Chandler Hutchison and Wendell Carter Jr., who both had their rookie year cut short by injuries, have officially been ruled out for the rest of the season, the Bulls announced on Twitter.
Executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson relayed the information to reporters before tonight’s game, adding that the same fate may apply to Otto Porter, who is sidelined with a shoulder injury, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. He and Zach LaVine are both being monitored daily, but Paxson speculated that “We may run out of time” with Porter.
Hutchison has been out since late January with an “acute injury” to a sesamoid bone in his right foot. The 22nd player taken in last year’s draft, Hutchison established himself as a part-time starter and averaged 5.2 PPG and 4.2 RPG in 44 games.
“He’s going to have to spend time in the gym shooting the ball this summer to become a better shooter. We know that’s an important component,” Paxson said of Hutchison after complimenting his defense, ballhandling and versatility. Hutchison shot .459 from the field, but just .280 from 3-point range and .605 from the foul line.
Carter hasn’t played since suffering a thumb injury in mid-January that required surgery. He was projected to be out 8 to 12 weeks, so it’s not surprising that he won’t play again this season. The seventh pick last year, Carter also played 44 games, all as a starter, and averaged 10.3 PPG and 7.0 RPG.
So tanking is nothing more than frowned upon thus far, right? Because these moves and others made by the bottom dwelling teams to ‘shut down’ key players is obvious tanking.
This is only the second & third from an actual bottomdweller… PHX, CLE, NYK, & ATL only have Oubre shut down so far.
It seems to be the middling teams that are shutting down players, trying to get to the bottom!
Except jbl every team is shutting down guys at a ridiculous pace, not just bottom feeders.
Looking at the amount of guys that are on “Load Management” schedules to keep them healthy for the playoffs. Take Kawhi as an example who likely will play only 60 games this year, though he’s been healthy throughout. Heck, AD is being load managed so that he stays healthy enough that they can deal him this offseason! Lakers wanted to shut LBJ down for the rest of the year, but he said no.
I know, I know, “he’s healthy because of the load management”, but I don’t believe that. Look at the alarming increase in Tommy John surgeries in baseball over the last decade. Could it have something to do with us putting 54 pitch counts in a game, or 85 total pitches in a week on 12-13 year old kids? Is it that we load manage them so much that when they hit a point where they need to throw more, their arms are not able to handle the stresses?
Michael Jordan played 15 seasons in the L, and played 81 or 82 games in 12 of those 15 seasons. Until Larry Bird’s big injury in his 10th season, he had not played less than 76 games in any of his first nine years. By contrast, Anthony Davis has never played more than 75 games in a season.