Tre Jones

Central Notes: Bulls, Vucevic, Giannis, Rivers, Bickerstaff

March 25th, 2025 at 11:31am CST by Luke Adams

After trading DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso during the 2024 offseason and Zach LaVine at last month’s trade deadline, the Bulls – who had a 21-29 record at the time of the LaVine deal and had reacquired full control of their 2025 first-round pick – were considered likely to tank the rest of the season.

Instead, the club has played some of its best basketball of the season in recent weeks. Chicago has posted a .500 record (11-11) since the LaVine trade and has been especially hot as of late, winning eight of its last 10 games. That stretch includes road victories this past week over the Kings, Lakers, and Nuggets, as well as back-to-back Player of the Week awards for guard Coby White.

“I just think we kind of embraced the challenge and took pride in showing that people kind of wrote us off when Zach got traded,” Nikola Vucevic said on Monday, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “I think we’ve really come together as a group. Our chemistry has been really good. When you lose someone, a player like (LaVine), it opens up opportunities for other players, and guys have really stepped up — Josh (Giddey), Coby, Tre (Jones) before he got hurt, Kevin (Huerter). Like, Kevin wasn’t playing much in (Sacramento), and he came here with a chip on his shoulder and showed he can still contribute at a high level, and he has been.”

Vucevic was widely expected to be on the move prior to the February 6 trade deadline and is now considered an offseason trade candidate. However, according to Cowley, the veteran center is buying into the new-look group and wouldn’t be opposed to finishing out the final year of his current contract in Chicago.

“Who knows what happens in the summer, but right now I’m focused on this group of guys,” Vucevic said. “I’ve really enjoyed playing with them. Guys with good character, guys that really want to win, they care. We play for each other, we compete, and that’s what you want.”

Here’s more from around the Central:

In a wide-ranging interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo lauded Milwaukee’s role players, reiterated that he cares much more about winning another championship than another MVP award, and downplayed a recent post-game meeting involving him, Damian Lillard, and head coach Doc Rivers.
Rivers ranks eighth all-time among NBA head coaches in regular season wins and will tie Phil Jackson at 1,155 with the Bucks‘ next victory. Rivers spoke to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about what it would mean to surpass Jackson on that list, as well as a handful of other topics, including what Milwaukee needs to do in order to have postseason success this spring. “No. 1 is health,” Rivers said. “But this team is an interesting team. We have proven on given points that we can beat anybody. They decided they were going to win the (NBA) Cup and no one was going to beat us. But then we go backwards.”
Speaking to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, J.B. Bickerstaff explained why the Pistons‘ head coaching position appealed to him last spring when the team was coming off a 14-68 season and why his decision to accept the job was the right one. “I have 1,000% fallen in love with this group,” Bickerstaff said. “And all my focus goes into them and seeing them elevate and seeing them grow. That’s the thing that I find the most joy in.”

Bulls Notes: Buzelis, Jones, Giddey, Ball

March 23rd, 2025 at 11:00am CST by Arthur Hill

If there’s a “rookie wall” for Bulls forward Matas Buzelis, he crashed through it Saturday night, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Buzelis scored a career-high 31 points in a convincing win over the Lakers, shooting 12-of-18 from the field and 5-of-10 from three-point range.

It was a welcome breakthrough for Buzelis, whose playing time has been declining recently. Cowley notes that he was shooting just 24% from three-point range over his previous six games and was limited to single digits in points in four of those outings.

“People can say what they want to say,” Buzelis said. “I haven’t hit a wall. I feel like I’ve got good energy out there. There’s been some games where the offense hasn’t really been going for me, but some nights are like that. Defensively, I feel like I’ve been really good.”

It’s been a challenging road trip for Buzelis, who was assigned to guard LeBron James on Saturday after previous matchups with Kevin Durant and DeMar DeRozan. Cowley points out that Thursday’s game in Sacramento was particularly tough for the rookie forward, who was a minus-10 overall and only played about three minutes in the second half.

“I think I’ve learned the most about basketball the last four or five months than I have in my total life,” Buzelis said. “Being in the NBA, playing against all these guys, now it’s just building it, making the tools sharper, everything sharper. Handles, shooting, defense, all of it. I know I’m going to be a really good player. I put the work in, the effort in every day, and I love this sport. I’ll do anything it takes to better myself.”

