Bulls lose Wendell Carter Jr. for the summer with a core muscle injury

The development of center Wendell Carter Jr. hit yet another bump on Wednesday, as the Bulls announced the big man will undergo a July 9 surgery to repair a core muscle injury.

The procedure will be performed by Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia, and the expectation is to have Carter up and running by the start of training camp in late September, but that also means missing an offseason which included Summer League, as well as practicing with the starters in at least two more scheduled blocks.

This will be the second surgery the first-round pick (7^th overall) from last year’s NBA draft has undergone since January, after Carter tore ligaments in his left hand against the Lakers, and ended up missing the remainder of the season recovering.

That was a big enough blow for his rookie campaign, getting in just 44 games, while showing some promise by averaging 10.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.

All reports were Carter was completely healed from that hand injury, and had really been making some leaps in his game. There was some building excitement heading into Summer League, especially having Carter, a healthy Chandler Hutchison, as well as recently drafted guard Coby White expected to play together in Las Vegas.

Now, second-round pick Daniel Gafford can expect some extended playing time in the middle for the Bulls.

If Carter is slowed by the time training camp starts, at least the Bulls have some more options thanks to their busy free agency shopping.

Besides Gafford, the Bulls also added 7-foot-1 center/forward Luke Kornet, and still have Cristiano Felicio. Lauri Markkanen is also expected to up his minutes at center, especially late in games when coach Jim Boylen liked to go small.

NOTE: The Bulls made their changes to the coaching staff official on Wednesday, announcing the hiring of Chris Fleming and Roy Rogers as assistants. The two veterans join Nate Loenser, Dean Cooper and Karen Stack, who was promoted to assistant, as well as Shawn Respert.

Paul Miller was named assistant to the head coach, while Chris Kent was named video coordinator.