The Chicago Bulls have made a series of calculated decisions with the roster since they traded Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings before the trade deadline.
Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas wanted to see his young roster compete for a Play-In Tournament instead of tanking for a shot at a higher draft pick and potentially Cooper Flagg.
On Tuesday night, the Bulls chose to sit four starters: Nikola Vucevic (calf), Coby White (rest), Josh Giddey (wrist), and Kevin Huerter (neck). Chicago wanted to rest their starters for load management purposes before they host the Miami Heat on Wednesday night in a critical game that could decide home-court advantage in the Play-In Tournament.
The shorthanded Bulls lost 135-113 to the Cavs in front of 19,432 fans at Rocket Arena. The defeat cost the Bulls a chance to tie the Atlanta Hawks for the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, as the Hawks lost 119-112 to the Orlando Magic Tuesday night.
The Chicago Bulls overruled their starters
According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, three of the four starters who sat out against the Cavs wanted to play on Tuesday night. However, Chicago’s medical staff “overruled” the athletes’ wishes in the final week of the regular season.
“And the kicker, according to a source, was that three of the four starters who were held out wanted to play but were overruled by the Bulls’ medical staff,” Cowley wrote. “Huerter was the only one seriously hampered by injury but was still looking to return against the Heat.”
The starters bought into Karnišovas’ program this spring. However, the Bulls made it harder for their core to make a playoff appearance by missing out on an opportunity to pull even with the Hawks.
The front office also made it more difficult to assess how their core stacks up against the No. 1 team in the East a week after they were thumped by 145-117 by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Billy Donovan defended the decision
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan argued that a day of rest was in the best interest of the health of his players.
“If you take away the standings and take away all that stuff, it’s OK. What’s in the best interest of the guys’ health?” Donovan said. “That’s what it came down to. You can always play devil’s advocate… You’re making one of these decisions, but you also play this side of, ‘Why wouldn’t we rest these guys? We’re in the Play-In [(Tournament).’ All of a sudden, so-and-so is out for a week now, and was playing those guys in a back-to-back too much?
“Listen, every time these guys step across the line, they’re always putting themselves in harm’s way. Anything can happen. With some of the things they’ve done load-wise, there was just a concern with what’s coming down the road.”
What’s coming down the road is an upward climb to make the playoffs.
