There finally seems to be a timetable for a Patrick Williams return.<\/p>\n
It comes with a proceed with caution warning.<\/p>\n
According to Bulls coach Billy Donovan, Williams (left foot) will likely miss the Sunday game with the 76ers, but the team then has four days before Charlotte comes to town on Friday, and that will tell them a lot about where the forward is in his rehab with all the scheduled practice days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hope is he\u2019d be out there for all that and really start to ramp him up in the competitive stuff because we\u2019ll have time to do more five-on-five and that stuff,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t had any setbacks or anything else. He\u2019s still progressing. It\u2019s just the ramp up. Certainly, coming out of that four-day stretch, the Charlotte game would be the game they would look to target.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams hasn\u2019t played since Nov. 18, missing the last nine games. The concern with the injury was it was the same foot that he had season-ending surgery on last year. He has met with specialists, however, and it was determined that he just needed to rest and get the inflammation under control.<\/p>\n
The unfortunate part of this latest setback for Williams was the timing, because the former No. 4 overall pick was actually starting to play his best basketball as a Bull, seemingly carving out his own role.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Donovan was asked if he felt like Williams could pick up where he left off before the foot started to act up again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest concern with him, and it\u2019s not just him, I think it\u2019s any player dealing with a lower extremity injury \u2013 the fatigue, the conditioning and where he\u2019s at in that,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cNow he\u2019s done everything you could imagine to try and keep his condition up. When we were trying to get everything quieted down with Patrick and his foot, that\u2019s what I get concerned with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he\u2019s been ticking that way (up), it\u2019s when he\u2019s really well conditioned. When he has time where he\u2019s out \u2026 I think that\u2019s why they feel like the ramp up is so important. I feel like he was playing aggressive and finding spots to post up more, picking spots in transition, ducking in when he felt like he had a mismatch, things that were encouraging. I think he understands, I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last man standing<\/b><\/p>\n
With the Blackhawks firing Luke Richardson on Thursday, Billy Donovan is still the longest-tenured coach in the city and it\u2019s not really close.<\/p>\n
Richardson\u2019s dismissal marked the eighth time in just over a year that a Chicago professional sports team has shown a head coach\/manager the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from Day 1 it\u2019s been really a good relationship with ownership, with the front office,\u201d Donovan said, when that was pointed out to him. \u201cI think the communication piece is really important.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hate to see any situation where there\u2019s decisions like that being made. It\u2019s hard for me to say what\u2019s the problem, the reasons, why, but it\u2019s challenging all the way through. It\u2019s a highly competitive business, it\u2019s a result-oriented business. I get all that stuff. The one thing I\u2019ve tried to do is to communicate well, try to be as straight up and honest as I can, try to help as much as I can. I\u2019m obviously grateful for the opportunity and the tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Masked Matas<\/b><\/p>\n
Rookie Matas Buzelis caught a friendly fire elbow from teammate Zach LaVine in the win over the Spurs on Thursday, and while tests showed the nose wasn\u2019t broken, there was a lot of discomfort.<\/p>\n
Matas opted to play in the back-to-back against Indiana but wore a protective black mask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Williams was starting to show some serious signs of consistency before discomfort in his surgically-repaired left foot surfaced in mid-November, but Bulls coach Billy Donovan said on Friday that there is progress being made. Williams will have a steady week of practice starting on Monday, and if\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n