Chicago. Vucevic also contributed 13 points, four assists and four steals in a well-rounded effort. “He’s so dynamic because he can shoot the three, play the pocket, he can make the floater, the hook shot,” second-year guard Ayo Dosunmu raved. “He’s got all of that in his bag. He’s also unselfish, so sometimes he gets in the pick and roll, if he doesn’t have it he hits the weakside person.”
- Starting Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball, who has missed just over a full calendar year following complications from two knee surgeries, conceded that he may not return to the floor for Chicago this season, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “I mean, naturally, yeah, everything is on a time schedule,” Ball said when asked if missing the entire season is a possibility. “I would love to play. I would never count that out. It’s a long year, I feel like we’re hitting our stride right now. So hopefully I can keep getting better, the team will keep getting better and we can meet up.”
- Chicago team president Arturas Karnisovas addressed fans during a recent appearance on NBC Sports Chicago’s Bulls Talk podcast. “I enjoy the fan base and how much they love the team and how involved they are,” Karnišovas said (h/t to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports for the transcription). “It’s not fun when we lose. I’m a very competitive person. That’s what you need to know. I don’t take losses lightly. I get emotional just like you. We’re trying to turn this around.”
Even if everyone is healthy and they are playing at peak level they still aren’t winning a Championship. No generational talent, No Championship. That’s how it works. Accumulate draft picks, clear cap space and start over. The NBA formula is the easiest in sports.
Bulls are on championship mode
They are targeting playoffs
Comparable to Knicks
Edit
Bulls are not on championship mode
Bulls goal is to make playoffs
Yet that easy formula still hasn’t yielded any fruit across the Nba this century
The Nba imo is one of the toughest sports to change directions in and navigate successfully
I’ll take a strong front office/ culture over the cap / lottery picks any day still for the Nba
Tanking is one of those things that sounds a lot easier than it actually is. The Kings have been tanking for 20 years. Where has that gotten them? The Pels have been tanking practically their entire franchise history. Heck, even the Process Sixers haven’t gotten past the conference championship round. It’s harder to execute than one would think, and it’s gotten harder now that a third of the league in any given year is actively trying to lose. And then, if you get lucky enough to get #1 overall, congrats it’s the Anthony Bennett draft…
Think you’ve made so many incorrect points in this reply.
Kings tanking for 20 years…
98-99 they traded for Webber, brought Peña over from Europe and signed Divac in FA.
01-02 they finished first in the west and went to the conference finals and pushed the lakers to game 7 which a series which is regarded as one of the most controversial of all time. That lakers team ended up winning their third straight championship.
Would hardly call that tanking.
Pelicans tanking their entire franchise history. Pretty sure when they traded for Boogie Cousins to okay with AD and form a twin towers duo with Jrue Holiday they weren’t thinking about who they should draft then. Same right now with CJ Ingram and Zion not exactly looking to lose games.
What the original post says is the formula to winning a championship or atleast having a chance at one is to draft a generational talent and then use your cap space wisely. He’s not saying if you draft well you will automatically win a championship.
Lastly in reference to the NBA being easier I think that’s more about the fact if you suck really badly you get a top 5 pick that’s very likely to be a future all star and if not you’ll suck again next year and get another chance.
Once you hit a couple times (ie the Sixers getting Simmons Embiid and Maxey but missing in Noel Okafor and Fultz) you’ll have a good team and all is well.
Whereas in the NFL you have 7 rounds of drafting and every draft has about 10 pro bowl level players and a bunch of good starters and they are more often than not scattered all over the draft. Not to mention the fact NFL teams are made up of like 30-40 starters on both ends of the field and special teams. If you have 1 generational talent among 40 it’s not going to drastically make you better like 1 in 5 in basketball would.
So Russ where’s the examples of this winning ?
I see ( mostly ) new gen posters swear by this formula but when’s it worked ?
*01/02 was over 20 years ago for Sac as well so unless you have a better example Toms point holds true on Sac
And why do you need the lottery to get a star ? What about Curry Giannis Joker ? The gsw trio ?
Again you leave Zero supporting evidence for your claims just basically a “ trust me “
Where’s the evidence ? You have 20 years to pull from yet you still cite. Nothing ? Don’t you find that odd ? Has all really been well for Philly ? That’s the high bar we want to flush 5-10 years away fjr ? Yikes , and that’s te best example to give ?
Maxey was drafted 21st
Simmons was traded for a very lite package
Those ( or the process ) doesn’t support tanking , in fact I think they show just how much it doesn’t work
I still don’t see one solid point for tanking by anyone