There’s more on the Bulls:

With Tre Jones sidelined for at least the next two weeks due to a sprained left foot, there’s only a slight chance he’ll be able to return before the regular season ends on April 13, Cowley states in a separate story. The Bulls would love to have him back for the play-in tournament, which starts two days later, but everything hinges on how quickly he can recover. “The hope is he would be able to come back, but we’re probably not really going to know much until after that ramp-up starts,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He’s going to be in a boot for a while. It’s a pretty moderate sprain in his foot, and once he’s able to clear that hurdle, the next part is going to be where his pain is at, how much he can ramp up and how soon he’ll be able to play. So we probably won’t know much until we get through those two weeks.”
Josh Giddey narrowly missed a quadruple-double on Saturday with 15 points, 10 rebounds, 17 assists and eight steals. He also went 1-of-2 from three-point range, bringing him to 37.9% from beyond the arc for the season. In the same piece, Cowley notes that long-distance shooting was one of the biggest question marks about Giddey when he was acquired in an offseason trade with Oklahoma City. “I think it’s reps; I haven’t changed anything,” Giddey said. “I started to figure out the last two months, missed shot, made shot, move on to the next one. That mindset has kind of been drilled into me, and that’s helped a lot. Now I’m to the point that if I shoot 10 and miss, I shoot the 11th. A lot of shooting is between the ears, so structurally, I haven’t changed anything.”
Lonzo Ball has missed 10 straight games with a right wrist injury, but Donovan said there’s hope he can return during an upcoming two-game homestand, Cowley adds.

Bulls’ Tre Jones Out For At Least Two Weeks

March 22nd, 2025 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have ruled out point guard Tre Jones for at least two weeks after confirming his diagnosis of a left foot sprain, the team announced in a press release.

Jones sustained the injury during Thursday’s win over Sacramento and underwent X-rays, which were negative. There’s no guarantee he’ll be ready to return at the two-week mark, but he’ll be reevaluated at that time, with further updates to come, according to the Bulls.

Jones, who spent the first four years of his NBA career in San Antonio, saw his role decline at the start of his fifth season following the arrival of Chris Paul. He averaged just 16.1 minutes per night, his lowest mark since his rookie year, in 28 appearances for the Spurs before being dealt to Chicago in the three-team De’Aaron Fox/Zach LaVine blockbuster last month.

Despite joining a crowded backcourt in Chicago, Jones has emerged as a key rotation player, averaging 11.5 points, 4.9 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 25.3 minutes per game across his first 18 appearances (nine starts) as a Bull. He’s making a career-high 57.2% field goal attempts, including 50.0% of his three-pointers, since being traded.

Head coach Billy Donovan has repeatedly lauded Jones in recent weeks for his high basketball IQ and his knack for making winning plays.

With Jones and Lonzo Ball (wrist sprain) currently sidelined and Ayo Dosunmu (shoulder surgery) out for the rest of the season, the Bulls figure to lean more heavily on Josh Giddey and Coby White in their backcourt, with Jevon Carter a candidate to enter the rotation.

Kings/Bulls Notes: DeRozan, White, LaVine, Huerter, T. Jones

March 21st, 2025 at 4:01pm CST by Rory Maher

Forward DeMar DeRozan became the 27th player in NBA history to record 25,000 career points on Thursday, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. As Law Murray of The Athletic notes, DeRozan joins LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Stephen Curry as active players who have scored at least 25,000 points.

However, the impressive milestone was bittersweet for DeRozan and the Kings, who lost to his former club, the Bulls.

While DeRozan exchanged in some lighthearted trash-talking with his former teammates leading up to the game, he made it clear afterward that he still supports them, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. DeRozan particularly singled out Coby White, who scored a game-high 35 points in Chicago’s victory.

“Rooting for all those guys, honestly,” DeRozan said. “I watch every single game when we don’t play. Even if we’re playing at the same time, I check the box score and see how guys do. Obviously, I still talk to my sons every day, make sure they’re making their bed and everything. It was great to see Coby thriving the way I knew he would be. You know, working out with him every summer, seeing how much he loved the game, how much he put into it, it was dope to see.

“In the group chat [Wednesday] night, I was talking trash to [Patrick Williams] and [Dalen Terry] about them having nightmares just thinking about guarding me. So it’s fun, and it’s a different type of excitement you have going against familiar faces.”

