Not everyone is impressed with the Chicago Bulls‘ comeback win on Friday night. The Bulls trailed the Toronto Raptors 97-81 with 11:01 remaining in the fourth quarter of their contest in front of 20,938 fans at the United Center.
Despite entering the contest with a 24-36 record and the No. 10 spot in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls, minus center Nikola Vucevic, chose to keep fighting against the Raptors. Chicago eventually overcame an 18-win Toronto team 125-115 in overtime.
Coby White was the Bulls’ hero in the win, scoring 24 points and adding four rebounds, four steals, and three assists. He took over for the Bulls during their comeback.
Coby White was playing minutes he shouldn’t have
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times took Bulls executive vice president of operations Arturas Karnisovas to task for allowing head coach Billy Donovan to keep White in the game, arguing that it didn’t allow for Chicago to evaluate and develop young talent on the roster while putting the team in a position for a high draft pick this summer.
“If it was rookie Matas Buzelis that scored 15 fourth-quarter points to outscore the Raptors 29-20 in that final stanza to send it to overtime, no issues,” Cowley wrote. “Watching Coby White do it, and the same Coby White that might not even be in the plans beyond the summer? Just the latest head-shaker in a season full of head-shaking.
“And it wasn’t White’s fault. He’s paid to score and win games. It sure wasn’t Billy Donovan’s fault. The coach admitted that in organizational meetings throughout the season not one person from ownership or the front office has told him to put the breaks on in close games and play the young guys for “development” purposes. This again all falls on Karnisovas and his inability to value odds.”
The Chicago Bulls are hurting their draft opportunities
The Bulls have a six percent chance for the No. 1 pick and a 6.7% percent chance for the No. 3 pick. Their odds would improve nearly three percent for each of the top three picks if they tank to where the Philadelphia 76ers are at.
Unfortunately, the Bulls appear headed for worse odds, as a Victor Wembanyama-less San Antonio Spurs team could be in free fall this spring.
Like Cowley points out, it’s one thing for the young roster to make the Play-In Tournament, as Karnisovas explained would be the team’s goal after they traded Zach LaVine but kept Vucevic. However, it’s another to keep White in a game they could have lost.
But then again, the Bulls kept a crowd of 20,000+ fans entertained to watch two teams with a combined record of 41-62 go head-to-head. Chicago is banking for the fan base to support the team in another Play-In opportunity, regardless of what that does to a few percentage points for June.
What Karnisovas is doing is following through with the plan the NBA had when they created the Play-In Tournament.
The Bulls are stupid enough to take the bait.
