{"id":621573,"date":"2026-02-24T09:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621573\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T09:24:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:24:54","slug":"bulls-notes-simons-ivey-huerter-tanking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/621573\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls Notes: Simons, Ivey, Huerter, Tanking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anfernee Simons<\/a> will miss the Bulls\u2018 matchup against the Knicks on Sunday with a left wrist sprain, according to Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic (Twitter link<\/a>). Simons left Saturday\u2019s loss to the Pistons after just 13 minutes due to the injury.<\/p>\n

According to head coach Billy Donovan, Simons will undergo imaging on the wrist on Monday, and it\u2019s entirely possible that the \u201csprained wrist\u201d diagnosis will change following the results of those tests (Twitter link<\/a> via Lorenzi). Donovan said the Bulls don\u2019t currently know the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n

Prior to Saturday, Simons had played five games with the Bulls after being acquired in a deal that sent Nikola Vucevic<\/a> to the Celtics. In those five games, he averaged 17.4 points, 3.6 assists, and 3.0 rebounds with a .446\/.327\/1.000 shooting line.<\/p>\n

We have more from the Bulls:<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s trade deadline was filled with moves designed to secure the best possible lottery odds this summer, but the acquisition of Jaden Ivey<\/a> was one of the few forward-facing moves they made in terms of adding personnel. Ivey\u2019s recent injury status<\/a> makes that calculation more complicated, especially given his impending free agency, writes The Chicago Tribune\u2019s Julia Poe<\/a>. However, despite Ivey\u2019s comments about his body not feeling the same following knee and leg injuries, Poe says there\u2019s cautious optimism from the team\u2019s coach about his ability to recapture his old form. \u201cThere\u2019s a feeling that if he can get some more strength back then he can get back to where he was athletically,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cHe knows that he\u2019s not as explosive as he once was, but I don\u2019t think that means that he can\u2019t get back to that point. A big part of that is going to be him getting stronger.\u201d According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>, Ivey\u2019s former coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, agrees with Donovan, but adds that the most important part of the process is mental. \u201cWe expected a full recovery, but the timing you never know; it\u2019s something you can never know,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cAnd then the part for him is believing and trusting in it. That happens with the injury, too, especially when you\u2019re explosive and your athleticism is so unique. You\u2019ve got to find that trust back in it.\u201d
\nKevin Huerter<\/a> recently spoke about the trade<\/a> that sent him from the Bulls to the Pistons, Cowley writes<\/a>. One thing he touched on was the lack of clarity in Chicago about whether the team would compete or move into a rebuilding phase. \u201cWe talked about it [as a team], and we just didn\u2019t know,\u201d Huerter said. \u201cWe were sitting at .500 most of the year. It could have gone either way. As players, you have to expect everything, but seven or eight trades, whatever it was, I don\u2019t know if anyone expected that.\u201d While the move to the East-leading Pistons came as a surprise, the 27-year-old shooting guard is grateful for the opportunity it has provided him. \u201cThe transition, it\u2019s always tough in season, even coming here last year, it was tough to move everything, your whole life, in about a week,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you\u2019re going to a team like this, No. 1 in the East, and they just compete their ass off.\u201d
\nThe Bulls are behind the eight ball when it comes to maximizing their 2026 draft lottery odds, Poe writes<\/a>, noting that Chicago has the ninth-worst record in the league at 24-33 and might have a hard time dropping any further than that. Poe suggests the belated effort to tank has something in common with vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas\u2018 habit of not dealing players until after their value has started to decline. Still, Poe writes that the move to begun the next era of Bulls basketball is the right one, given the depth and promise of the 2026 draft class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anfernee Simons will miss the Bulls\u2018 matchup against the Knicks on Sunday with a left wrist sprain, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[4329,7,920,919,329,3824,1018,4103,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-621573","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-jaden-ivey","15":"tag-kevin-huerter","16":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116124891499872200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621573","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=621573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}