A looming problem that always seems to strike the Chicago Bulls is the rash of injuries that hits each and every preseason and Training Camp.
There has to be something in the air at the Advocate Center for the Chicago Bulls to have this enormous plethora of injuries from very get go of Training Camp for the last four or five years. The trend of injuring young players continued for the Bulls in the first day of Training Camp again this year. The Advocate Center didn’t see second-year center Wendell Carter Jr. and rookie big man Daniel Gafford hang around for long before each would be diagnosed with various bruises.
A report from K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago showed that the Bulls got off to a bad start in Training Camp in trying to fight off the injury bug. Gafford suffered a hyperextended elbow in the first day of Training Camp and Carter Jr. sprained his ankle. Chicago Bulls head coach Jim Boylen said that Carter Jr. will be “day-to-day” and that it “likely isn’t serious”.
However, the fact that two key big men for the Bulls got injured on the first day of Training Camp isn’t a good sign of what’s to come in yet another mysterious year under John Paxson and Gar Forman. The only difference is that there is a seemingly more old school style head coach at the helm this season compared to year’s past, with Boylen.
Last year, the Bulls started off Training Camp with former head coach Fred Hoiberg leading the way. Boylen gets the wrap of running much harder camp and practices than Hoiberg did. That mentality isn’t yielding the best results thus far.
Feel like the Bulls have cornered the market on notable injuries in camp. Let's hope WCJ's is nothing serious, but now i'm expecting his foot to fall off
— Jason Patt (@Bulls_Jay) October 1, 2019
And to make matters worse, the Bulls also had to send home the already hurt small forward Chandler Hutchison due to a virus. Hutchison was dealing with a hamstring injury before he had this problem with illness. That isn’t a good sign either.
All these injuries for the Bulls now begs the question, is this the unluckiest team in the NBA in terms of preseason injuries?
Last season, the Bulls lost shooting guard Denzel Valentine and power forward Lauri Markkanen (among others) before the regular season even tipped off. Valentine would never return last season and Markkanen took more than two months to return to game action.
The injury bug biting the Bulls hard also stems well beyond the past two seasons. The Bulls can’t seem to get out of any Training Camp or preseason without a rash of injuries that hurts them at the outset of the coming season. It would really hurt them this season if they were to have Carter Jr., Gafford, and/or Hutchison missing extended time beyond Training Camp and the preseason.
The early portion of the regular season slate is by far the easiest for the Bulls. They need as much depth as possible to get off to a strong start to try and make a legitimate playoff push in the Eastern Conference. The schedule gets much more difficult entering the month of December.
All in all, the list of injuries piling up for the Bulls is now all the way up to three big men and one wing. The Bulls are also missing the former New York Knicks 7-foot-1 center Luke Kornet, who is day-to-day with turf toe. All these lingering injuries for big men don’t really spell longevity for the coming season.