- Bulls center Nikola Vucevic has been struggling with his shot after missing two weeks with COVID-19 and he expressed his frustration after Saturday’s loss in Miami, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Vucevic was just 3-of-15 from the field and missed several opportunities close to the basket. ‘‘It’s tough when you want to play well and go out there and help the team win and don’t do your job,’’ he said. ‘‘I have a lot of pride in myself and put the work in, obviously. It’s not working for me right now, but that’s part of it. I’ve never been through a slump like this, and I just have to work myself out of it. I’m not doing what I’m supposed to do.’’
The Bulls‘ COVID-19 outbreak continues with Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson both being placed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago.
They are the sixth and seventh Chicago players to enter the protocols, along with Coby White, Javonte Green, DeMar DeRozan, Matt Thomas and Derrick Jones Jr.
Johnson just joined the team on Thursday, signing a 10-day deal under the hardship exception. The Bulls added a second hardship player, Alfonzo McKinnie, on Friday. Dosunmu, a rookie guard, has started the last two games due to the depleted lineup.
The Bulls still have 11 active players, so there doesn’t appear to be any danger of tonight’s game in Miami being postponed. The NBA hasn’t called off any games so far this season after COVID-19 caused chaos with the schedule last year, particularly in the early part of the season.
Schaefer adds that Alex Caruso, who has missed the past three games with a strained right hamstring, has been listed as available for tonight.
Rookie guard Ayo Dosunmu has started the past two games for the shorthanded Bulls, and Sam Smith of Bulls.com writes that he’s earned that opportunity. A Chicago native, Dosunmu played well in his first start, notching 11 points, six rebounds, and eight assists in nearly 42 minutes during the team’s win over Denver on Monday.
Coach Billy Donovan is a big fan of the rookie and says he possesses an innate desire to improve his game.
“I really love coaching him because you can really, really talk to him in a way he wants the truth,” said Donovan. “He wants to get better, he wants to grow, he wants to hear what he has to do to improve. For me as a coach, when you see a young man with that much hunger and desire to want to be good… he wants to hear it all and I really respect that about him. There’s a lot on his plate and he did a great job not only starting (Monday) but playing the number of minutes he did.”
Smith relays that Dosunmu, who went to the University of Illinois, located in Champaign, asked to be announced as “From Chicago” in his first home start, like former Bulls MVP Derrick Rose.
“I like to be proud to say I’m from Chicago because I know the ups and downs of the city,” said Dosunmu. “I’ve been here my whole life. I’ve seen so many things, so much tragedy. For me to be in this position, doing what I love at the highest level, anytime I get an opportunity to show love to where I came from, I always love to do that. I’m from Chicago. Chicago, Illinois. I love Champaign, but I’m from Chicago.”
Here’s more from the Central:
- Bryan Fonseca of BasketballNews.com makes the case for Cavaliers big man Jarrett Allen to earn his first All-Star nod this season. Fonseca notes that Allen has posted career-high numbers in several categories for the 14-12 Cavs, including a ridiculously efficient 71.7% true shooting percentage, which ranks third in the league.
- Speaking of the Cavaliers center, Joe Vardon of The Athletic tweets that Allen will be strongly considered for the next Team USA squad under new head coach Steve Kerr. The World Cup takes place in 2023, with the Olympics in 2024.
- With a record of 4-20, the Pistons rank dead last in the NBA. However, Rod Beard of The Detroit News believes that coach Dwane Casey‘s job should be safe. He notes that the Pistons have struggled to make open shots all year, which is a player problem, not a coaching issue. The team believes in Casey’s ability to work with and develop young players, Beard adds.
- The results might not be showing it yet, but James L. Edwards III of The Athletic says the Pistons are in a much healthier place this season compared to the last few. He points to several young players on rookie contracts, another potential top pick this summer, and cap flexibility moving forward as reasons why the outlook is brighter in Detroit than it might appear on the surface.
11:35am: McKinnie has signed a 10-day contract, the Bulls announced (via Twitter).
8:34am: The Bulls will use a hardship exception to add veteran swingman Alfonzo McKinnie, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
McKinnie, 29, played for the Lakers last season, but was waived in August with two non-guaranteed years left on his contract. He got into 39 games for L.A. and averaged 3.1 points and 1.4 rebounds in 6.6 minutes per night.
He is currently in the G League, where he’s playing for the Mexico City Capitanes and scoring 24.1 PPG while shooting 43.3% from three-point range.
After going undrafted out of Green Bay in 2015, McKinnie played overseas and in the G League before signing with the Raptors in 2017. He also spent a season with the Warriors and one with the Cavaliers.
The Bulls are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that has sapped their roster. They added Stanley Johnson under the hardship exemption earlier this week, but have since had a fifth player, Derrick Jones Jr. enter the league’s health and safety protocols.
Forward Derrick Jones Jr. has become the fifth Bulls player to enter the league’s health and safety protocols, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
If it wasn’t evident already, the Bulls have an outbreak on their hands. Jones joins Coby White, Javonte Green, DeMar DeRozan, and Matt Thomas in the protocols.
It hasn’t been officially confirmed, but based on this tweet from Wojnarowski, it sounds like Jones tested positive for COVID-19 as well. If so, he will be out for at least 10 days or until he returns two consecutive negative PCR tests a minimum of 24 hours apart.
If Jones did test positive, the Bulls would be eligible to sign another player via a hardship exception, per Bobby Marks of ESPN (via Twitter). The Bulls already used the exception to sign Stanley Johnson in a move that became official today.
