Tre Jones understands the power of losing games and tanking.<\/p>\n
He was a third-year guard for San Antonio in that 2022-23 campaign, mired in losing and disappointment throughout that season with the specter of a 7-foot-4 French kid looming over the entire bottom half of the league.<\/p>\n
The Spurs went into that lottery rolling a 14% chance to hit gold and did just that, ending up with No. 1 and Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
A prize that had Jones still smiling when he recalled it this week. The journey to get there, however? Still painful.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was excited for sure after the lottery,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe knew (Wembanyama) was a generational talent coming out. You knew about the stories of his workouts and things like that. But to go in and see the work back up the talent once we drafted him, which is what you love to hear, so we were definitely excited about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, what we weren\u2019t excited about during the season was winning only 22 games, losing however many we did in a row that year (16). It wears on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
So while Jones\u2019 current Bulls team isn\u2019t as bad as a few of those Spurs seasons, 29 wins and losing every game in the month of February doesn\u2019t exactly build a team up with confidence.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean Jones is na\u00efve to what\u2019s been going on since the trade deadline. Albeit too late in the season, the Bulls front office made the decision to weaken the roster and increase the lottery odds, hoping to take advantage of a very talented 2026 draft class.<\/p>\n
While there is no Wemby at the top, there is star power in the top four, and potentially all the way down to where the Bulls currently sit before the lottery shakeup \u2013 at No. 9.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the chase for the front office and fan base to embrace. The coaches and players? No thanks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were frustrations that went on (in San Antonio) during that season that weren\u2019t good, so a season like that during the year is very frustrating for us as players because that\u2019s our livelihood, that\u2019s what we get paid to do,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt should be frustrating losing games, but obviously that summer you receive the No. 1 pick and you know who that No. 1 pick is. You know it\u2019s someone that will change the franchise around, potentially.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut even when we drafted him Year 1, it\u2019s not like we came out and were back. We had another top five pick the following year after that (Stephon Castle No. 4). So yes, you are excited when you get that No. 1 pick because you do know you\u2019re getting that guy that has a chance to change the franchise, but the journey to get there isn\u2019t easy on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
With just six games left, the Bulls have a one-game edge in the lottery over Milwaukee, and it was a good sign that they understood the assignment against lowly Indiana on Wednesday, sitting Josh Giddey with left hamstring tightness.<\/p>\n
However, they still have the third easiest schedule remaining, with two games in Washington and a season finale in Dallas.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s at stake is a 7% difference between No. 9 and No. 10 in hitting lottery top four.<\/p>\n
Just don\u2019t try selling Jones on that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just a firm believer in I was paid to come here to help this team win and I think every single night I can do that for my team,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThere are things going around as far as teams tanking, and it\u2019s something I\u2019ve been a part of in the past. Obviously, there are thoughts about that, but as far as showing up to a game and competing, every game I\u2019m in I feel like I can win, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tre Jones understands the power of losing games and tanking. He was a third-year guard for San Antonio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-694053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116335714400826340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694053","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=694053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}