Category: Bulls Injury Report

Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams to have season ending surgery

Will Chicago get an additional boost from playing prospects deeper in the rotation as they did with Coby White?

If you thought that the Chicago Bulls were down bad when they lost Zach LaVine to a foot injury for the rest of the NBA’s 2023-24 season earlier this month, well — the basketball gods just said, “Hold my beer.”

Word on the street is that yet another key member of the Bulls’ rotation to a foot injury, this time forward Patrick Williams. Initially set to be re-evaluated in a few weeks, a second look at his injury by the team convinced them that his stress fracture had worsened enough that surgery was the proper course of action for the Charlotte native.

Will Chicago get an additional boost from playing prospects deeper in the rotation as they did with Coby White in LaVine’s case? After signing wing Onuralp Bitim to a full roster spot, that seems to be the plan.

The folks behind the CHGO Sports’ “CHGO Bulls” show took a closer look at this mess and what it means for Chicago moving forward. Check it out above!

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Chicago’s Patrick Williams out for season for foot surgery as injury bug spreads

Williams will miss the rest of the Bulls’ campaign to have surgery on his left foot. 

The Chicago Bulls continue to reel from injury as another core player will sit for the remainder of the NBA’s 2023-24 season for foot surgery, per multiple reports. According to Reuters, Patrick Williams will miss the rest of the Bulls’ campaign to have surgery on his left foot.

“Williams has been out since Jan. 25 with an acute bone edema in his left foot,” reports Reuters.” At that time, Williams had already missed three games that month with foot discomfort and had been in a walking boot, and the Bulls said the injury required ‘active rest’ for at least two weeks.”

Since then, the team has reported that “routine subsequent imaging (revealed) the progression of his foot stress reaction.”

Williams has been something of an ironman, having played in all 82 games with Chicago in 2022-23. The 22-year-old forward has been putting up 10.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1. 5 assists with the Bulls so far this season.

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The Chicago Bulls are starting to feel the pinch of the injury bug

The Bulls were hoping that internal development and improving health might have them in the mix for the play-in tournament.

The Chicago Bulls are starting to feel the pinch of the injury bug again after a few healthy weeks. Word is that veteran forward Torrey Craig is going to miss at least two to four weeks with a knee injury. Craig has not been back long since returning from another injury earlier in the season, just as the Bulls’ front office was hoping that internal development and improving health might have them in the mix for the play-in tournament.

Now, new and additional injury intel is percolating through the Chicago media landscape, with forward Patrick Williams being put on the injury list as well. Williams evidently cannot run at the moment due to his own malady below the belt, which is sort of a required component of playing NBA basketball.

“Locked On Bulls” cohost Pat The Designer sat down and held a magnifying glass to the situation in light of the front office’s decisions at the trade deadline.

Check it out above!

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Chicago Bulls provide latest Patrick Williams injury update

Chicago Bulls head coach provided an injury update on Patrick Williams.

With the Chicago Bulls’ lack of moves at the trade deadline, the team committed to winning. It will be all hands on deck in Chicago if they want to make the playoffs, but that’s where the front office wants to be, so that’s going to be the team’s goal for the remainder of the year.

But in order to effectively be competitive in the Eastern Conference playoff race, they need all of their guys on the floor. The Bulls have dealt with some serious injuries this season, and one of the biggest has been the absence of Patrick Williams, who was finally starting to figure things out before his injury.

Head coach Billy Donovan recently provided an injury update, noting that Williams is slowly ramping things up. (H/t KC Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago)

“Patrick is doing the light, slow ramp-up,” Donovan said. “Everything they do is going to be based on his pain and what he can tolerate. Quite honestly, there have been certain things where he’s felt it. He’s much better than he was. I think when this first happened, he was feeling it walking. He’s beyond that right now. But they’re going to be very, very careful in terms of how much they continue to push through and how much they pull back on him. He has responded really well and done well. But on some of the things he has done, he has felt it mildly. And they’ll be cautious.”

Getting Williams back sooner rather than later would give the Bulls a huge boost.

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Breaking news: Bulls’ Torrey Craig to miss 4-6 weeks with a knee injury

The Chicago Bulls may just have to deal with the NBA’s 2023-24 season being a snakebit one.

The Chicago Bulls may just have to deal with the NBA’s 2023-24 season being a snakebit one in terms of injuries. We are hearing word that veteran forward Torrey Craig now needs to miss between two and four weeks with a knee injury starting to percolate through the NBA media sphere.

The Bulls could simply elect to ride out the season with the players they have already on the roster, or they could sign a buyout candidate or 10-day guy to help out while Craig heals up. They could also consider leaning into one of their two way players to fill the gap as the team tries to fight its way into the NBA’s 2024 play-in tournament.

The host of the “Chicago Bulls Central” podcast, Haize, took some time on a recent episode to talk us through what the Craig injury means for the Bulls plans for the rest of the 2023-24 season.

Check it out above!

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Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan reacts to Zach LaVine’s season-ending injury

After it was announced that Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine would have season-ending foot surgery, DeMar DeRozan reacted to the news.

The Chicago Bulls have a hit a wall in terms of injuries. Torrey Craig has missed a ton of time, Patrick Williams has been out, and Nikola Vucevic was absent for some games, too. But nobody has dealt with more injury issues this season than Zach LaVine.

LaVine missed over a month with a foot injury but returned at the beginning of January. However, he then hurt his ankle after just seven games back. And now, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, LaVine has elected to have season-ending surgery on his foot, so he won’t be back on the court for the Bulls this year.

After the news was put out, DeMar DeRozan reacted to LaVine’s injury.

