As the Chicago Bulls and second-year head coach Billy Donovan gets set to take on the Houston Rockets and a head coach facing an increasing amount of scrutiny in Stephen Silas, there’s some important injury news to discuss. Donovan and the Bulls are reportedly going to see two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic make his return to the lineup on this night against the Rockets on the road as he’s cleared the league’s health and safety protocol.
It originally looked like Vucevic would make his return to the lineup at the soonest from the league’s health and safety protocol when the Bulls took on his former team on the road in the Orlando Magic on Nov. 26. But that now looks to have changed with the Bulls getting Vucevic back on “limited minutes” in this Nov. 24 road meeting with Silas and the Rockets.
Vucevic reportedly said after being cleared to play against the Rockets on Nov. 24 that “it’s been tough to sit and miss this amount of time”. He had missed the last seven games for the Bulls due to a reported positive COVID-19 case.
Vooch will play tonight ... limited minutes ... wants to give it a run since he's been cleared. Said it's been tough to sit and miss this amount of time.
— Joe Cowley (@JCowleyHoops) November 24, 2021
Chicago Bulls set to get Nikola Vucevic back vs. Rockets in a limited capacity
Getting Vucevic back will be huge for the Bulls. On nights where the star duo of shooting guard Zach LaVine and shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan aren’t producing at the level they are capable of offensively, it will help in a big way to have Vucevic to turn to as a third scoring option.
Vucevic returning to the lineup will also mean that Donovan and the Bulls don’t have to play forward Derrick Jones Jr. at the five as much. While DJJ filled that role very admirably since Vucevic entered the league’s health and safety protocol, not having to play him at the five all the time adds more versatility for Donovan to work different combinations and rotations game in and game out.
Prior to entering the league’s health and safety protocol a couple of weeks ago, Vucevic was off to a pretty slow start with the Bulls this season by his usual standard. Through nearly a dozen games played during the regular season thus far, Vucevic averaged around 14 points per game, 11 rebounds, four assists, one steal, and one block.
And he’s shot around 40 percent from the field, 27 percent from beyond the arc, and 74 percent from the free-throw line.
In fact, a lot of what Vucevic was doing well out of the gates this season came on the defensive end of the floor. Vucevic registered a 102 defensive rating in his 11 games played this season, the second-best mark of his career in that category.
Moreover, it’s not likely that the Bulls give Vucevic too heavy of a workload in his first game back in the lineup. Working him back in steadily is the best move for the Bulls, as the next two games look to be very winnable against the Rockets and Magic on the road.
The Bulls are currently sporting a record of 12-6 following a bad 109-77 loss at home at the United Center back on Nov. 22 at the hands of the Indiana Pacers. Tip-off time between the Rockets and Bulls on Nov. 24 is set for 7 p.m. CT at the Toyota Center in Houston.