It didn’t sound like the Bulls were simply doing their due diligence.
The Jaden Ivey talk from coach Billy Donovan on Monday sounded more like an investment in the guard’s future.
Earlier in the day, the team announced that Ivey was making progress in his knee-strengthening program and would be re-evaluated in a week. The intent remained to do whatever they could to get him back on the court, even with just 14 regular-season games left.
And while Donovan doesn’t write the checks or make the personnel decisions, he does have almost daily discussions with his front office. Ivey is a restricted free agent, which means the franchise has the final say on matching any offer – if any – come Ivey’s way. Donovan sounded like the interest to do that was real even with the former Piston playing just four lackluster games before he was shut down with the knee issue.
“The unfortunate part was that when he got here, one is you’re dealing with him coming into a completely new situation after the trade deadline and then trying to get acclimated,” Donovan said. “I mean, the intention was when we did (make the trade) is this could be somebody that would be here for a while. How all this plays out with the contract in July and the free agency part of it, understanding he’s restricted, I don’t know. But our intention organizationally was, this is a guy that we feel could be a very, very good player, and this guy’s got a pretty long runway of being somewhat youthful and young.”
Two factors in the Ivey situation of why the Bulls would invest in him is first, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas doesn’t like to be wrong, so if he can get Ivey to look like the player he was coming out of Purdue and his first few years in Detroit, it would be a feather in his cap.
There haven’t been many of those.
The other factor is there just aren’t many teams that can go free agent shopping this offseason, especially in an unknown like Ivey who is coming back from what was a severe leg injury.
If Ivey can get the strength back in the knee – and the explosiveness – it will benefit him and the Bulls.
“I definitely think the season ends and he’s got a complete runway of the summer, of training, strengthening, doing those things,” Donovan added. “Everybody feels very confident that he’ll be back to where he was athletically. Can he quite get there between now and the end of the season? I don’t know.”
Simons says
Veteran guard Anfernee Simons saw a hand specialist for his follow-up re-evaluation on his fractured left wrist and the decision was made to give him another 10 days before he’s checked on again.
Donovan was asked why not just shut the free agent-to-be down for the remainder of the season, especially if he very likely will be elsewhere.
“I know everybody is pushing towards trying to help these guys get back to play,” Donovan said. “If something changes in a couple weeks or we get so far to the end of the season where there aren’t many games left, they need a ramp-up period, that may change.”
Tanks for playing
How bad is the bottom of the NBA these days as the end of the season draws near and draft lottery odds play out?
Of the bottom 10 teams, the Bulls’ 3-7 record in their last 10 games entering Monday was the third most wins of the group.