{"id":614000,"date":"2026-02-20T16:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614000\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T16:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:34:23","slug":"ivey-gets-dnp-cd-with-bulls-crowded-backcourt-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614000\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivey Gets DNP-CD With Bulls’ Crowded Backcourt Healthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Josh Giddey<\/a> and Tre Jones<\/a> back in action on Thursday following injury absences, Jaden Ivey<\/a> was the odd man out in a crowded Bulls backcourt. Ivey, who started three of four games and averaged 28.8 minutes per night for Chicago prior to the All-Star break, didn\u2019t play at all in a home loss to Toronto and said after the game that he thought it was the first DNP-CD of his career, per Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bulls assistant Wes Unseld Jr., acting as head coach with Billy Donovan away from the team following the death of his father, explained that it was \u201cstrictly a basketball decision\u201d necessitated by having a fully healthy backcourt, as well as a desire to have Giddey and Jones play regular roles in their first game back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to several guys (Thursday) morning, and then I addressed the team about it, and it\u2019s just a byproduct of where we are in our composition,\u201d Unseld told reporters.<\/p>\n

Giddey and Jones, who were on minutes restrictions, played 21 and 22 minutes respectively, while recent trade acquisition Anfernee Simons<\/a> logged 31. Collin Sexton<\/a> and Rob Dillingham<\/a>, the team\u2019s other newly added guards, played 15 and 10 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n

As Lorenzi writes, the usage of the guards seemed to be at odds with the Bulls\u2019 actions earlier this month at a busy trade deadline. With its seven deadline deals, Chicago appeared prepared to pivot toward its younger players, but Simons and Sexton \u2013 veterans on expiring contracts \u2013 are ahead of Ivey, a restricted-free-agent-to-be, and second-year guard Dillingham on the depth chart for now.<\/p>\n

Asked after the game about his DNP-CD, Ivey offered little clarity, according to Lorenzi, who says the former Piston repeatedly referenced his faith and declared that he doesn\u2019t \u201creally trust the NBA setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen moves are made behind the scenes, trades and stuff,\u201d Ivey replied when asked what he meant. \u201cI don\u2019t trust that part of (it). I mean, you can\u2019t trust it, because it\u2019s not in your hands. So it\u2019s not in my hands to make moves, or trade myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivey later said he was told the decision to sit him on Thursday was the result of \u201ca series of things,\u201d including ongoing knee soreness that he referred to as something he\u2019s been dealing with \u201cfor years.\u201d The fourth-year guard underwent surgery on his right knee in October that delayed his season debut, but he hasn\u2019t been listed on the injury report recently and said that soreness isn\u2019t something that will \u201ckeep me from doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there have been some questions this season about whether Ivey is at 100% after returning from a broken left leg that ended his 2024\/25 season, as well as that right knee surgery. He played a reduced role in Detroit (16.8 MPG) prior to the trade and didn\u2019t look like his old explosive self. Asked if there are still health-related steps to take before he regains his former athleticism, Ivey offered an eyebrow-raising response, Lorenzi notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure people can call it out \u2014 I\u2019m not the same player I used to be,\u201d he said. \u201c(The knee soreness is) why. I\u2019m not the J.I. I used to be. The old J.I. is dead. I\u2019m alive in Christ no matter what the basketball setting is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Lorenzi observes, it\u2019s possible the Bulls will adjust their rotation going forward and Ivey\u2019s DNP-CD ends up being a one-off that\u2019s quickly forgotten. But based on Thursday\u2019s usage, it doesn\u2019t appear at this point that developing Ivey and Dillingham is a top priority for the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Josh Giddey and Tre Jones back in action on Thursday following injury absences, Jaden Ivey was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[4329,7,920,919,329,3824,1585,1018,965,6,977,6277],"class_list":{"0":"post-614000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-anfernee-simons","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-collin-sexton","15":"tag-jaden-ivey","16":"tag-josh-giddey","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-rob-dillingham","19":"tag-tre-jones"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116103929083585356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}