Pistons Notes: Thompson, Holland, Cunningham, Huerter
The Pistons, who hold the top seed in the Eastern Conference, lost their second straight game on Thursday at San Antonio. They also lost their best perimeter defensive player — third-year wing Ausar Thompson — to a right ankle sprain just two minutes into the contest, writes Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com.
“Ausar obviously means a lot to us,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “What we were able to do defensively, what he does defensively, the impact he has, obviously, you miss. We just had to figure out a way collectively to pick it up.”
Thompson has already been ruled out of Saturday’s contest vs. Brooklyn, tweets Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. The 23-year-old will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer.
Here’s more from Detroit:
- Second-year forward Ron Holland was also forced out of Thursday’s game after sustaining a left eye injury, the team announced (via Twitter). “He got hit in the eye and it was blurred vision. I didn’t want to put him out there, didn’t feel comfortable putting him back in the game if he couldn’t see straight out of that eye,” Bickerstaff said (Twitter link via Patterson). However, Holland should be ready to go on Saturday, as he’s not listed on tomorrow’s injury report, Patterson tweets.
- Guard Cade Cunningham (left quad contusion) is questionable to suit up against the Nets, while center Jalen Duren is probable because of low back spasms, as Patterson relays (via Twitter).
- Veteran guard Kevin Huerter showed on Thursday why the Pistons traded for him last month, writes Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (subscriber link). Huerter had been out of the team’s rotation of late, receiving a DNP-CD in six of his last seven games heading into Thursday, but he capitalized on his opportunity with Thompson out, contributing seven points (on 3-of-4 shooting), five rebounds, two assists and a steal. He was plus-15 in 17 minutes in the 15-point loss to the Spurs. “It’s different, it’s for sure different,” Huerter said of his role. “I think I also know at this point how to be a pro, how to keep myself ready, staying in the gym. It’s my job to be there and try to learn this offense, figure out our identity on the defensive side of the ball and watch film when I can. But obviously keep myself in shape and sharp as much as I can and control the things I can control.“
Pistons Notes: Cunningham, Duren, Sasser, Huerter, Stewart, Jenkins
Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff detailed during his pregame press conference on Friday his reasons why Cade Cunningham should receive the Most Valuable Player award.
“I wish I could (state Cade’s case MVP) with a better, stronger voice…I mean, he deserves it,” Bickerstaff said. “Right now, again, if the season were to end today, the best player on the team with the best win percentage, to me, is the guy that deserves to be the MVP.
“What he does for us on both ends of the floor; he doesn’t take nights, or times, or possessions off defensively. We’ll put him on the other team’s best perimeter player, and he’ll go down on the offensive end and score his 25 points but create for his teammates. He’s second in the league in assists and makes his teammates better also. And, then the game’s on the line, you can give him the ball, and he’s one of the best clutch players we have in this league. So, I’m hard-pressed to find a better example or statement of who the MVP should be.”
Cunningham is averaging 25.4 points, a career-high 9.8 assists, 5.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game for the East-leading Pistons, whose 44-14 record is the NBA’s best mark.
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- All-Star center Jalen Duren said he never wanted to leave the organization, even during its franchise-worst 14-win season in 2023/24. “That’s not my character. That’s not me. I’m super loyal,” Duren told Marc J. Spears of Andscape. “I hang my hat on loyalty. I was raised on loyalty. These are my brothers, man. Honestly, I don’t just say that just because we’re all on the same team. I honestly love these guys. So, in my head, looking at it, I didn’t see a bad team. I was young. I knew we had pieces. We were just missing something. Experience would be the easy thing to say. We were just missing something. We were missing a lot, actually. But for me, I just never saw it as this is not going to work. I always knew that once we figured some things out, grabbed a couple pieces, established a culture, maybe we can be something.”
- Marcus Sasser and trade deadline acquisition Kevin Huerter haven’t cracked the rotation, but Bickerstaff said there will be opportunities for both players to earn minutes next month. “We got a heavy March, right? We got a ton of games in March where everybody will get an opportunity to play,” he said. “And because of our depth, we feel confident that we can still compete at a high level with the depth that we have and get those guys some chances to play.” Sasser played 11 minutes during Friday’s overtime win against Cleveland but didn’t score.
