- The young Bulls stars are showing respect to one another now, but conflict will come when someone has to emerge as the team leader, predicts Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago. Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn are both aware that possibility is coming, but they are focused on more immediate goals. “I don’t worry about that. I don’t get into that — who’s the best player and all that,” Dunn said. “We all have to be leaders for this team. We have to be leaders in different ways. It’s a matter of time to see how we jell out. Right now we just keep playing.”
- After sitting out seven games as the Bulls opted for a youth movement, center Robin Lopez will return to the starting lineup Friday in the wake of a warning from the NBA about resting healthy players. “It’s a little bit of a crazy situation,” Lopez told K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). “I’m always excited to get out there and play with the guys.”
The NBA issued a warning to the Bulls this week about resting healthy players, prompting the team to change course and plan on using veterans Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday more frequently, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
Lopez has not played for the Bulls since a February 14 home loss to the Raptors; Holiday last played in a road loss to the Nets in Brooklyn on February 26. Chicago tried to unload Lopez, a free agent at season’s end, at last month’s trade deadline, but couldn’t find a deal. The Bulls removed both veterans from the rotation to evaluate their young players for the remainder of the season.
“After the All-Star break, we had communication with the league office about Robin and Justin’s roles. After healthy dialogue, the league determined that their situations fall into the ‘player rest’ policy,” Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson said in a statement, tweets Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “We respect the communication and cooperative dialogue with the league and will adhere to their recommendations going forward.”
Commissioner Adam Silver has taken a firm stance against teams purposely tanking. He fined Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $600K in late February for public comments advocating for tanking. Since then, he sent out a league-wide memo warning teams that they will face consequences if they are found to be purposely trying to lose.
“If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office,” Silver said.
The Bulls were viewed as one of the worst teams in the league entering the season. Thus far, their 21-42 record, the fourth-worst record in the Eastern Conference, has corroborated those predictions.
Bulls forward Bobby Portis will become eligible for a contract extension for the first time on July 1, and the team will discuss the possibility of locking up Portis to a long-term deal, a front office source tells Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago.
Portis, 23, has enjoyed a breakout year in his third NBA season, averaging 13.2 PPG and 6.5 RPG in just 21.5 minutes per contest. He has enjoyed that success despite opening the season by serving an eight-game suspension for punching then-teammate Nikola Mirotic during a practice.
At that point, it seemed possible that Portis wouldn’t even finish the season in Chicago — Mirotic’s camp reportedly issued a “him or me” ultimatum in the wake of the altercation. However, the Bulls like Portis and chose to view the incident as a one-time transgression rather than as a possible harbinger of future problems. The team has given Portis a chance to play a key rotation role, ultimately trading Mirotic to New Orleans.
As Goodwill details, the Bulls don’t often give out rookie scale contract extensions to players a year before they reach restricted free agency. Derrick Rose is the only Bull in recent memory to sign such a deal. However, Goodwill also observes that the club is expected to shop Robin Lopez this offseason, and Cristiano Felicio hasn’t developed as hoped, so securing Portis to an extension could add a little more long-term certainty to a frontcourt that also features rookie Lauri Markkanen.
Waiting until 2019’s free agent period to work out a deal with Portis could also result in his cost increasing, so the 2018 offseason may represent the Bulls’ best chance to get a team-friendly price for the big man. According to Goodwill, over 20 teams reached out to Chicago following the Mirotic incident to ask about Portis, so the Bulls know the young forward has plenty of leaguewide value.
While discussing an extension for Portis will be one of the items on the Bulls’ to-do list this offseason, new contracts for RFAs-to-be Zach LaVine and David Nwaba figure to take priority, Goodwill notes.
- Bulls guard Zach LaVine is putting a heavy emphasis on the final quarter of the season as he continues his comeback after ACL surgery, according to K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. The coaching staff is still refusing to allow LaVine to play in back-to-back games, but with only three sets of those left on the schedule he is handling almost a full workload. “I feel great,” he said. “I want to test it. I want to play as many minutes as possible. I’m a gamer. I don’t want to miss back-to-backs. It helps me, helps the team and helps me get back to where I need to be.”