The high-flying Jones was the 2020 Slam Dunk Contest winner. Through 22 games this season (18.6 MPG), he’s averaging 7.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 1.0 BPG.
DECEMBER 9: The Bulls have officially signed Johnson to a 10-day contract using the hardship exception, the team announced today in a press release.
DECEMBER 8: The Bulls are signing forward Stanley Johnson by using a hardship exception, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Johnson was playing in the G League for the South Bay Lakers, but was with the Bulls during training camp.
The Bulls evidently applied for and were granted the hardship exception after Matt Thomas became the fourth member of the team to enter the league’s health and safety protocols.
Johnson, 25, was the No. 8 pick in the 2015 draft by the Pistons. He spent his first three-plus seasons in the league with Detroit before being traded to the Pelicans in 2018/19. Johnson played for the Raptors the past two seasons and was a regular rotation player last season, averaging 4.4 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 1.5 APG in 61 contests for the club (16.5 MPG).
Johnson is a strong, physical athlete and a solid defender, but shooting has limited his effectiveness in the NBA. In 331 career games (19.7 MPG), he holds averages of 6.2 PPG 3.1 RPG, and 1.4 APG on .375/.298/.761 shooting.
In six games with South Bay this season (30.5 MPG), Johnson put up 15.3 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 2.2 SPG with a .405/.286/.750 shooting line.
Guard Matt Thomas is the latest Bulls player to enter the NBA’s health and safety protocols, per Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link). In a follow-up tweet, Schaefer notes that Thomas was in Cleveland for the matchup Wednesday against the Cavs, but will travel back to Chicago.
Thomas is expected to miss several games, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter), so he likely tested positive for COVID-19, although that has not been confirmed yet. If he did test positive, Thomas will be out for at least 10 days or until he returns two consecutive negative tests a minimum of 24 hours apart.
Thomas is now the fourth Bulls player in the protocols, joining Coby White, Javonte Green and DeMar DeRozan. With those four sidelined, Patrick Williams out four-to-six months, and Alex Caruso out at least a week with a hamstring strain, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets that the Bulls could apply for a hardship exception in order to sign a player.
Thomas is playing on a non-guaranteed contract with the Bulls. He played 19 minutes in the team’s win over Denver on Monday, but had seen only 30 minutes of action across seven games prior to that contest. The 27-year-old holds career averages of 3.8 PPG and 1.2 RPG (8.7 MPG) across 94 games for the Raptors, Jazz, and Bulls, with a .432/.404/.808 shooting line.
The Bulls will have just 11 active players Wednesday night. Rookie Ayo Dosunmu played a team-high 41 minutes against Denver and should continue to see a heavy workload. Troy Brown also figures to see an uptick in playing time with the backcourt depth so thin at the moment.
The Bulls expect to be without key reserve Alex Caruso until at least early next week, head coach Billy Donovan stated on Monday evening. Donovan told reporters, including Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Caruso, who is dealing with a right hamstring strain, would be reevaluated in about a week.
According to Cody Westerlund of 670TheScore.com (Twitter link), Donovan said that Caruso’s hamstring injury isn’t considered significant, but the team wants to play it safe in order to ensure the veteran guard doesn’t make the minor ailment any worse.
Caruso’s offensive numbers during his first year in Chicago – 8.5 PPG and 4.1 APG on .442/.333/.857 – have been relatively modest through 23 games. However, the 27-year-old has been a major part of the Bulls’ top-five defense. He leads the league with 2.2 steals per game despite averaging a relatively modest 28.6 MPG.
The Bulls’ net rating is nine points better when Caruso plays (+8.9) than when he sits (-0.1).
With Caruso on the shelf and Coby White and Javonte Green in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the Bulls figure to lean heavily on Lonzo Ball and Ayo Dosunmu in the backcourt. Shooting guard Matt Thomas also logged a season-high 19 minutes in Monday’s win over Denver.
Bulls swingman DeMar DeRozan has entered into the league’s health and safety protocols, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. The team plays the Nuggets on Monday.
Just hours before the announcement, DeRozan was named the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Week. DeRozan posted averages 30.3 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 4.0 APG while shooting 58.7% from the floor in wins over Charlotte, New York, and Brooklyn.
He’s the fourth Bulls player who has entered protocols this season, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic tweets.
DeRozan will need to produce two consecutive negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart, or be isolated for at least 10 days. It’s obviously a big blow in the short term for a much-improved team that owns a 16-8 record. Following tonight’s home game, Chicago goes on a two-game road trip to Cleveland (Wednesday) and Miami (Saturday).
If DeRozan must sit out for 10 days, he’d also miss next Tuesday’s home game against Detroit and the Nov. 16 road game at Toronto.
A sign-and-trade acquisition from San Antonio, DeRozan has enjoyed an All-Star caliber season. He’s averaging 26.4 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 4.1 APG in 24 starts with his new team.
Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell and Bulls guard/forward DeMar DeRozan have been named the NBA’s Players of the Week for the Western Conference and Eastern Conference, respectively, the league announced today (Twitter link).
Mitchell’s Jazz and DeRozan’s Bulls were both 3-0 during the week of Nov. 29 — Dec. 5. Mitchell averaged 33.0 PPG, 5.7 APG, and 1.67 SPG with a 57.1/43.3/93.3 shooting line, while DeRozan put up 30.3 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 4.0 APG while shooting 58.7% from the floor in wins over Charlotte, New York, and Brooklyn.
The other nominees for the awards were Nikola Jokic, Dejounte Murray, Jae’Sean Tate, and Christian Wood in the West, along with Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, Kevin Durant, and Jayson Tatum in the East (via Twitter).