- Isaiah Stewart, who is still serving a seven-game suspension for his involvement in a pre-All-Star break brawl with Charlotte, says he patterns his game after Hall of Famer Ben Wallace, who earned four Defensive Player of the Year awards with Detroit. “He paved the way for us undersized guys,” Stewart told Vince Goodwill of ESPN. “I’m trying to live up to that and put my name somewhere positive in this organization.”
- Daniss Jenkins, who was promoted from his two-way contract with a two-year, $8MM deal earlier this month, hit three clutch free throws after getting fouled on a three-point attempt in the closing seconds of regulation on Friday. That allowed the Pistons to steal a game against the Cavs in overtime. “He’s been mature. I hate to say that, but it’s not surprising anymore what he’s done,” Bickerstaff said. “When his number has been called, whatever the moment has been, he’s been a productive for us and effective for us.”
Bulls Notes: Simons, Ivey, Huerter, Tanking
Anfernee Simons will miss the Bulls‘ matchup against the Knicks on Sunday with a left wrist sprain, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter link). Simons left Saturday’s loss to the Pistons after just 13 minutes due to the injury.
According to head coach Billy Donovan, Simons will undergo imaging on the wrist on Monday, and it’s entirely possible that the “sprained wrist” diagnosis will change following the results of those tests (Twitter link via Lorenzi). Donovan said the Bulls don’t currently know the severity of the injury.
Prior to Saturday, Simons had played five games with the Bulls after being acquired in a deal that sent Nikola Vucevic to the Celtics. In those five games, he averaged 17.4 points, 3.6 assists, and 3.0 rebounds with a .446/.327/1.000 shooting line.
We have more from the Bulls:
- Chicago’s trade deadline was filled with moves designed to secure the best possible lottery odds this summer, but the acquisition of Jaden Ivey was one of the few forward-facing moves they made in terms of adding personnel. Ivey’s recent injury status makes that calculation more complicated, especially given his impending free agency, writes The Chicago Tribune’s Julia Poe. However, despite Ivey’s comments about his body not feeling the same following knee and leg injuries, Poe says there’s cautious optimism from the team’s coach about his ability to recapture his old form. “There’s a feeling that if he can get some more strength back then he can get back to where he was athletically,” Donovan said. “He knows that he’s not as explosive as he once was, but I don’t think that means that he can’t get back to that point. A big part of that is going to be him getting stronger.” According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Ivey’s former coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, agrees with Donovan, but adds that the most important part of the process is mental. “We expected a full recovery, but the timing you never know; it’s something you can never know,” Bickerstaff said. “And then the part for him is believing and trusting in it. That happens with the injury, too, especially when you’re explosive and your athleticism is so unique. You’ve got to find that trust back in it.”
- Kevin Huerter recently spoke about the trade that sent him from the Bulls to the Pistons, Cowley writes. One thing he touched on was the lack of clarity in Chicago about whether the team would compete or move into a rebuilding phase. “We talked about it [as a team], and we just didn’t know,” Huerter said. “We were sitting at .500 most of the year. It could have gone either way. As players, you have to expect everything, but seven or eight trades, whatever it was, I don’t know if anyone expected that.” While the move to the East-leading Pistons came as a surprise, the 27-year-old shooting guard is grateful for the opportunity it has provided him. “The transition, it’s always tough in season, even coming here last year, it was tough to move everything, your whole life, in about a week,” he said. “But you’re going to a team like this, No. 1 in the East, and they just compete their ass off.”
- The Bulls are behind the eight ball when it comes to maximizing their 2026 draft lottery odds, Poe writes, noting that Chicago has the ninth-worst record in the league at 24-33 and might have a hard time dropping any further than that. Poe suggests the belated effort to tank has something in common with vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas‘ habit of not dealing players until after their value has started to decline. Still, Poe writes that the move to begun the next era of Bulls basketball is the right one, given the depth and promise of the 2026 draft class.
Pistons Notes: Cunningham, Langdon, Huerter, Ivey
Cade Cunningham‘s outstanding season is moving him into the MVP conversation, writes Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. The Pistons guard turned in his latest dominant performance with 42 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds in Thursday’s win at New York, as Detroit solidified its hold on the top spot in the East and improved its league-best record to 41-13.
“It comes from doing the things I said, what I needed to do to be in that conversation,” Cunningham said. “Now that we’re getting closer, there’s more [talk] like ‘What is your case? You should speak on it.’ I don’t really care to speak on it. I want the people that vote on it to be smart enough to look at the game for themselves.”