The Bulls are walking a fine line between developing young players and outright tanking, K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune writes. The organization’s recent decision to sideline starters Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday is one glaring examples of the club’s bold strategy down the stretch.
While vice president John Paxson did proactively say the Bulls would be launching a player-development plan when the team returned from the All-Star Break, league commissioner Adam Silver is on a mission to curb the thought that teams could be losing on purpose.
To Paxson’s credit, there’s merit to the idea of auditioning unproven players during the final months of an otherwise lost campaign, gauging how individuals fare with heavier workloads is an essential part of planning for the future. The question is how well the Bulls can balance that with putting a reasonably competitive team out on the floor.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- The Cavaliers added four rotation players at the trade deadline, so it’s not surprising that head coach Tyronn Lue is still sizing up what exactly he has on his hands. “I just want to see what I’m working with,” Lue told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. “I really don’t know the guys that much, that well. Just want to see in big moments, pressure situations, how they perform. They performed well and they’ve been performing well.“
- The Pistons hope that Reggie Jackson is able to practice on March 11, prior to the team embarking on a six-game road trip, Keith Langlois of the team’s official site tweets.
- Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy views his decision to take Eric Moreland out of the team’s rotation as a mistake, Geoff Robinson of The Detroit News writes. The bench boss plans to amend that by getting Moreland more minutes in order to capitalize on the energy he brings.
MARCH 1: The Bulls have officially signed Eddie to a 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release.
FEBRUARY 28: The Bulls are expected to call up small forward Jarell Eddie from their G League affiliate, according to Chris Haynes of ESPN, who tweets that Eddie is on track to receive a 10-day contract from the club. Chicago won’t have to make a roster move to accommodate the signing, since the team currently has an opening.
Eddie, who has seen NBA action with the Wizards, Suns, and Celtics, has spent most of the 2017/18 season in the G League with the Windy City Bulls. He has provided excellent outside shooting for Chicago’s affiliate, posting 16.9 PPG with a .475 3PT% in 18 games.
Eddie’s solid play for Windy City earned him a 10-day contract with the Celtics in January, but he didn’t receive a second deal after that first one expired, since Boston needed his roster spot for Greg Monroe. If the Bulls want to keep Eddie around for more than 10 days, they’ll have the opportunity to sign him to a second 10-day pact before deciding on whether to commit to a rest-of-season contract.
The Bulls would take on a cap hit of $83,129 by signing Eddie to a 10-day deal.
- The Bulls have Bobby Portis under contract through next season and can make him a restricted free agent in the summer of 2019. Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago takes an in-depth look at whether Portis fits into Chicago’s rebuilding plans.
Earlier this month, we identified the NBA teams with open roster spots. Since then, clubs have completed a flurry of 10-day signings, and a couple players have even received rest-of-season deals.
However, there are still plenty of teams around the league with openings on their respective rosters, which could come in handy with Thursday’s de facto buyout deadline around the corner. Once March 1 comes and goes, teams will have a better idea of which players will or won’t have postseason eligibility the rest of the way, creating a clearer picture for how to fill those open roster spots.
In the space below, we’ll take a closer look at teams with an open roster spot, breaking them down into three categories. Each of the clubs in the first group actually has a full 15-man roster right now, but in each instance, one of those 15 players is only a 10-day contract. With those contracts set to expire soon, it’d be very easy and inexpensive for these teams to create an opening if they need to.
Teams with full 15-man rosters who are carrying at least one player on a 10-day contract (10-day player noted in parentheses):
- Dallas Mavericks (Scotty Hopson)
- Indiana Pacers (Trey McKinney-Jones)
- New Orleans Pelicans (Walter Lemon Jr.)
