Bulls get a warning from the NBA about resting healthy players
The Chicago Bulls have gotten a warning from the NBA about resting healthy players. This is the ripple effect from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban admitting to tanking.
Tanking is expected to happen with a long NBA season in which a team can come in with no expectations to win. The top and middle-tier teams are competing for titles while the lower tier is in rebuild mode. The Chicago Bulls have elected to do the latter, shooting for a complete rebuild from the Tom Thibideaux/Derrick Rose/Jimmy Butler era. Currently, the team is resting their healthy players while giving those who don’t get a lot of minutes, more. But the NBA has caught wind, and wants the Bulls to put a stop to it.
Sources: The NBA issued a warning to the Chicago Bulls this week on resting healthy players, and the team now plans to play veteran starters Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday again more extensively to close the season.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 6, 2018
In mid-February, the Bulls announced they would sit Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday for most of the remainder of the season. Of course, the Bulls may have their eyes set on achieving a top draft pick in this year’s draft. If you play younger, inexperienced players, you have a higher chance to lose. In other words, they are attempting to tank for a high draft pick.
"The team with the worst record in the NBA currently has a 25 percent shot at the top pick. The second-worst team gets 19.9 percent odds, the third-worst gets a 15.6 percent shot, and teams No. 4 through 7 get approximately eight percent odds. The Bulls currently own the eighth-worst record, but are only three games away from the worst record in the league."
The Bulls are currently 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 21-42 record. Tanking can be a successful coup; you draft culturing changing players and the coach fuses them into his philosophy. But it also can be a risk, in which the rebuild lasts longer than intended.