However, he added, “I think I am [MVP]. And if you don’t agree with me, that’s your opinion.“
Cunningham ranks 12th in the league’s scoring race at 25.7 PPG and second in assists with 9.7 per game. He’s been the driving force on a team that has shattered all expectations coming into this season, and his competitive spirit has affected his teammates.
“He’s a winner, man. He really is. Attitude, leadership, every day, the guy is special,” Tobias Harris said. “I think more than anything, he wants championships, and that’s a difference. There’s guys who want to win MVP and guys who want to win championships.”
There’s more on the Pistons:
- In an interview with Chris Mannix of SI, owner Tom Gores gives credit to president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon for turning around a franchise that won just 14 games two years ago. “I probably saw 20 different people, a lot of known names. And Trajan was not necessarily one of the known names,” Gores said of the hiring process. “He had a good reputation. But I saw a real CEO and an executive in him. … His execution skills, like a CEO, are excellent, his strategy and analytic skills, excellent. He’s very execution oriented. And to me, I’ve never gotten anywhere in my life just with vision. We have to execute and he’s very execution oriented, and of course has a vision.”
- Kevin Huerter is only averaging 12 minutes per night in four appearances since being acquired from Chicago at the deadline. Speaking to reporters before Saturday’s game, coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he expects Huerter to eventually move into a larger role, per Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). “You see him and he’s got the reputation as a shooter, but I watch him as a play-maker, a ball-handler … his understanding of the game as a whole,” Bickerstaff said.
- Bickerstaff also commented on the decision to part with Jaden Ivey, who was getting limited playing time while working his way back after fracturing his left leg last season, Sankofa adds (Twitter link). “We expected a full recovery but the timing we didn’t know, which is something you can’t ever know,” Bickerstaff said. “And then the part of it for him, believing it and trusting it. That happens with injury too, especially when you’re that explosive and your athleticism is so unique.”
Pistons Notes: Jenkins, Trade Deadline, Buyout Market, Huerter
Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon stated on Friday that the team plans to sign two-way guard Daniss Jenkins to a standard contract prior to their road game against the Hornets on Monday. Jenkins reached his NBA two-way eligibility limit on Friday and displayed why the Pistons want him on the 15-man roster. He scored a team-high 18 points as the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons blew out the second-place Knicks.
Jenkins was “saved” for that matchup with New York after sitting out Thursday’s loss to the Wizards.
“I was really frustrated yesterday because I didn’t get to play,” Jenkins told Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press. “I hate missing games. I just wanted to come out and impact the game. We forgot about it, we flushed that game yesterday, but it’s still on my mind. It was definitely not a game that we should have lost. I just wanted to come out and impact the game like I always do. Just change the energy. My teammates played really well tonight. We all played a really good game and I just had to come in and do my job.”
Jenkins’ emergence made former lottery pick Jaden Ivey, who was dealt to Chicago, expendable. Jenkins is motivated by the fact he entered the league as an undrafted player.
“If I’m being honest, and everybody knows I’m a very humble guy, but in college, most of these dudes that got drafted, what was the difference between me and them?” he said. “What? You tell me, what was the difference? For me, going undrafted is insanity to me, literally insanity, and that burns inside of me every single day.”
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- Other than acquiring reserve guard Kevin Huerter in the Ivey deal, the Pistons took a “stay the course” approach to the trade deadline. “There were some things, whether it was the other team pulling out or us just saying, now’s not the right time for that,” Langdon said, per Vince Goodwill of ESPN. “There were some things that I wouldn’t say, got close, that we thought about but didn’t execute.” Langdon is eager to see how his team responds in the postseason as likely the top East seed. “What are we going to do in the postseason? What’s our rotation, who are the guys that step up in crunch time,” Langdon said. “The hope is we give ourselves a chance to play meaningful basketball in the postseason and that’ll allow us to assess what this team is and who we are going forward.”
- Langdon wouldn’t rule out picking up a player from the buyout market if it’s a good fit, Hunter Patterson of The Athletic tweets. “We’ll always look at opportunities to get better,” he said. “We’ll definitely explore it, see who becomes available and if some of those players fit for us. We’ll keep looking to see if can get better if possible.”
