Veteran big man Zach Collins will make his 2025/26 season debut on Friday when the Bulls face Indiana, head coach Billy Donovan told reporters, including K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link).
Collins suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left wrist during a preseason game in mid-October and subsequently had surgery to address the injury. The former lottery pick, who was selected 10th overall in the 2017 draft, was cleared for contact work earlier this week.
Collins will be limited to approximately 20 minutes in his first game back, according to Donovan.
Here’s more on the slumping Bulls, who have lost five straight games entering Friday:
- Leading scorer Coby White, who has missed the past three contests with a left calf injury, will also be active for Friday’s game, Johnson adds. White underwent an MRI on his calf earlier in the week and the results came back clean — he said Wednesday that he was hoping to be back tonight and was considered day-to-day. Like Collins, White will be on a minutes restriction — Donovan said the 25-year-old combo guard would be capped at around 24 minutes.
- While Collins and White were upgraded to available after initially being listed as questionable, the opposite was true of Chicago native Ayo Dosunmu, who was downgraded to out for Friday’s contest with a right thumb sprain. The 2021 second-round pick is off to a strong start this season, averaging 15.8 points, 3.1 assists and 2.6 rebounds on .529/.494/.852 shooting through 19 games (27.8 minutes per contest). Dosunmu is one of six injured Bulls who won’t play tonight.
- The Bulls were one of the NBA’s pleasant surprises during the first couple weeks of the season, starting out 5-0. However, they’ve been spiraling down the standings ever since, going 4-12 over their past 16 games, writes Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic. While injuries have played a part in the tailspin, Chicago also hasn’t taken advantage of seemingly winnable games — the team has lost to New Orleans (3-20), Charlotte (6-16), Indiana (4-18) and Brooklyn (5-17) during the ongoing skid, with Wednesday’s loss to the Nets marking a new low point. “Listen, I’m not going to make any excuses, because I always think players want opportunities to play and compete,” Donovan said, per Lorenzi. “And you know what? For some guys, this may be the best opportunity they got. To me, you should be playing all-out crazy hard and really, really physical and say, ‘Listen, if this ends because we get healthy, at least I made an effort.’ I did not think we did that. I don’t.”
- Matas Buzelis‘ hasn’t made a second-year leap to this point in the season, but he remains confident that his game will eventually blossom, according to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. A diligent worker, the 21-year-old forward has struggled at times with taking the necessary time to unwind, since he’s highly motivated to keep improving, Poe notes. “Waiting is the right word to use,” Buzelis said. “It’s all just part of the process. No one can predict it. There’s always going to be ups and downs. You’re not always going to shine in the limelight. But you continue to work, you continue to get better. That’s what I’m doing.”
You say spiral. I say finally reached reality. It’s a below .500 team when it was built, It’s a below .500 team on the court and it will be a below .500 come April. With a below .500 Coach and a below .500 Front Office. Toss in a below .500 ownership group and crappy medical staff and it now is what it was always expected to be. Lame.
If Buzelis can’t make the leap in Y2 or Y3, then you absolutely have to consider firing Donovan and bring someone who can bring out the max potential that 14 has shown in small glimpses.
Then again, AK is the type of kid in grade school who got excited about 5th place in his annual science fair every year and brags to his buddies.
I have no hope. This front office has destroyed my soul.
23 wins still on the table guys.
If Buzelis wants to improve he needs to improve his shot. They should hire a good shooting coach. Oh wait, They fired the good shooting coach that everyone liked and hired………………Wait I got it………Nobody. Oh wait they did do something, Gave Donovan an extension. Michael Jordan ain’t coming back, We have to face reality guys. Well at least I can save 10 bucks a month and drop the Bulls off my CHSN package and just watch the Hawks. They’re on the way up, Sox and Bulls have reached bottom.
Obviously the team is not good. A major problem is that the coach and GM are both trying to save their jobs so they don’t want to admit a rebuild (again) is needed.
Even if they trade off a piece or two, history shows they’ll get either another player back or a non valuable second round pick back. Ugh, I hate being a Bulls fan
When they gave bd that extention, i knew it will be never ending nightmare. When they made 5-0 start, i knew its an april mop’s thing.
18-19 year olds aren’t saviors man. Takes 3-5 yrs to make an impact. Just look at Coby and Giddey. How long did they take. Just going to say it. Have to commit to a core. Imo Giddey is your guy. So that makes Ayo a good trade asset. Bulls have their pick this year. Vucevic can be moved at TD. Draft has PFs and Centers. I would look into Maluach. Suns need a PG badly …….
No you keep ayo and trade Coby. Ayo scores and plays defense. Coby just dribbles the ball off his leg.