The Chicago Bulls dropped a road game Sunday night to the league-worst Sacramento Kings, falling to 2-11 since the trade deadline and slipping to 12th place in the Eastern Conference. Despite the freefall, signals remain mixed on whether the front office is fully embracing a draft-position push.
Head coach Billy Donovan continues to deploy veterans and recently injured players, moves that have puzzled observers who expected the club to prioritize development and lottery odds. Forward Jalen Smith, back after missing five games with a calf strain, logged significant minutes in Sacramento, and 30-year-old Guerschon Yabusele—an unrestricted free agent this summer—kept his starting role. In contrast, 20-year-old guard Rob Dillingham, acquired from Minnesota at the deadline, saw only 15 minutes of action.
Chicago Tribune reporter Julia Poe attributes the mixed messaging to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, describing him as reluctant to commit either to aggressive trades or to an outright tank. “Everything I’ve gotten here from the front office, from ownership is that we need to do the best job you can to go out there and compete and to try to win,” Donovan said last month. “That’s kind of the mentality that we have here inside the organization.”
Poe also questioned the handling of guard Josh Giddey, who signed a four-year extension last summer. Giddey rolled an ankle during Tuesday’s loss to Oklahoma City, left the game, then was reinserted minutes later. He is already managing a hamstring issue that was expected to cap his workload at roughly 30 minutes per night, a limit Donovan has not consistently enforced.
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Joe Cowley noted that newcomers are adjusting to the frenetic pace Donovan favors. The strategy paid off in Thursday’s win at Phoenix but sputtered in Sacramento. “A lot of those guys were coming from situations where they were not playing at all,” Donovan said, citing Yabusele, center Nick Richards and Dillingham as recent examples.
Donovan also reflected on former Bulls stars Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, both sidelined Sunday. “I love both those two guys,” he said. “They were totally professional … I don’t know all the reasons it didn’t work out here.”
Source: HoopsRumors