- Huerter scored eight points in eight minutes against the Knicks. There’s no certainty he’ll be in the rotation but his outside shooting could prove valuable, Patterson writes. “He’s a complete basketball player,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He’s versatile in the things that he can do. Obviously, (he has) the ability to make shots. But he has the ability to make plays, he can play the pick-and-roll. He’s an elite cutter, understanding spacing. Just his ability to process the game as a whole. As a person he’s going to fit right in. He’s a great dude who understands the situation he’s coming into and what these guys have already accomplished. He’s not here to rock the boat by any means. He’s here to help and contribute, and we feel like his skill set can do that.”
- Huerter grew up as a fan of the Pistons, according to Sankofa. “Back when you’re growing up as a kid, whatever team is on TV are the ones you gravitate towards,” he said. “One of the first basketballs that I had was a Detroit Pistons basketball. Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, that whole team was one of my favorite teams. … I always liked the Pistons.”
Jaden Ivey Traded To Bulls In Three-Team Trade
10:20pm: The Bulls have issued a press release confirming the three-team deal. The Pistons have also confirmed the trade (Twitter link).
3:36 pm: The Timberwolves will receive cash in the three-team deal, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
1:31 pm: The Pistons are trading fourth-year guard Jaden Ivey to the Bulls in a three-team trade that also involves the Timberwolves, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania, Minnesota is sending veteran point guard Mike Conley to Chicago, while swingman Kevin Huerter and forward/center Dario Saric are headed from Chicago to Detroit. The Pistons will also acquire a protected 2026 first-round pick swap from the Timberwolves as part of the deal.
Ivey, who will turn 24 later this month, was the fifth overall pick in the 2022 draft and started 164 of 181 games in his first three seasons in Detroit, averaging 16.1 points and 4.4 assists per contest. However, he missed the second half of the 2024/25 season due to a broken left leg and had his debut this past fall delayed due to a right knee issue.
Ivey was playing a modest role for the East-leading Pistons this season, averaging just 8.2 PPG in 16.8 MPG in 33 outings (two starts).
With potential restricted free agency around the corner for Ivey, the Pistons apparently decided he wasn’t in their long-term plans and had begun fielding calls on him in recent weeks, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The Bulls will add the former Purdue standout to an increasingly crowded backcourt that also features Josh Giddey, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, and Tre Jones.
While Giddey is considered a building block in Chicago, the acquisition of Ivey could set up the Bulls to trade one or more of their other guards ahead of this Thursday’s deadline. Chicago will take control of Ivey’s Bird rights, positioning the team to sign him to a new contract as a free agent this July.
With Ivey playing a diminished role in Detroit, the Pistons decided to swap him for a sharpshooter in Huerter who will immediately fill a hole on the roster. As good as the 36-12 Pistons have been this season, three-point shooting remains an area of weakness for the club, which ranks just 27th in the NBA in three-point makes per game (11.1) and 21st in three-point percentage (34.8%).
Huerter has struggled from beyond the arc this season, making just 31.4% of his outside shots, but he entered the season as a career 37.5% shooter and finished strong after a similarly slow start in 2024/25.
It’s unclear whether the Pistons intend to hang onto Saric, who has made just 21 appearances since the start of the ’24/25 season. Even if they plan to eventually waive him, they’ll first need to open up a roster spot in order to accommodate the one-for-two trade.
The pick swap Detroit is acquiring from Minnesota should put the team in position to move up at least a handful of spots in the draft this June. If the season ended today, the Pistons’ pick would be able to swap the No. 29 pick for No. 23.
The Timberwolves are essentially making a salary-dump move by sending out Conley’s $10.8MM expiring contract. The team began the day operating more than $8MM over the first tax apron and with a projected tax bill of about $24MM, but they’ll move below the first apron by roughly $2.5MM and will reduce their projected tax bill to just $3.8MM, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
What Minnesota ends up doing with those savings remains to be seen. The extra flexibility could come in handy in a bigger move for a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo. The newly created $10.8MM trade exception (equivalent to Conley’s outgoing salary) could also be useful to acquire more backcourt help at the deadline if the Wolves aren’t able to land Giannis. Alternately, the club might just be a single move away from ducking the tax entirely.
It’s unclear based on the terms reported so far what the Wolves will be receiving in the three-team deal, but it will likely be a very minor asset like cash, a heavily protected second-round pick, or a draft-rights player.
