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Bulls Notes: White, Ball, Beverley, Green, Vucevic, Schedule

March 14th, 2023 at 7:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Coby White didn’t get an extension last offseason, meaning he’ll be a free agent this summer. The Bulls can make him a restricted free agent by extending him a qualifying offer of $7.74MM.

The fourth-year guard wants to build up his value and show his versatility this season, he told Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times.

“I just wanted to take steps this year and prove that I could do things that people thought I couldn’t do,’’ White said. “But with all that said, you just never know in this league, this business. You never know what’s really going on. So I just have to keep the mindset of keep it steady, keep it consistent, and hopefully everything will take care of itself.’’

White has been in the rotation much of the year, averaging a career-low 8.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 22.3 minutes per game.

We have more on the Bulls:

With Lonzo Ball possibly undergoing another procedure on his knee, the team’s brass will ponder whether to bring in another starter-level point guard this summer, Cowley writes in the same piece. “I do think the front office, ownership, will sit down after [Ball’s] decision is made, look at a timetable of how long this rehab and recovery will be, and then make decisions from there on what are the expectations of him coming back, what will the length of the rehab look like, how much more time he’ll miss?’’ coach Billy Donovan said. “I think that will be a conversation we would all have at the end of the year.’’
Zach LaVine says that Patrick Beverley has been a huge boost since joining the team as a free agent, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets. “Energy. Heart. Toughness. Vocal. He gets us going,” LaVine said. “You can see how much he cares about winning and his teammates. We definitely needed someone like that. It shows with the impact he has on the game.”
Javonte Green was able to run and cut during practice for a second straight day, according to Donovan, Johnson tweets. An update on Green’s status is expected next week. He underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Jan. 11.
Nikola Vucevic‘s stats haven’t changed much from last season, other than his shooting percentage (51.2% compared to 47.3%). However, he feels like he’s having a better year than his first full season with the franchise, according to Johnson. “Last season, I felt I was up and down a little bit while trying to figure out my role,” said Vucevic, a free agent after this season. “So it was very important for me to come back and have a strong season and play well. I think I’ve been able to do that.”
The Bulls will have to adjust defensively to different styles in order to nail down a play-in tournament berth, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic writes. They begin a three-game homestand against the Kings on Wednesday. “We better be able to,” LaVine said. “You can’t take the same plan into each game, especially defensively. Going up against Sacramento coming up now, you can’t treat them like they’re Houston. … So it’s another thing for us to lock into. And after that game, you’ve got to switch it up and get ready for the next team.”

Community Shootaround: Eastern Conference Play-In Race

March 12th, 2023 at 10:10am CST by Luke Adams

The playoff and play-in races in the Western Conference have gotten more attention than those in the East so far this season, in large part because so many of the West’s would-be contenders – like the Warriors, Clippers, Mavericks, and Lakers – are packed so tightly together among a huge group of teams competing for postseason spots.

Still, with just four weeks remaining in the regular season, the Eastern Conference play-in race has gotten awfully close too. Heading into Sunday’s action, the teams from No. 9 to No. 12 in the East are separate by just a single game, as follows:

Toronto Raptors (32-36)
Chicago Bulls (31-36)
Washington Wizards (31-36)
Indiana Pacers (31-37)

These four teams aren’t exactly on their own island in the Eastern standings — the 34-34 Hawks only have a two-game cushion on Toronto, and the 36-33 Heat aren’t much further ahead. Conversely, the 28-40 Magic probably can’t be counted out of the play-in race yet.

Still, with only about 14 or 15 games left on most teams’ schedules, the most likely outcome at this point is that two of the four teams listed above will earn play-in berths and two will be left on the outside looking in.

The Raptors and Bulls, the two teams currently holding the final two play-in spots, have had somewhat similar seasons. They won 48 and 46 games respectively in 2021/22, clinching top-six seeds in the East, and came into this season expecting to match or exceed last year’s success. Instead, both clubs have been horribly inconsistent, losing more games than they’ve won and experiencing repeated letdowns every time it seemed like they were about to make a breakthrough.

Nonetheless, neither team is throwing in the towel on this season. Despite outside calls for players like OG Anunoby, Fred VanVleet, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan to be traded at last month’s deadline, both Toronto and Chicago held firm, with the Raptors actually buying rather than selling by acquiring Jakob Poeltl from San Antonio. Both teams have enough high-end talent to be a spoiler in the play-in tournament if they make it, but they’ll need to perform more consistently down the stretch if they hope to secure playoff spots.