“When you go through a situation like that, I’m pretty sure it’s frustrating, it’s tough on him,” DeRozan said via ESPN. “It’s a whole different type of mental hurdle he’s got to go through with that. So hoping for the best for him.”

LaVine has been thrown around in trade rumors this season, as the Bulls have reportedly been focused on finding a deal for him, but it now seems certain that he’ll remain in Chicago until the offseason, at the very least.

Before going down, LaVine had been having a solid season. He was averaging 19.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists while shooting 45.2% from the field and 34.9% from behind the three-point line.

Getting LaVine healthy will undoubtedly be the main priority for the Bulls, but rather than welcoming him back to the floor next season, they could look to ship him out to another squad ahead of next year.

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Reports: Chicago’s Zach LaVine elects to have foot surgery, will miss remainder of season

It seems all but certain LaVine will remain with the team beyond the Feb. 8 trade deadline as a result.

With news breaking that Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine will be out through the end of the NBA’s 2023-24 regular season per multiple sources, it seems all but certain LaVine will remain with the team beyond the Feb. 8 trade deadline. Per The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the “Bulls say … LaVine, in consultation with team and Klutch Sports Group” elected to get the surgery on his right foot.

Charania also notes LaVine will have the surgery next week and is expected to miss 4-to-6 months. A press release from the Bulls’ organization noted that the UCLA alum sought out other opinions before choosing to get surgery.

The Chicago star will turn 29 this coming March, and will have three years left (the last being a player option) on a four-year, $178 million deal he is currently playing the first season of.

LaVine has averaged 19.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game with Chicago this season.

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Billy Donovan provides latest update on Zach LaVine injury return

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan recently provided a Zach LaVine injury return update.

Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine missed over a month with a foot injury but returned at the beginning of January. However, in his seventh game back from injury, he tweaked his ankle against the Toronto Raptors. That was on January 18, and he hasn’t been back on the court since.

The Bulls have fared pretty well without LaVine in the lineup, but they’d undoubtedly like to get him back as soon as possible. On the one hand, they’d like him to revive his trade value ahead of the deadline, but more importantly, having everyone healthy will help the Bulls get a real read on where this team is at.

Head coach Billy Donovan recently provided an update on LaVine’s potential return from injury, but there wasn’t much new news.

“I don’t want to put a timetable on it,” Donovan said via Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. “The issue is it’s the ankle and the foot. I think the ankle has healed up pretty well. I think he’s still dealing with some foot discomfort. That’s the concerning part.”

In addition, Donovan also had an update on a couple of other players: Dalen Terry and Torrey Craig.

“He said he thought he would be fine other than his ankle being landed on when he went in for that layup [in the Toronto loss],” Donovan said of Terry. “He didn’t really have any swelling, so responded pretty well. There’s a hope he’ll be back relatively soon.”

As for Craig, they hope to know more soon.

“Our hope is somewhere in those four days of being able to practice we’ll have a good pulse, but he’s certainly very close, I would say that,” Donovan said.

Getting everyone back on the court is a top priority for the Bulls.

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Patrick Williams provides injury update after wearing walking boot

Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams recently spoke about his injury and why he was in a walking boot.

As the trade deadline approaches, most of the talk surrounding the Chicago Bulls has been about what potential moves they could make, and rightfully so. They’ve been a middle-of-the-pack team for two years now, and they don’t seem like they have a real direction moving forward.

However, after an ugly start to the season made it look like the Bulls were destined for a top-10 pick, they’ve pushed their way back up into the Play-In picture. Unfortunately, they’ve dealt with a ton of injuries this year. Zach LaVine has missed significant time, Nikola Vucevic missed some games, and a bunch of their depth pieces have been out for stretches as well.

Patrick Williams is the latest of the bunch. He missed the Bulls’ recent game against the Portland Trail Blazers and was seen wearing a walking boot after playing with pain in his left foot for weeks. The young forward provided an update on the situation via Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s one of those situations where the benefit of [the walking boot], whether I needed it or not, kind of outweighed the look of it,” Williams said. “Naturally, I said, ‘Hell no.’ I know what it looks like to wear a boot. You never want to just have to wear one of those. But they spoke to me about the benefit of wearing it and kind of deloading it for a couple days.”

Williams has been having a solid season, averaging 10.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while shooting 44.3% from the field and 39.9% from behind the three-point line.

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Billy Donovan provides latest Zach LaVine injury update

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan provided an injury update on Zach LaVine.

According to Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, Zach LaVine will miss at least another week with an ankle issue, per Jovan Buha of The Athletic. LaVine injured his ankle in the Bulls’ November 18 win over the Toronto Raptors, and while he remained in that game to fight through it, he hasn’t been back on the court since.

The timing of LaVine’s injury is intriguing, to say the least, as the February 8 trade deadline is right around the corner. LaVine’s name has been consistently brought up in trade rumors, yet recent indications have let off the belief that it could be difficult for the Bulls due to his huge contract and injury problems.

Multiple teams around the league have been linked to LaVine, with the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, and Los Angeles Lakers being the main ones.

That said, reports have recently noted the Lakers’ loss of interest in LaVine as they are looking at other options to improve their play at the guard positions.

Chicago is in a weird spot heading into the deadline. They’ve played well after an ugly start to the season, pushing their way back up into the Play-In Tournament. However, they still don’t have the talent to compete with the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

In turn, selling off assets in favor of a rebuild could be smart. That said, the Bulls seem intent on restructuring the roster instead of entering a full-on rebuild.

Trading LaVine could lead to them shaking things up while also staying competitive.

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