DECEMBER 30: Bell’s 10-day deal with the Bulls is now official, according to the transactions log at NBA.com. It will run through January 8, covering Chicago’s next four games.
DECEMBER 29: The Bulls plan to sign big man Jordan Bell to a 10-day contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the team will use a hardship exception to complete the move.
Bell technically was a Bull once before, having been drafted by the team with the 38th overall pick in 2017 — his rights were quickly dealt to the Warriors on draft night in exchange for cash.
Since 2017, Bell has appeared in a total of 160 regular season games for Golden State, Minnesota, Memphis, and Washington, averaging 3.7 PPG and 3.1 RPG on 12.1 minutes per contest. He also played in 32 postseason games with the Warriors and won a title in 2018. The 26-year-old had been playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League this season, averaging 10.8 PPG, 12.7 RPG, 3.8 APG, and 1.6 BPG in nine games (28.6 MPG).
Perhaps no team has been hit harder in the last month by COVID-19 than the Bulls, who placed power forward Marko Simonovic in the health and safety protocols earlier today, per Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link).
Although Chicago only has five players in the protocols for the time being, nearly all the team’s players have been affected by COVID-19 at some point this month. As K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets, Alex Caruso and Tyler Cook are the only players on the team’s standard 17-man roster who haven’t been in the protocols this season.
Warriors should have signed him to a 10 day while Green is out.
Agreed. Still don’t know what the Team’s strategy is going to be if Kevon Looney gets Injured before James Wiseman returns from his Knee surgery. I don’t think Nemanja Bjelica is a Center. He’s tall but not a rim protector.
There are a few players in the GLeague that they could turn to in the next 10 Days = Harry Giles, Mfiondu Kabengele, Thon Maker, etc.
Bismack Biyambo, Meyers Leonard, John Henson, Skal Labisserie, Tyler Zeller and Jahlil Okafor are also still Free Agents. Granted, Jahlil is not much of a defensive player.
Does it ever cross your mind that these players are Free Agents because they suck? They aren’t signed because they can’t protect the rim?
I’m trying to pro-active here, not reactive.
Why wait until Looney gets injured to Sign someone? Such a player would then be forced into Service uprepared. Signing someone now gives that player time to learn the system, either in practice or the GLeague.
Acknowledged that none of the player suggestions on my List above are world beaters, they are simply “Insurance policies”. 6 Fouls and Road blocks to detour and prevent easy Layups at our rim. We lost the 76’ers game in the non-Looney minutes, when we asked Bjelica to guard Drummond or Embiid. He can’t guard Centers.
Fact is, our current roster is comprised of 8 Guards occupying our 17 Roster spots = Curry, Klay, Poole, Payton, Lee, Moody, Chiozza and Dowtin.
Thats simply too many Guards. No need to carry that many. Cut either Dowtin or Chiozza. If another guard catches Covid, we can keep Signing guys to 10-Days like Quindary.
Meanwhile, we have only 1 7-footer on the roster, whose injured, and 2 players taller than 6-9, Looney and Bjelica.
If Looney gets injured, before Wiseman returns, are you really going to trust Bjelica to play adequate Center minutes? The other candidates on the team are too short and will just get either backed down in the low post or shot over.
I’m confused. Any NBA player that can dunk, can block a shot. Jordan Bell is 6’7″. So, why sign him?
The Warriors are one of the top teams in all defensive categories. But, you think they can’t play defense.
Wiseman will be back if Looney goes down. Why rush a player before he is ready?
Yes, regular season we are a top ranked Defensive team. But we’re not facing Elite big men on a daily basis.
We just saw Jokic put up a monster game against us on Tuesday night.
On Saturday night, we are facing Rudy Gobert. On January 13th we face the Bucks.
Let’s see how our Smalls fare against some Talls.
Looney can’t guard both Giannis and Brook Lopez.
My point is we have too many Guards.
Half the Roster is filled with Guards.
Why not add a Big Man when Klay returns? We won’t still need both Chiozza and Dowtin at that point.
Replace one of those guys with a Big Man, where the Roster is thinnest.
Bismack Biyambo and John Henson both have 7-Foot-5 wingspans and are known for protecting the rim and providing Shot blocking.
…and fouling a lot and providing limited offense.
John Henson has been out of basketball for 2 years. He won’t be playoff ready on 10 day contract.
Giants74,
They aren’t even that bad of players! In order:
Biyombo’s old, Leonard got blackmailed, Henson is old, Labissere doesn’t have the greatest defense but makes up for it, Zeller is a well rounded player, even though he’s not that good, Okafor is not the best defender, Giles can do a ton and is super young, Kabengele can do everything but defense, and Maker is well rounded.
Some of the guys are pretty good, Defense does win championships, but it doesn’t really matter if your 4th string PF/C can play quality D.
Great pick up by the Bulls. Wish that Bell could finish the whole season with the Bulls.
I think the Bulls have to find a new cleaning service because the guys Paxson hired obviously suck. Just like everyone else he hired.
Like Paxson as a person and what he stands for. You are right. Paxson and Gar Foreman seem to be poor talent evaluators.
Yeah, unfortunately, it was the fact he is such a likeable and good guy that kept him around for so long.
He just really wasn’t all that great at roster management, acquiring talent outside of the draft, nor assembling a complete roster that compliments eachother…
Agree with you. The last few years of GarPax wasn’t good. In the 2014 draft, the Bulls gave up the 16th and the 18th picks for the 11th pick so to draft Doug McDermott. As it turned out, there were a lot of much better players than McDermott after the 11th pick in that draft. This is not to say that McDermott is a bad player.
Warm body.
Agree with you.
The last few years of GarPax weren’t good. In the 2014 draft, the Bulls traded the 16th and the 18th picks for the 11th pick in order to draft Doug McDermott. As it turned out, there were a lot of much better players than McDermott after the 11th pick in that draft. This is not to say that McDermott is a bad player.
In June of 2016, the Bulls acquired Spencer Dinwiddie from Detroit. In July of 2016, the Bulls waived Dinwiddie. When looking at the guards that the Bulls kept instead of Dinwiddie, this is very disturbing.
Wait, this is genius! Sold his rights for 3 mil, and now they get him back for nothing! This was the plan all along.