The Wizards also aren’t lacking star talent, with Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma enjoying career years alongside longtime standout Bradley Beal. However, that trio hasn’t been quite good enough to make up for a mediocre supporting cast — the team has a plus-4.9 net rating when Beal, Porzingis, and Kuzma play together, but a minus-0.3 rating overall.

Still, with all three of their top players healthy and a more favorable schedule down the stretch than Toronto or Chicago (per Tankathon), the Wizards should still be considered a strong candidate to claim a play-in berth.

The Pacers, meanwhile, looked like they might be ready to tank after they plummeted down the standings during Tyrese Haliburton‘s 10-game injury absence in January (they lost nine of those games). But they’ve bounced back nicely as of late, winning five of their last seven contests and sticking around in the play-in picture.

Of the four teams discussed here, Indiana is the one with the least urgency to make the playoffs this season, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Pacers fall off a little and perhaps rest some banged-up players in the season’s final weeks, turning it into a three-team race for the East’s ninth and 10th spots. As inconsistent as the teams directly ahead of them in the standings have been though, it’s too early to rule out the Pacers.

We want to know what you think. Which two teams out of the Raptors, Bulls, Wizards, and Pacers do you expect to make the play-in? Will any of them move into the East’s top eight, either before the regular season ends or by winning two play-in games? Do you see the Magic making a run to turn this into a five-team race, or can they be safely crossed off the list of play-in contenders?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Central Notes: Hampton, Wiseman, Beverley, Horst

March 9th, 2023 at 10:34pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Third-year Pistons guard R.J. Hampton is slowly finding his place within his new team, writes Mike Curtis of The Detroit News (subscription required).

Hampton has earned significant playing time since arriving in Detroit last month following injuries to guards Killian Hayes and Alec Burks. He got off to a slow start, but with a bump in minutes over the past four contests, he is averaging 10.0 PPG on 48% field goal shooting, 2.3 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.3 SPG.

“I always tell myself, ‘When you put a pizza in the oven, you don’t like what it looks like after 20 seconds,'” Hampton told Curtis. “You gotta let it cook for a minute. You take it out the oven once it cooks and then you eat your pizza… I’m finding my footing here and kind of understanding my role, what I want it to be.”

There’s more out of the Central Division:

New Pistons addition James Wiseman is stringing together the best basketball in his NBA career thus far, Curtis writes in a subscriber-only mailbag for The Detroit News. Curtis also addresses questions on the free agency of Hamidou Diallo and the exact extent of Detroit’s player injuries.
Bulls starting point guard Patrick Beverley, an unrestricted free agent this summer, would like to remain with his hometown team beyond the 2022/23 season, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “Thinking about staying in a place long term, stuff like that, that’s not really up to your control,” Beverley noted. “I’d like to think that I did all the right things when I was in Minnesota, and I was traded the next summer. So you can’t get caught up in what you can’t control.”
Bucks team general manager Jon Horst recently reflected on how the team has made subtle roster enhancements since injuries and depth issues hampered their title defense in 2022, according to Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “As proud as I was, or we were, of our team last year – that’s sincere and genuine – it’s hard, it’s hard to defend a championship,” Horst told Owczarski. “We were right there. We had a chance. And that’s all you ask for every year… And we went into the summer, the offseason, like ‘we’ve got to get better… These teams are good, we’re like ‘we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to load up.’ So, really what we did is we loaded up.”

Lonzo Ball May Need Third Surgery On Knee

March 9th, 2023 at 8:07am CST by Arthur Hill

Bulls guard Lonzo Ball may have to undergo a third surgical procedure on his injured knee, writes ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Another operation would likely mean six more months of recovery and rehab time, Wojnarowski adds.

Sources tell Woj that Ball’s Klutch Sports representatives are working with the team to consult with specialists before a decision is made. Another procedure would sideline the 25-year-old guard until the fall and would affect his ability to prepare for next season.

Ball has already been through two operations since suffering a torn meniscus in the knee on January 14, 2022. Although he was originally projected to miss just a few weeks, complications keep pushing back the timeline and Ball has already been ruled out for the rest of this season.