Here’s more on the Kings and Bulls:

Thursday marked Zach LaVine‘s first game against Chicago since he was traded to the Kings last month. In the lead-up to the game, LaVine reflected on his time with the Bulls, saying he had “no bad blood” and a “really good tenure” during his nearly eight years with the team, according to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. “I put that jersey on with a lot of pride,” LaVine said. “I love Chicago. Always will. If you go out there and try your best and it don’t work, sometimes it’s frustrating, both on the organization and as a player. But I wore it with my heart on my sleeve. I can’t get mad at that.”
While LaVine wasn’t out for revenge, the same can’t be said for Kevin Huerter, who was traded by the Kings to the Bulls in the LaVine deal. The 26-year-old had one of his best games of the season against Sacramento, putting up 25 points (on 10-of-16 shooting), seven assists, five rebounds, four steals and a block in 37 minutes. “We’re competitors at the end of the day,” Huerter said Wednesday, per Cowley. “Any game we go into, we’re trying to win. I know those guys over there [in Sacramento] really well. Any time you get moved on from a team, I think it’s natural that you want to kick their ass next time you play them, but there’s no ill will, no hard feelings. [I’m] still pretty close with a lot of people there, so [I’ll] go try and compete.”
Bulls point guard Tre Jones sustained a left midfoot sprain during Thursday’s game, tweets K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network. X-rays were negative, Johnson adds, and it’s unclear if Jones will miss time due to the injury. The impending free agent has played well for Chicago since he was acquired from San Antonio in the LaVine deal, particularly over the past couple weeks.

Bulls Notes: Jones, Buzelis, Collins, Mirage

March 15th, 2025 at 11:55am CST by Rory Maher

Following Thursday’s victory over Brooklyn, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan praised Tre Jones, saying the fifth-year point guard has a knack for making winning plays, according to K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link), who points out that the impending free agent recorded five points, four rebounds and four assists in the fourth quarter.

“Being a part of a winning culture, a winning team, that’s the whole reason of playing basketball really,” Jones said.

Jones, who was acquired from San Antonio in the Zach LaVine trade, has started each of the past five games, averaging 14.0 points, 6.0 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals on .500/.500/.769 shooting over that span (33.3 MPG). Like his older brother Tyus Jones, Tre is known for his ability to take care of the basketball, having recorded 54 assists against only eight turnovers in 14 games with Chicago (an assist-to-turnover ratio of 6.75-to-1).

Here’s more on the Bulls:

Lottery pick Matas Buzelis hit the rookie wall at some point over the past couple weeks, observes Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. As Poe details, Buzelis was visibly exhausted on Monday against Indiana, and while he had more energy on Thursday vs. Brooklyn, he only played 15 minutes after averaging 27.5 over his past 17 games. “That’s part of his development,” Donovan said. “Is he eating well? Is he hydrating well? Is he getting good sleep? You can maybe get away with that playing 10 minutes a game. When you all of a sudden start playing 26, 28, 30, 32 minutes a night on a regular basis, there’s a toll it takes on your body.”
In the same story, Poe notes that Zach Collins has been ahead of Jalen Smith on the center depth chart the past two games after Nikola Vucevic returned from a calf injury that sidelined him for seven contests. Collins, who was also acquired in the LaVine deal, has averaged 11.9 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 2.6 APG, 0.9 SPG and 0.8 BPG on .554/.333/.879 shooting in 12 games for the Bulls (25.0 MPG). He’s owed about $18.1MM next season prior to 2026 free agency, while Smith is under contract through 2027.
The Bulls have won four straight, bolstering their chances of not only securing a play-in berth, but perhaps passing Miami or Orlando to move up a spot or two in the standings. The recent stretch of play is nothing but a mirage, in the view of Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, who argues that head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas should be blamed for his refusal to embrace a rebuild ahead of a 2025 draft that is highly touted, particularly at the top. Advancing to the playoffs would likely be viewed by Karnisovas as a sign of progress, but it would be catastrophic for the Chicago’s long-term outlook, according to Cowley.

