Uncertainty Surrounds the NBA
With uncertainty surrounding the NBA season due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bulls and the rest of the NBA will try to navigate this strange situation.
It has been 5 days now, with no Bulls basketball. The team was experiencing some exciting changes heading into the final stretch of the season. Otto Porter Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., and Lauri Markkanen had finally returned to the Bulls line up after being out with various injuries. Although the Bulls best player in Zach LaVine was recently sidelined, he seemed poised to return at perhaps the Bulls’ next game.
The big kicker is the Bulls’ last game finally saw Jim Boylen assert Bulls rookie Coby White into the starting line up, after weeks of push back by the head coach to keep White on the bench to keep developing.
When LaVine went out with a quadricep strain, it was Coby White who would step up and become the best player on the floor for the Bulls. February saw Coby become the first NBA rookie with three straight 30+ points game off the bench. Tomas Satoransky who was replaced by White in the starting group, gave his endorsement to White, stating that Coby has earned the starting spot and admitting that his own play this season has been up and down. While the Bulls playoff hopes were all but dashed. Fan’s still looked forward to the final games to see Coby and LaVine starting in the backcourt with Markkanen, Carter, and Porter in the lineup, to see what a potential healthy line up featuring those players would look like next year.
That all came crashing down when Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus, causing the NBA to take protective measures and suspended the season indefinitely. Since then Gobert’s teammate Donavan Mitchell and the Detroit Piston’s Christian Wood (who matched up against Gobert recently) also tested positive for the virus. The Bulls have reported that no one from the players to the coaching staff has contracted the virus. Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf has said that he will pay the Bulls staffers and United Center workers for the remainder of the season.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported that NBA owners are hopeful the season will resume in mid to late June, and the league is scouting for arena dates all the way through August.
This would raise the question if the NBA will pick up with the 20 or so regular-season games, or head straight into the playoffs? When would the NBA draft take place and what would be the time frame for free agency?
These are questions that still must be answered.
If the regular season is indeed over, the Bulls end the season with possibly the 7th pick for the 4th year in a row. Another big question if the Bulls don’t play another game this season is who would be taking the reigns of the draft process, as there is supposed to be a front-office shakeup at the season’s end.
We hope to have some answers to these questions soon and will stay on top of this situation as more information is brought to light.
The good news for Bulls fans is that the ESPN 10 part documentary “The Last Dance” detailing Michael Jordan’s final season with the Bulls, the release date could possibly be pushed up, as recent advertisements have seen the “coming in June” changed to “coming soon”.
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