Ball’s original surgery was 14 months ago, and he underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure in September to clear up lingering issues with his knee. Wojnarowski’s sources say that Ball has made incremental progress since then, but he still can’t run, cut or jump without feeling pain in the knee.

Ball came to Chicago in a sign-and-trade deal with the Pelicans in the summer of 2021. He helped lead the Bulls to a 27-13 record before the injury, averaging 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 35 games. In his absence, Chicago dropped to the sixth seed last season and is currently 11th in the East at 30-36.

Ball still has one season left on his contract at $20.5MM, along with a $21.4MM player option for 2024/25.

There’s little chance that Chicago will petition the NBA to have Ball’s injury declared career-ending, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Bulls would still owe Ball the remainder of his contract, and Marks points out that even if his salary is removed from the cap, the team wouldn’t have room this summer.

Northwest Notes: Jokic, Vucevic, Porter Jr., Micic, Prince

March 7th, 2023 at 10:21pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Bulls center Nikola Vucevic doesn’t think Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic should be penalized for being a prior Most Valuable Player award winner when voters make their selections this season, he told K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.

“I think he deserves to get another one, the way he’s playing. I think you take him out of that team, it’s not even close to the same team,” Vučević said of the Nuggets’ franchise player. “The things that he does, you look at his stats, the efficiency he’s playing at, it’s very impressive. And it’s not like he’s putting up numbers and they’re not winning. They’re (25-0) when he has a triple-double. And he plays in a winning way. He makes the right play. He doesn’t force. He doesn’t try to do something just to do it. It’s all within the flow of the game. It’s winning basketball.”

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The Nuggets may finally reach the Finals this season in large part because of Michael Porter Jr’s maturity, Harrison Wind of TheDNVR.com writes. Porter has made himself a force at both ends of the floor after teams previously tried to take advantage of his defensive shortcomings. “I think Michael Porter has been just tremendous on both ends of the floor all season long,” coach Michael Malone said.
Serbian guard Vasilije Micic has hired the Wasserman Media Group as his new representative, HoopsHype tweets. Micic, whose draft rights are owned by the Thunder, is a two-time Euroleague Final Four MVP and is considered the best guard in Europe. However, it’s unclear whether the Thunder would have a role for the 29-year-old if he pursued an NBA career next season and he could be traded if he wants to make the jump.
Taurean Prince‘s value to the Timberwolves is reflected in their won-loss record, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes. They are 24-17 when he plays and 10-16 when he doesn’t. “He’s like the ultimate glue guy with a little bit extra spice to it,” guard Mike Conley said. “You think he’s just three-and-D and all of a sudden, coming off pin downs, he’s making plays for guys. He’s being a leader. … He’s got a full game to him that’s really big for our second unit.” Prince has a non-guaranteed salary of $7.455MM next season and Minnesota has to make a decision on his contract status before free agency.

Checking In On Traded 2023 First-Round Picks

March 7th, 2023 at 3:01pm CST by Luke Adams

We still have nearly five weeks left in the NBA’s regular season, and play-in results, tiebreakers, and the draft lottery will further clarify what this year’s draft order will look like.

However, as the season enters its home stretch, we’re starting to get a clearer sense of which traded 2023 first-round picks will actually change hands (as opposed to falling in their protected range) and where those first-rounders will land. Here’s where things stand right now:

Picks that will be protected

Pistons‘ pick (top-18 protected) to Knicks
Hornets‘ pick (top-16 protected) to Spurs

The Pistons and Hornets are currently the bottom two teams in the Eastern Conference and appear unlikely to move any higher in the standings. There’s obviously no chance that they’ll end up picking the back half of the first round, so they’ll hang onto their first-round picks for at least one more year.

Once both of those picks are officially protected, the Pistons will owe the Knicks their 2024 first-rounder with top-18 protection, while the Hornets will owe the Spurs their 2024 first-rounder with top-14 protection.

Picks on track to change hands

Sixers‘ and Nets‘ picks (unprotected) to Nets and Jazz.
Bucks‘ and Clippers‘ picks (unprotected) to Clippers and Rockets.
Mavericks‘ pick (top-10 protected) to Knicks
Timberwolves‘ pick (unprotected) to Jazz.
Suns‘ pick (unprotected) to Nets.
Knicks‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Trail Blazers.
Cavaliers‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Pacers.
Celtics‘ pick (top-12 protected) to Pacers.
Nuggets‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Hornets.