Central Notes: T. Jones, Giannis, Haliburton, Atkinson

March 12th, 2025 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

As an undersized pure point guard who rarely takes three-pointers, Tre Jones doesn’t really fit the Bulls‘ blueprint, but he has impressed the team since being acquired from San Antonio in last month’s Zach LaVine trade, averaging 9.6 points and 3.7 assists per game on .538/.429/.905 shooting in his first 13 outings with Chicago.

“He’s got the ‘it’ factor,” head coach Billy Donovan said of Jones, per Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. “He really does. He’s just a winner. … You can look at size and length for his position and he probably doesn’t have any of those things. But he’s got really good speed. He’s really tough. He’s got a high IQ. He understands competition. He can really stay in the moment and compete.”

Jones played well for San Antonio in 2022/23 and ’23/24 as the Spurs’ primary point guard, putting up averages of 11.4 PPG and 6.4 APG on 48.0% shooting across those two years. But he took a back seat to Chris Paul this season and saw his playing time and production crater before he was dealt to the Bulls at the deadline.

Now, as he nears the end of his current contract, Jones is looking more like his old self, increasing his value ahead of free agency — and potentially making a case for Chicago to retain him, though that will likely depend on the team’s other offseason roster decisions.

“I know he’s going into free agency and we’ll see how that plays out,” Donovan said. “But when you talk about a guy you want to have for 82 nights — and I’m not saying he’s always perfect — but he understands competition. He understands what goes into it. That’s what you want.”

Here’s more from around the Central:

As we outlined last week, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is taking and making mid-range shots at a higher rate this season than he ever has before. Jamal Collier of ESPN digs deeper into that trend, noting that Antetokounmpo wanted to develop a reliable mid-range game in part to reduce the physical pounding his body was taking when he was relying more on playing inside and getting to the basket. “I’m in my thirties, obviously, (and) I believe that I have four (to) six years, still, of good basketball to give, but I got to be smarter,” Antetokounmpo said. “I got to be smarter in the way I play.”
The Pacers went 0-3 with Tyrese Haliburton sidelined due to a hip injury in the past week, culminating with head coach Rick Carlisle, frustrated by how his starters were playing, pulling all five of them at once in the third quarter of Monday’s loss in Chicago, as Dustin Dopriak of The Indianapolis Star details. So it was good news for Indiana that Haliburton was back in action on Tuesday vs. the division-rival Bucks. The star point guard capped his return by completing a ridiculous four-point play in the game’s final seconds to steal a win for the Pacers (Twitter video link). ESPN has the story.
In a subscriber-only story for The New York Post, Brian Lewis takes a look at how Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson has grown as a coach since he was “unceremoniously” pushed out the door by the Nets in 2020. “When you’re a first-time coach, you’re searching. You have your thoughts and ideas, but you’re searching for that identity,” said Atkinson, the favorite to be named Coach of the Year this season. “I think later on in Brooklyn as we got to that playoff that third year, I started to know. That’s when I really started (to think), ‘OK, I can coach in this league. I know what I’m doing. I kind of know what our identity is.’ Then the second time around, I was much more comfortable just coming in.”

Ayo Dosunmu To Have Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

March 2nd, 2025 at 9:39am CST by Arthur Hill

Ayo Dosunmu will undergo surgery on his left shoulder that will cause him to miss the remainder of the season, the Bulls announced (via Twitter).

The team describes Dosunmu’s condition as “left shoulder instability.” He was able to play 23 minutes in Friday’s game against Toronto, but he missed the previous three contests and was already declared out for today’s meeting with Indiana due to the shoulder issue.

The 25-year-old shooting guard is in his fourth NBA season after being selected out of Illinois with the 38th pick in the 2021 draft. He appeared in 46 games this year, making 26 starts and averaging 12.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists with .492/.328/.785 shooting splits.

Dosunmu is earning $7MM in the second season of a three-year, $21MM contract. He will make $7.5MM next season before becoming an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026.

The release from the Bulls doesn’t specify when Dosunmu’s surgery will take place or how long his recovery is expected to take.

The loss of Dosunmu creates another challenge for Chicago, which is trying to hold onto the East’s final play-in spot. At 24-36, the Bulls are up by two and a half games over Philadelphia and three games over Brooklyn in the race for 10th place.

Tre Jones is likely to get most of Dosunmu’s minutes, according to K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network (Twitter link). Jones, who was acquired from San Antonio last month, is averaging 7.8 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists in eight games since the trade.