The Pistons will use Ivey’s outgoing $10.1MM salary to match Huerter’s incoming $18MM expiring contract while employing a portion of their $14MM trade exception to absorb Saric’s expiring $5.4MM deal. The Bulls, meanwhile, could create a trade exception equivalent to Huerter’s $18MM outgoing salary by using Saric to match Conley and taking Ivey’s salary into their unused mid-level exception, observes cap expert Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link).
Bulls’ Josh Giddey Will Play Tonight
5:51pm: Giddey will play tonight, Johnson tweets. He’ll be on a minutes restriction of roughly 24 minutes.
1:48pm: Bulls point guard Josh Giddey was a full participant in today’s shootaround and has been upgraded from questionable to probable for the team’s game in Minnesota on Thursday night, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network.
Giddey has been out since December 29, having missed Chicago’s past 11 games due to a left hamstring strain.
Prior to the injury, Giddey was making a case for a spot on this year’s All-Star team, posting new career highs in points (19.2), assists (9.0), and rebounds (8.9) per game, as well as three-point percentage (38.6%).
The Bulls have held their own in Giddey’s absence, going 6-5 since he went down. The team is deep enough in the backcourt to withstand the absence of its leading scorer and play-maker, with Ayo Dosunmu, Tre Jones, and Coby White all playing key roles in recent weeks.
While Giddey’s spot on the Bulls’ roster is safe, some of his teammates could be entering their last week or two with the team. Chicago has signaled its willingness to make significant changes ahead of the February 5 trade deadline, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, who says White, Nikola Vucevic, Kevin Huerter, and Zach Collins are among the players who have come up in trade talks.
Bulls Notes: White, Collins, Huerter, Dosunmu
A postponed game against Miami last week is affecting the Bulls‘ plans for Coby White, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). The game was rescheduled for January 29, giving the team an extra back-to-back and increasing the likelihood that White will sit out one of those contests.
“The feeling was if the Miami game would have taken place (last week), (White) would have played all the way through the All-Star break,” coach Billy Donovan said. “With that back-to-back there now and the number of games being condensed at the end of January, they’re going to have to look at that. I’m not saying he’s playing, I’m not saying he’s not, but that’s a concern. … “If the Miami game was played, the next back-to-back wasn’t until March, and if he would have continued on a good track, he would have played in that back-to-back.”
The Bulls are being cautious with White as he works his way back from a right calf injury. Cowley points out that the team also wants to ensure that White stays healthy through the February 5 deadline, as his $12.9MM expiring contract makes him an attractive trade candidate. Cowley has reported that the Timberwolves expressed interest in dealing for White, but he says those talks have “cooled.”
There’s more on the Bulls:
- Zach Collins consulted with multiple doctors on Tuesday as he explores treatment options for his sprained toe, Cowley adds in the same piece. It appears the backup center will be out of action longer than the team expected. “The problem is the (walking) boot,” Donovan said. “They want to keep him in the boot, but really no one has made a decision on how long he needs to be in the boot and what will happen. And then, if he is in the boot, what can they do to maintain strength in his calf? Because if he stays in that boot for an extended period of time, they’re worried about him losing strength and some muscle in that calf. That can take a period of time to build that back up.”
- Cowley observes that Kevin Huerter was better as a starter after the Bulls traded for him last February, but this season he’s been more productive in a reserve role. “I think I’ve been really effective at times for this team coming off the bench,” Huerter said. “To be honest, my minutes and my role don’t change, whether I’m coming off the bench or starting, and that’s not the same for every team or every coach across the NBA. The way that we sub and play on this team, the lineups we use, it doesn’t matter that much.”
- Other teams may see Ayo Dosunmu as a potential steal with a $7.5MM expiring contract, but Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required) believes the Bulls value the fifth-year shooting guard too highly to give him up without a significant return.
Central Notes: Carlisle, Cunningham, Ivey, Garland, J. Smith
It took a month for it to occur, but Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle became the 11th coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games when Indiana defeated Charlotte on Thursday, writes Michael Marot of The Associated Press. The Pacers snapped a franchise-record 13-game losing streak with the victory.
“I’m so happy for our players,” said Carlisle, who hugged his assistants and players after the win. “The last month has been so challenging in so many ways. We have an amazing group of guys who continue to fight through thick and thin.”