Let’s work backwards and start with the obvious here. The Nuggets currently have the NBA’s second-best record, which would result in the No. 29 pick. The Celtics’ third-best record would give them the No. 28 pick. So Charlotte and Indiana, respectively, will definitely get those picks, but they’ll be pretty late in the first round.

Given the unpredictability that the play-in possibility injects into the playoff race, it may be a little early to lock in the Cavaliers and Knicks as automatic playoff teams, but they’re certainly trending in that direction. If the season ended today, Indiana would get the No. 26 overall pick from Cleveland and Portland would get the No. 23 selection from New York.

The Timberwolves’ and Suns’ picks have no protections, so they’re definitely changing hands — the only question is where they’ll land. Right now, Phoenix’s No. 21 pick would go to Brooklyn and Minnesota’s No. 18 pick would go to Utah.

The fact that the Mavericks’ pick is top-10 protected instead of lottery-protected means it could convey to the Knicks even if Dallas doesn’t earn a playoff spot. Right now, the Mavs are the seventh seed in the West and would owe the No. 17 seed to New York, but the playoff race is so tight and the play-in has such potential for fluctuation that Dallas’ pick could move a few spots in either direction.

The Nets will have the right to either their own pick or the Sixers’ pick, whichever is more favorable, with Utah receiving the less favorable of the two. Right now, that means Brooklyn would hang onto its own first-rounder (No. 22) while the Jazz would get Philadelphia’s pick (No. 27).

The Rockets won’t get to take advantage of their ability to swap their own pick for Brooklyn’s, but they have a second set of swap rights that should come in handy — Houston has the ability to swap Milwaukee’s first-rounder for the Clippers’ pick, with L.A. getting the less favorable of the two. That means if the season ended today, the Rockets would be in line for the Clippers’ first-rounder at No. 16, while L.A. would get the Bucks’ pick and move down 14 spots to No. 30.

One caveat here: If the Clippers’ first-round pick happens to land ahead of the Thunder’s pick, Oklahoma City would be able to swap its own pick for L.A.’s, then Houston could swap the Bucks’ first-rounder for OKC’s pick. For now though, that looks like a long shot, with the Clippers far better positioned than the Thunder in the Western playoff race.

Picks that remain the most up in the air

Bulls‘ pick (top-4 protected) to Magic
Wizards‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Knicks
Trail Blazers‘ pick (top-14 protected) to Bulls
Lakers‘ pick (unprotected) to Pelicans via swap rights

If the season ended today, the Bulls would be seventh in the draft lottery standings. That would give them a 31.9% chance to move up into the top four, meaning their pick would have about a two-in-three chance to go to Orlando. The Magic’s odds of acquiring the pick will increase if Chicago finishes the season strong.

If the Bulls manage to hang onto their pick this year, they’d owe the Magic their top-three protected first-rounder in 2024.

The Wizards are 10th in the East and have a decent chance to secure a play-in berth, but their odds of capturing a playoff spot are longer. If they lose in the play-in (or miss it entirely), they’ll keep their first-rounder rather than sending it to the Knicks, and would instead owe New York their top-12 protected pick in 2024.

The Trail Blazers are in a similar boat in the West, still in the play-in hunt but with increasingly long odds to actually make the playoffs. If they don’t get a first-round series in the postseason, they’ll hang onto their pick rather than sending it to the Bulls. Chicago will have to wait until Portland makes the playoffs to get that first-round selection, which remains lottery-protected through 2028.

Meanwhile, the Pelicans’ ability to swap first-rounders with the Lakers has been one of the most fascinating draft assets to monitor this year.

At one point in the first half, with Los Angeles off to an awful start and the Pelicans firing on all cylinders, it looked like New Orleans would be able to use that swap to move from the 20s into the top 10. Today, both teams have identical 31-34 records and have been trending in opposite directions. If that trend continues, New Orleans will end up keeping its own pick rather than swapping it for the Lakers’ first-rounder.

Bulls Re-Sign Justin Lewis To Two-Way Contract

March 7th, 2023 at 9:15am CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have officially brought back undrafted rookie forward Justin Lewis on a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release. The signing became official on Monday, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

A former Marquette standout, Lewis had a breakout sophomore season in 2021/22, averaging 16.8 PPG and 7.9 RPG in 32 games (32.2 MPG) for the Golden Eagles. Although he wasn’t selected on draft night, he quickly caught on with the Bulls on a two-way contract and played for Chicago’s Summer League team in Las Vegas in July.