Bulls Notes: Huerter, Collins, Jones, Smith, Vucevic, Dosunmu

February 27th, 2025 at 3:25pm CST by Rory Maher

Seventh-year wing Kevin Huerter got off to a poor start after being traded to the Bulls, but he’s been playing much better since the All-Star break, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Huerter admits he initially struggled to adjust after being traded mid-season for the first time in his career.

“Yeah, I didn’t feel like myself, either,” Huerter said. “The break was big for me; a mental refresh was big for me. I came out of it ready to get going, to turn the page and start things going with this organization. The rest was just playing with confidence, and I’m confident in who I am.”

According to Cowley, Huerter is one of several Bulls who are essentially auditioning for jobs beyond 2024/25. While Huerter will earn a guaranteed $18MM in ’25/26, he’s certainly not a lock to stick with Chicago after posting career lows in most statistical categories this season.

“He’s obviously been a proven player in the league and certainly had moments in Atlanta and Sacramento, where he’s been really, really good,” head coach Billy Donovan said of Huerter. “I think anytime you come to a new team there’s going to be a period of adjustment, but I don’t think he was necessarily shooting the ball as well in Sacramento but for him maybe something new and fresh (was needed), trying to get him to take shots when they’re there.”

Here are a few more notes from Chicago:

Due to injuries to Nikola Vucevic and Jalen Smith, Zach Collins has started the past two games at center and filled in admirably. On Wednesday, he notched season highs of 22 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists, with the Bulls outscoring the Clippers by six points in his 38 minutes during the five-point loss. “I’ve been in and out of lineups all year, so now I get all the minutes I want,” Collins said, per Kyle Williams of The Chicago Sun-Times. “Our team is not as good without those guys in the lineup, so it’s not just me. We all have to pick it up. There are a lot of points and rebounds left out there on the floor without [Vucevic], so we all have to pick up the slack.”
In addition to Huerter and Collins, the Bulls also acquired Tre Jones in the trade that sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento and De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio. Collins says his familiarity with Jones has helped both players get acclimated to their new surroundings, according to Williams. “To come over with a guy that I played with for four years now and gotten close to made the whole thing that much more comfortable,” Collins said. “We took the same car to the airport, same flights, the same time for media, for medical, for extra reps after practice, learning, learning plays and everything.”
Jones, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, also had a strong outing Wednesday, notes Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. The fifth-year point guard recorded 16 points (on 7-of-9 shooting), two rebounds, two assists, one steal and no turnovers and was plus-six in 18 minutes off the bench.
Smith has cleared the NBA’s concussion protocol, and if today’s workout goes well, he’ll be active tomorrow against Toronto, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Sports Network. Ayo Dosunmu, who has missed the past three games with a shoulder injury, was doing “light individual work” Thursday but his status for Friday is uncertain. Vucevic will be sidelined again Friday as he continues to deal with right calf injury, Johnson adds.

Bulls Notes: Guards, Donovan, Vucevic, Roster

February 12th, 2025 at 11:22pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

A surplus of guards following the Bulls‘ blockbuster trade of former All-Star wing Zach LaVine has yielded an interesting dilemma for head coach Billy Donovan. As Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune notes, Donovan is looking to thread the needle between putting giving his best players enough minutes and developing the club’s younger backcourt contributors.

“We have an overabundance of guards, quite honestly,” Donovan said. “We just do. I think we have nine guards. It’s a lot.”

Poe observes that the Bulls traded LaVine and cut guard Chris Duarte while bringing in Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones — ostensibly, then, the team offloaded two guards and brought in two more. But LaVine, at 6’5″, was the team’s starting small forward, and thanks to his athleticism could play a bit bigger than his size. He was also a considerably more multifaceted and prolific scorer than either of the two new additions.

“With the number of guards we have, I’m not opposed to the times when we’ve started with four guards,” Donovan said. “But that may not be the best thing for this group rotation-wise.”

The Bulls’ unbalanced roster appears ready-made to fall further into the depths of lottery contenders. So far, Chicago has gone 1-4 in its five games since the LaVine deal, including losing its last four straight.

