NEWSLETTER
Before Chicago’s Friday night matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, head coach Billy Donovan announced that Bulls third-year forward Chandler Hutchison tested positive for COVID-19.
The news at least partially clears up some of the confusion around why Hutchison, Lauri Markkanen, Tomas Satoransky, and Ryan Arcidiacono were all put on the injury report before last night’s game. However, what remains confusing is precisely what made Markkanen, Satoransky, and Arcidiacono the only players put in isolation. If the reasoning was due to “close contact,” and none received positive tests (which appears to be the case since they were allowed to travel back to Chicago), I have to wonder what made them any closer to Hutchison than the rest of the team? This appears to be a pretty big gray area in the NBA’s rules and regulations.
Billy Donovan said Chandler Hutchison tested positive for COVID-19. Donovan released that with Hutch’s permission. The other 3 players have returned to Chicago and are in quarantine.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) January 1, 2021
The hope now is that Hutchison can experience a speedy recovery while the other three players can receive their needed negative tests to rejoin the team.
While this has been an expected issue coming into this season, it feels like the Chicago Bulls have already experienced more trouble than several other franchises around the league. Garrett Temple tested positive for the virus prior to training camp, and Tomas Satoransky missed the team’s final two preseason games due to the NBA Protocol. Devon Dotson, Luke Kornet, and Adam Mokoka have also been away from the team at times this season, but the reasoning for their absences have been less clear.
Also, we learned on Friday night that the Bulls were without four of their coaches in their second regular-season game.
Billy Donovan also revealed that the Bulls were without four coaches when they played the Indiana Pacers on Dec. 26. Health and safety protocols-related
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) January 1, 2021
Yikes.
All things considered, this isn’t the most encouraging way for this team to start the new era. Hopefully, the team can learn from this string of bad luck and figure out how to better manage things moving forward.
