Kevin Huerter’s Bulls career last season was greeted with a five-game losing streak.
Not that the guard was much at fault considering he had just been acquired in the three-team deadline deal that sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento and Huerter to the Midwest, and there were some growing pains with the new-look rotation as Tre Jones and Zach Collins were also finding their way.
After the Feb. 22 loss to Phoenix, however, Huerter and the Bulls went 17-4 with no back-to-back losses, before Miami slammed the door on their season in a humiliating 19-point rout in the play-in game.
So preparing to head out to the West Coast on a current season-long four-game losing streak wasn’t sitting well with Huerter or his teammates.
“I hope not,” Huerter replied, when asked if he was concerned that the rough patch could continue. “I hope guys are frustrated right now. A game (like Detroit) can’t happen. The way we lost just can’t happen.”
It did.
Losing three-straight to elite players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Donovan Mitchell and Victor Wembanyama wasn’t ideal but could at least be explained and understood. Losing to the Pistons with a no-name roster of Paul Reed and Daniss Jenkins with Detroit down four regular starters? Inexcusable.
“We’ve got to come into games with the right mindset,” Huerter said. “Our identity is playing fast, playing physical, wearing teams out.”
And having the available bodies to do so. It now sounds like they will.
Both Coby White (right calf) and Josh Giddey (right ankle) went through full-contact practice on Friday, with Giddey possibly expected back for the Sunday tilt in Utah and White likely set to make his season debut at some point on the West Coast.
The Bulls play Denver Monday and will wrap up in Portland on Wednesday.
What that means is adding the 21.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game that Giddey was already putting on display through the first nine games he played in, as well as the 25 points per game that White averaged over the final 25 games of last season.
That also means adding some firepower to the bench with Tre Jones and Huerter expected to go back to that second unit eventually.
All good things as far as Huerter was concerned.
“It will be great,” Huerter said of the injury returns. “They’re talented guys, but at the same time we’re 10, 11 games in, so I think there’s been a chemistry with the lineup so far that (a game like Detroit) can’t happen. It’s not an excuse, but when those guys get back it will be great.”
Not the only help that will be on the way, either.
Besides giving the updates on Giddey and White, coach Billy Donovan also said that the CT scan on Collins’ left hand came back clean, which meant that the reserve will start the rehab process to build the strength back up in the injury.
Don’t expect Collins to see the court anytime soon, but there now seems to be clarity on him being weeks away.
What his return would give Donovan is options. Opposing teams have been throwing multiple bigs at the Bulls over the last week, and while the coach did try to team Nikola Vucevic up with Jalen Smith to counter it, the 6-foot-8 Smith is more stretch-four than force in the middle.
Collins is a legitimate big who was really playing well before the injury in the preseason. He had scored in double-digits in four of the five games, grabbed 21 rebounds and shot 3-of-6 from three-point range.