There’s more out of the Windy City:

The Bulls suffered their worst loss of the season, a 132-92 defeat to the Pistons on Tuesday, and followed that up with a 128-110 encore loss to Detroit on Wednesday. Poe writes in another piece that Chicago fans booed their own team early in the second quarter on Tuesday. “It’s embarrassing,” Donovan said. “There’s no question about it.” Without LaVine’s scoring acumen, the Bulls could be in for a lot more losing in the last 27 games of the year, Poe notes.
After moving LaVine, the Bulls received offers about another two-time All-Star on their roster, center Nikola Vucevic. Chicago ultimately opted not to move on from the 34-year-old even while clearly pivoting to a rebuild. Poe wonders in an additional story if the front office whiffed on what could have been a prime opportunity to extract the most value possible for the 6’10” vet. As we previously relayed, the team reportedly believes it will be able to fetch more assets in a potential deal this offseason.
The Bulls hope to take stock of their revised roster during the All-Star break, writes Kyle Williams of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscriber link). “We’ll come back and meet as a group within plenty of time before we see the team to talk about some of those things,” Donovan said. “There may be some things that we put in offensively and defensively that we feel that maybe could help some of the things maybe we struggled with.”

Central Notes: Schröder, Pistons, Hunter, Porter, Bulls

February 11th, 2025 at 9:42pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Dennis Schröder is playing for his third team this season. He wound up with the Pistons as part of the five-team blockbuster that landed Jimmy Butler with Golden State. Schröder, who started the season with Brooklyn before getting dealt to the Warriors, made his Detroit debut on Sunday and will continue to be part of the rotation with Jaden Ivey on the mend from a broken fibula.

“It’s my 12th season. I think I consider myself a veteran now — 31 years old,” Schröder told Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press. “I can bring a lot to this team, making sure the young guys are doing the right things and not the wrong things and worry about the right things as well to make the team better. That’s what it’s all about and that’s the reason why I’m here 12 years, and I want to show those guys and try to lead by example every single day, but then on the court playing the right way is the reason they got me.”

Schröder will be a free agent after the season.

We have more from the Central Division:

Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon admitted that being a buyer at the trade deadline wasn’t on his radar when he was hired by the team last summer. Detroit’s surprisingly strong play convinced him to alter his plans, though he also used cap space as bait to acquire two future second-rounders. “These guys have put themselves in position where they believe they can be a playoff team, which is exciting. We know that’s important to them,” Langdon said, per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “To add to that was important to us, as well. We were aware of that and kept that in mind leading to the deadline.”
The Cavaliers have been seeking a big, versatile wing for years and may have finally found their man in De’Andre Hunter, who was acquired from Atlanta. Hunter scored 12 points in 23 minutes against Miami in his Cleveland debut on Monday. “I’m not coming here … trying to change anything,” Hunter told The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “I’m just trying to add my skill set to what they already have. They had a need they felt needed to be addressed. I feel like, as someone who prides himself on defense and kind of going out there and (trying) to be a two-way player as best I can. So I think that could really help this team, especially at the small forward. But like I said, they were doing good without me.”
Bucks general manager Jon Horst acknowledges there’s risk in bringing in guard Kevin Porter Jr., who was acquired from the Clippers. Horst believes Porter – who wore out his welcome in Cleveland due to locker-room issues and faced domestic violence charges during his time in Houston – has matured and put that behavior behind him. “I think we have an opportunity to help (him) continue on the path of what he’s on, which is improving and growing. There’s no question that if he does that, we think he can help us,” Horst said, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “So there’s a chance for a win-win. But, it’s not unlike any other transaction. There’s risk. And it’s not a five-year commitment and a massive, major thing. I mean, this is a bet, and for him, it’s an opportunity to help us and grow and improve, and he’s been doing it. And that’s what all of our due diligence showed us. And if he does that, he could be a pretty good fit with us. I know he’s excited to be here and we’re excited to have him.” Porter holds a 2025/26 player option on the two-year, minimum salary contract he signed with Los Angeles last offseason.
The Bulls added Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones at the trade deadline but there’s no mandate by the front office to play them, according to coach Billy Donovan. “(The front office hasn’t) come out and said that to me like that, but I do think that there would be organizationally, no question, you want to find out about those guys, they’re here,” Donovan said, per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “Can they help our team, can they impact our team, and who are they as players? Right. There hasn’t been, ‘Hey, let’s play these guys right now.’ “

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