CHARLOTTE, NC – The Bulls used Friday to take a break from the growing tidal wave of trade rumors to instead make sure their peace was said in what is turning into a good old-fashioned NBA he said-he said.
New Orleans executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars shook the basketball world back in June, trading an unprotected 2026 first-round pick to Atlanta at No. 13 to move up and grab Maryland big man Derik Queen.
Queen has been a hit so far, but Dumars was obviously criticized for not protecting the pick in a loaded ’26 class.
He then doubled down in explaining his maneuver, insisting that he actually called teams starting at No. 9 and working his way up until the Hawks agreed. Guess who was at No. 12?
Not only did a high-ranking Bulls official tell the Sun-Times this week that no one from the Pelicans contacted executive Arturas Karnisovas about moving up, but they were shocked with the move and Dumars subsequently saying several times since that he reached out to the Bulls.
In fact, if the Bulls were given that offer they would have done it.
What they did end up doing was drafting French project Noa Essengue at No. 12, now seeing his rookie season end on Wednesday when he underwent shoulder surgery. He gave them six minutes of playing time.
Welcome back
The Bulls continued to finally get whole again, getting back Tre Jones, Jalen Smith, and maybe more importantly, defensive leader Isaac Okoro.
Okoro (back) watched the Bulls go 1-7 without his services, and while coach Billy Donovan obviously didn’t want to put all of the defensive misfortunes on a roster without Okoro in it, he did detail the forward’s importance.
“He can’t guard everybody,” Donovan said of Okoro. “That’s kind of where he’s hung his hat, but we’ve got to be good collectively as a team defensively. I do think the way he plays is inspiring because most of the things he does do are things that I would put under the umbrella of dirty work. Your hustles plays, offensive rebounds, it’s loose basketballs, it’s getting in there defensively, it’s defensive rebounding, physicality at the point of screens, all the things for us that when you have a guy like that out there it does become contagious. Everybody still has to do their job.”
Minute men
Okoro and Smith (hamstring) were on tight minutes restrictions on Friday, with Bulls medical advising Donovan to keep them each under 20 minutes. The coach had a little more freedom with Jones (ankle) who was just under 24 minutes.
Not ideal for getting them in a rhythm, but Donovan wasn’t complaining.
“Those guys are physical,” Donovan said. “I’d even say that Tre Jones is physical. Not to say the rest of our guys aren’t, but that’s who (Okoro, Jones and a now healthy Zach Collins) have been as players throughout their careers. Anytime you lose a good player, a role player, a key player to your team, there’s always going to be some kind of ramifications from that, but certainly for me I’d rather have them out there than not.”
Not tripping
Ayo Dosunmu (right thumb sprain) and Kevin Huerter (adductor strain) stayed back in Chicago to rehab and work with team trainers. The Bulls host the Pelicans Monday at the United Center and there was no definitive timetable set for either player.