Details were expected to remain sketchy surrounding the Bulls and the four “excused absences’’ from Sunday night’s win over Houston.
Welcome to the new normal in the NBA.
According to the league’s coronavirus protocol, players that are excused from the team could be for a number of reasons, and not just a positive test. It could be any number of symptoms from an illness, it could be contact tracing, and it could be as simple as someone in their household sneezed.
Teams are not required to offer up the details, and the individual player has the right to make a positive test public.
“There’s going to be different things that are going to pop up,’’ Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said. ”And we have to be very, very flexible. I think we had talked a little bit about you’re not going to be able to play in a rotation 15 guys but how can you keep guys prepared and ready. Things happen during the course of the season. And guys have to keep themselves ready.’’
On Sunday afternoon, the team announced that forward Noah Vonleh was sent home because he was “in the protocol.’’ By game time, Tomas Satorasnky, Luke Kornet and Devon Dotson were each missing.
The Bulls were off on Monday, but Donovan hoped to have more details Tuesday, when they have an early afternoon practice and then fly to Oklahoma City.
One person who had no problem offering up details?
Guard Coby White, who has been as objective as they come in assessing his own play through the first two preseason games. After the 21-point loss on Friday, White gave himself a “three or four’’ out of 10, after he overcame a slow start, but still let veteran Houston guard John Wall dominate in just 19 minutes of work.
White’s score went up a bit after Sunday’s Bulls win.
“I’d say a 5.56,’’ White said, being very specific when asked about his latest outing. “I just feel like I competed at a higher level [Sunday] on both ends of the court. I was more communicative out there. I was being more of a leader at the point guard position. I think I made a good little stride.’’
It was more than a little stride.
White scored 20 points on 7-for-15 shooting, but also handed out five assists, and there could have been more. The second-year guard out of North Carolina looked seasoned in pick-and-roll, and if Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter Jr. would have shot better than a combined 4-for-21, White would have registered double-digit assists.
“Lauri and Wendell are both great players, talented players, so if I can find them and get them an open shot, I know that’s what we want as a team,’’ White said. “Or if I can put them in a close-out position because they can both put the ball on the floor and create, and they both make good decisions with the ball, so if I can get them the ball at the close-out of for an open shot, I did my job.’’
The other part of his “job’’ that White accomplished? Wall did score 21 points for Houston, but did so on 7-for-17 shooting, and had to hit much more difficult shots than he did 48 hours earlier.
“I thought he played a really good floor game,’’ Donovan said of White. “I think sometimes guys, and it’s not just Coby, it’s any player, Coby has always been his entire life a great scorer. But when you’re playing the point guard position he’s got to figure out that balance. And I thought he had a great balance in the first half.’’
Details Donovan had no problem discussing.