However, Lewis suffered a knee injury during an August workout that was later diagnosed as an ACL issue requiring surgery. The 20-year-old stayed under contract with the Bulls until the end of the preseason, at which point he was waived to make room for new two-way signee Kostas Antetokounmpo. Reporting at the time indicated that Lewis would remain around the team while he went through his rehab process, using Chicago’s facilities.

Now, with just over a month left to go in the 2022/23 regular season, Lewis is back under contract with the Bulls. It has been less than seven months since he went under the knife following his ACL injury, so it’s unclear whether the 6’8″ forward is actually ready to suit up for Chicago or the team’s G League affiliate (the Windy City Bulls) down the stretch.

However, the fact that the Bulls brought back Lewis for the final few weeks of this season suggests that the organization remains high on him, so he could be in the team’s future plans. We don’t know yet whether his two-way deal will just be for the rest of this season or whether it will cover 2023/24 as well.

Chicago recently promoted two-way player Carlik Jones to its standard roster, so Lewis will fill the open spot previously occupied by Jones.

Carlik Jones Contract Details

March 7th, 2023 at 7:02am CST by Luke Adams

When they promoted him to their 15-man roster, the Bulls used a portion of their mid-level exception to sign Carlik Jones to a contract that covers two seasons beyond this one, Hoops Rumors has learned.

Jones’ rest-of-season salary ($357,717) is his minimum, but if the Bulls had relied on the minimum salary exception to convert Jones to a standard contract, they would only have been able to tack on one extra year. The mid-level exception allowed them to complete a three-year deal that includes a non-guaranteed minimum salary for 2024/25 ($2,092,344) in addition to a non-guaranteed minimum salary for ’23/24 ($1,927,896).

Jones will receive a partial guarantee of $250K on his 2023/24 salary if he remains under contract through the first day of the regular season this fall. The Bulls guard would have his full salary for next season guaranteed if he’s not waived on or before January 7, 2024.

Bulls Notes: DeRozan, Vucevic, DeRozan, Green

March 6th, 2023 at 8:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Following a crushing three-point home loss to Indiana, DeMar DeRozan admits he’s exasperated with the Bulls’ inability to gain any traction in the Eastern Conference standings, Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times writes.

“It’s beyond frustrating that we lost again,’’ DeRozan said. “It’s overly frustrating to lose, especially when we say it’s a must-win. We’re making our own bed. We can’t complain about it. We’ve got to figure out these last games to dig us out of this hole and put ourselves in a position to make something out of it.’’

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Going along with that theme, impending free agent Nikola Vucevic admits it’s tough to imagine things turning around the rest of the season, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “It doesn’t really depend on us anymore,” Vucevic said. “I mean, it does. We have to win. But we’re depending on the people in front of us, on how they do. So it’s hard to say after 65 games we didn’t figure it out. It’s tough to believe that something’s just going to (click) like that. We’ll see. We’re going to keep fighting, keep hoping something happens. But it’s obvious we’ve put ourselves in a very difficult spot now.”
Adding to the frustration is that Zach LaVine has been on his best offensive tear of the season, Cowley notes in a separate story. Over the last 10 games, he’s averaging just under 29 points per game while shooting 51.6% from the field and 42.9% on 3-point attempts. Chicago is 3-7 during that stretch.
Javonte Green “continues to progress” in his rehab but there’s no timetable for his return, according to a team press release. His status will be updated in approximately two weeks. Green underwent arthroscopic surgery to his right knee on Jan. 11 and coach Billy Donovan acknowledged over the weekend that Green is still struggling to make lateral movements.

Javonte Green's Progress Has Been Slow

March 5th, 2023 at 5:29pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Javonte Green was supposed to return to action by now after undergoing an arthroscopic debridement on his right knee in January. However, his recovery has gone more slowly than expected, Bulls coach Billy Donovan told K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago and other media members. “Different stuff that they try to push him towards, they have to go off of his tolerance,” Donovan said. “We’ve been kind of at the same thing where I think the linear, straight-ahead running has been pretty good. But they’ve not been able to progress him yet to any lateral stuff.” A free agent after the season, Green has only appeared in 28 games.