The Bulls point guard of the future suffered a toe injury the other night during the Bulls’ win in Memphis, forcing him to miss the team’s St. Patrick’s Day contest as well as last night’s wonderfully wretched tank loss in New York.
Dunn’s sprained toe seemed to be a day-to-day situation, but according to K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune, the sprained toe is more than just a made up #tankseason injury.
Dunn will go into walking boot after setback.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) March 19, 2018
The Bulls have just 12 games remaining this season, and if Dunn is in a walking boot he’s at least a week away from game action, probably closer to 10 days. The Bulls play 6 games in the next 10 days.
The Bulls are sitting at 24-46, which is the 8th worst record in the league. That’s 1.5 games ahead of the Nets, who the Bulls play twice in the final six games. Keep in mind the Nets don’t have their 1st round pick, so they don’t have an incentive to intentionally lose. The Mavericks and Kings are only two games behind the Bulls.
With seven games left against playoff teams, two more against a bad but still superior Detroit team, two against Brooklyn and one against the tanking Magic, The Bulls could still sink into the bottom 5.
From the Bulls perspective, what is the upside of bringing back Kris Dunn?
Cons:
- He injures his toe even worse and pushes back his offseason program as a result.
- He leads the Bulls to an extra win or two, keeping them 8th worst in the standings instead of 5th or 6th.
- He comes back and plays poorly over the final few games, adding unnecessary fuel to the Dunn and Lavine don’t fit together fire.
Pros:
- N/A
Kris Dunn’s season was, overall, undoubtedly a success given the struggles he had under Tom Thibedeau in his rookie season. There is still plenty of room for growth, but the stretch run of this season is not the time to push him.