- New York Knicks (Troy Williams)
- Orlando Magic (Rashad Vaughn)
- Phoenix Suns (Shaquille Harrison)
- Utah Jazz (Naz Mitrou-Long)
The next list of teams includes the clubs with one open spot on their roster and no players on 10-day contracts. These clubs each have 14 players on standard, full-season NBA deals, leaving one spot open for either a 10-day player or a rest-of-season signing.
Teams with one open roster spot:
- Charlotte Hornets
- Chicago Bulls
- Los Angeles Clippers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Note: The Lakers will create a second opening when they officially waive Corey Brewer.
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Sacramento Kings
- Toronto Raptors
Finally, the last group of teams features four clubs that have been grouped together before. These four teams saw their roster counts slip to 13 players around the time of the trade deadline, and each had to add a player to get back up to the NBA-mandated minimum of 14. To reach that minimum, each team signed a player to a 10-day contract. That means these four franchises still only have 12 or 13 players on full-season contracts, with at least one player on a 10-day deal.
Teams with one open roster spot, plus at least one player on a 10-day contract:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Note: 12 full-season contracts, plus Antonius Cleveland and Jaylen Morris on 10-day contracts
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Note: 13 full-season contracts, plus Marcus Thornton on 10-day contract.
- Portland Trail Blazers
- Note: 13 full-season contracts, plus Brandon Rush on 10-day contract.
- Washington Wizards
- Note: 13 full-season contracts, plus Ramon Sessions on 10-day contract.
For roster-count details on all 30 teams, be sure to check out our roster count page, which we updated daily throughout the 2017/18 season.
Note: Roster info current as of Wednesday, February 28 at 12:00pm CT.
- When Jimmy Butler collapsed with a meniscus injury last Friday, it evoked bad memories for his former coach Fred Hoiberg and recent torn ACL returnee Zach LaVine, Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago writes. LaVine tore his ACL last season and returned a few weeks ago; Hoiberg saw Butler suffer a similar injury that only cost him a few weeks in his first season as Bulls coach. Butler underwent surgery and will be sidelined for four to six weeks.
Robin Lopez has been the Bulls’ starting center since being acquired from the Knicks in the summer of 2016, but he has been relegated to the bench as Chicago launches a youth movement, writes Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago. With Cristiano Felicio being named the starting center, Lopez has sat out the past two games and it’s not clear when he might return.
“It was rough for me. I get it. I understand it,” Lopez said. “I always want to be out there playing on the court. That’s what I enjoy, especially playing with these guys. But I’m excited to watch these guys give it a go from the bench.”
Lopez isn’t sure if he’s in the Bulls’ long-range plans, even though he has one more season left on his contract at more than $13.5MM. He’s averaging a career-best 12.3 points to go with 4.7 rebounds in 57 games, so there should be interested teams if Chicago decides to trade him this summer.
There’s more news from the Windy City:
- Justin Holiday has been benched along with Lopez, but both may return to the lineup at some point this season, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. Coach Fred Hoiberg didn’t directly answer questions about their future, but Lopez said he expects to play again. Holiday is also signed through next season at a salary of nearly $4.39MM.
- Third-year forward Bobby Portis is part of the youth movement and has been succeeding with a grating style that irritates opponents, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Portis has nearly doubled his scoring average to 13.0 points per game, while piling up an enemies list that includes former teammate Nikola Mirotic, who missed the start of the season with facial fractures he suffered in a preseason skirmish with Portis. “People used to joke around all the time about it, but now I’m making it into something I like,’’ Portis said of his “Crazy Eyes” nickname. “My eyes do get crazy, and I never know what they’re going to do.’’
- The Bulls are three games out of the top spot in our latest Reverse Standings, but tanking may not be the best strategy for a turnaround, Cowley suggests in a separate story. He notes that Chicago already has a wealth of young talent on hand and may benefit more by trying to win some games before the end of the season than by trying to improve its draft pick.