After coming one win away from winning their first NBA championship last June, the Pacers have dealt with numerous injuries in 2025/26 and are currently 7-31, the worst record in the league. Carlisle, 66, is in his 24th season as a head coach and won a title with Dallas in 2011.
“This has never been about me getting a milestone win,” Carlisle said. “It’s about our organization and our franchise. As it has gotten tougher and tougher I have leaned into thinking more about gratitude for the things that we have. We have great people and we have terrific players.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Pistons star Cade Cunningham is questionable to suit up for Saturday’s matchup vs. the Clippers due to a right wrist contusion, tweets Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. The former No. 1 overall pick is an MVP candidate this season with Detroit holding the best record in the Eastern Conference at 28-9. Cunningham, a 6’6″ guard, missed Wednesday’s win over Chicago with the injury.
- Speaking to reporters on Friday, including Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter video link), Pistons guard Jaden Ivey said he’s in a “great space” from a health standpoint and is no longer on a minutes restriction. The impending restricted free agent missed most of last season with a fractured left fibula and was sidelined to start ’25/26 after undergoing right knee surgery this fall. Ivey is averaging a career-low 16.7 minutes per game through 22 appearances.
- Within a story questioning whether the Cavaliers can be a contender as currently constructed, Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports describes Darius Garland‘s trade value around the league as “muted.” The two-time All-Star point guard has been inconsistent this season as he continues to deal with the effects of a toe injury which required offseason surgery.
- After missing the past two games while in the league’s concussion protocol, Bulls big man Jalen Smith has been upgraded to questionable for Saturday’s contest vs. Dallas, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link). Veteran wing Kevin Huerter (back tightness) is also questionable, Johnson adds.
Bulls Notes: Starting Lineup, White, Trade Deadline, Buzelis
As his team navigates three significant injuries, Bulls coach Billy Donovan unveiled a new-look starting lineup in Wednesday’s win over New Orleans, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). Donovan went big to match up with the Pelicans, using Tre Jones as his lone guard alongside Isaac Okoro, Nikola Vucevic, Matas Buzelis and Jalen Smith. With Josh Giddey and Coby White unavailable to run the offense, Okoro led the way with a season-high 24 points in a 134-118 victory.
“Everyone knows their role on this team,” Okoro said. “No one is too big-headed or out there trying to be a superstar on this team. Everyone knows their roles, knows what they need to do to impact winning. So as long as guys know that, I think we’ll be in a good place. We have enough here. Just play with energy, play with a high spirit, do the things we can control. Of course, not having bodies out there is bad, but we have enough. Control what we can control.”
Donovan used 10 players in total with Patrick Williams, Dalen Terry, Jevon Carter, Kevin Huerter and Ayo Dosunmu coming off the bench. Getting contributions throughout the roster is going to be important as the Bulls face a stretch of six games in nine days, starting on Friday. Cowley notes that roles and responsibilities could change from night to night depending on the opponent.
“It’s a results-oriented business, but I look at it as a 48-minute game,” Donovan said. “Can we play to an identity covering for each other on defense, helping each other on offense, moving the basketball, playing the right way, not turning it over? To me, there are certain things we can do as a basketball team. Are we good enough to actually overcome and go win games? It remains to be seen, but I know if we don’t do those things, we have no chance.”
There’s more from Chicago:
- Cowley points out that White began to feel tightness in his right calf after he played in back-to-back games over the weekend for this first time this season. The medical staff might keep him out of those situations once he returns. ‘‘That’s been a topic of conversation,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘That was the first back-to-back he played. He came out of it fine, but they are trying to go through every minute detail that he does every single day.’’
- In a separate story from Cowley, Donovan discusses the “30,000-foot view” that executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has of the team’s injury situation as opposed to his mandate to try to win every game. Donovan also indicated that the Bulls don’t appear to be close to making any deals with the deadline five weeks away. ‘‘In the conversations I’ve had with Arturas, we have not talked about the trade deadline at this point in time at all,’’ Donovan told reporters. ‘‘I would say that I don’t know how other teams evaluate it. The guys you are bringing up, are they in contract years? Is there a dive they do in their history? Some of these guys, you’re right, have been set back with some injuries. I don’t know necessarily how much it does or doesn’t hurt.”
- Buzelis talks about the thrill of draft day in the latest edition of “Journey to the CHI” on Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link). “As soon as I found out the Bulls were picking me … It was honestly the best day of my life,” the second-year forward said.