Bell was drafted by the Bulls in the second round back in 2017, but picked with the intent to sell his rights to the Warriors. This never sat well with most of the fan base, but very little that Gar/Pax did at that point.
Jordan Bell will wear a Bulls uniform after all.
With the organization placing yet another player in the NBA’s coronavirus health and safety protocols on Wednesday – this time being rookie Marko Simonovic – they were again given another hardship exception, this time to sign the 6-foot-8 Bell.
That name sound familiar?
Bell should, especially since he was the poster boy for an old Bulls regime that the fan base had run out of patience with by 2017.
The quick history lesson on Bell was during that draft night, then-general manager Gar Forman and executive vice president John Paxson had already traded Jimmy Butler in Round 1, going into full rebuild mode. They then drafted Bell in Round 2 and sold his draft rights to Golden State for a then-league-record $3.5 million.
To be fair, the Bulls were never interested in Bell, and picked him only for the Warriors to finish the deal. The fan base, however, didn’t care about fair or unfair at that point. They had enough of Gar/Pax, and didn’t understand the move for a rebuilding team.
It only got worse in November of that season, when Bell came in with the Warriors and made a huge impact in a Golden State win, scoring seven points, grabbing six rebounds, finishing with six blocks and handing out four assists.
He even taunted the old regime, rubbing his hands together like money during the player introductions, saying afterward, “I wanted to see how cash considerations was doing over there.”
Now he might get his chance to finally be a Bull, but for a much different looking regime.
As far as how close the Bulls are to getting healthy, they did get Derrick Jones Jr. back from a tweaked hamstring for the rematch with the Hawks, but still had five players in the health and safety protocols including Lonzo Ball, Tony Bradley, Ersan Ilyasova, Alfonzo McKinnie and Simonovic.
Since Nikola Vucevic back in November, the Bulls have placed 17 total players in the protocols, with only Alex Caruso, two-way player Tyler Cook and hardship exception Mac McClung.
Head coach Billy Donovan also remained in the protocol, missing his third game.
Unpausing the Caru-Show?
Caruso was still dealing with a mid-foot sprain, but according to acting head coach Chris Fleming he was moving toward a return sooner than later.
“It feels good,” Fleming said of Caruso’s injury. “I think in that case it pays to be conservative. He plays so hard and I think our medical staff is doing a good job of managing him, but I think they’re just taking a long-term view of how that recovery is. As far as I know everything is moving forward.”
Closing time
Zach LaVine has seen first-hand how dominant DeMar DeRozan can be in the fourth quarter of games this season, and appreciated it even more sitting back and watching it while he was in the protocol.
As far as LaVine was concerned he continued to learn valuable lessons from his veteran teammate.
“I’ve always been somebody, especially with my past experiences, to where it’s like, ‘OK, I gotta do it now and do everything,’ ” LaVine said. “If we’re down 10 I want to try to get it back right away. [DeRozan’s] so calm. It doesn’t matter if he has 25 going into the fourth or if he has four. He takes that fourth quarter as a totally different game. It’s something to learn from, and I think I’ve picked up a little bit on that.”
