Over the last 11 days, the Bulls locker room has been absolutely dismantled by COVID. It started on December 1st with point guard Coby White and has quickly spiraled out of control. The Bulls lost their first starter in forward DeMar DeRozan on December 7th and have now lost a second. Two more players have entered the league’s health and safety protocols as of this morning.
Nine Bulls players in protocols now, including, as @KCJHoop reports, Troy Brown. https://t.co/WY73OmPcAd
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 12, 2021
Shooting guard Zach LaVine and forward Troy Brown Jr. are two additional players added to health and safety protocols. That leaves the Bulls with 9 active players on the team’s roster. It doesn’t appear that this is going to stop spreading any time soon as the Bulls have now lost 7 players over 5 days. If things continue to go south the NBA will likely need to postpone games. However, the way things stand right now it’s not looking likely.
The Bulls are expected to play with who they have
Like I said earlier the Bulls currently have 9 active players on the roster who can suit up. Under the league’s rules if a team has 8 active players then games will continue.
Under league rules, the Bulls need to have eight eligible players vs. the Pistons on Tuesday. There have been no Covid-related postponements in the NBA this season, but the Bulls outbreak — with LaVine and Troy Brown the latest — continues and postponements could be an option.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 12, 2021
While the Bulls have enough players to go it might be wise for the league to postpone games with how many players are testing positive. The team lost two players yesterday and two more today and they just played a game last night. That doesn’t seem like a very smart move by the league. If the player’s safety is priority #1 then shutting down the Bulls for 10 days is the best move.
Will the league do anything about this?
When it comes to the league it’s highly unlikely that they will end up doing anything about this. They created rules around COVID and what to do when teams have outbreaks. If the Bulls don’t meet the requirements to postpone games it would be hard to think the league would step in and shut them down. At this point, there are a lot of fans asking the league to step in but there has been no official word from the league.
DO SOMETHING @NBA https://t.co/Kp49VWO9rs
— KENNY BEECHAM (@KOT4Q) December 12, 2021
The Bulls are in a tough spot right now as they struggle to get players on the floor. They are bringing in new faces and just trying to put people on the court. The team got two new members under the league’s hardship waiver and they are now going to need to look for even more players to bring in.
The Bulls have nine healthy players for Tuesday's game vs. Detroit. One of the replacement players, Stanley Johnson, is in protocols. The Bulls need replacements for their replacements. As @BobbyMarks42 says, Bulls can continue to sign players under hardship waiver. https://t.co/LmAw01tICg
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 12, 2021
The Bulls are literally bringing in new backups for their new backups. The situation is getting out of hand in Chicago and the best case of action is to shut the team down. Shutting them down for ten days and having every single person self isolate would be the best-case scenario. Postpone those games to later in the league year and move forward with everyone being healthy. It will be interesting to see what the league does, if anything, about the Bulls COVID outbreak. While this sucks quite a bit for the team and the fanbase there is one silver lining in all of this.
In the end, this could be good for the Bulls
Losing over half of your team to health and safety protocols is a nightmare. It puts the team in an incredibly tough position. Going out and competing with only 9 players is hard for any NBA team regardless of the opponent. However, if there’s one thing we can take from this that’s good, it’s the fact that the team shouldn’t have any COVID issues down the road. With almost everyone on the team being impacted they all should be good to go the rest of the season. Players on the team even agree that this will be good in the long run.
Well at least we’ll have herd immunity for the rest of the season… https://t.co/XrmBH0OMxW
— Nikola Vucevic (@NikolaVucevic) December 12, 2021
This happening early in the season is “lucky” for the Bulls. They aren’t in the midst of a last-minute playoff run and if they end up falling they will have plenty of time to move back up. This situation sucks across the board but at least it is happening in December and not in March. Let’s hope everyone can come out of health and safety protocols feeling alright and able to get back on the court at full speed. We will likely see Coby White coming back in the coming days which will put the Bulls at 10 healthy players.
If things continue the way they have we will be seeing postponed games and the Bulls shutting things down. While that’s still to be determined we will just have to sit and wait and hope for the best.
