Our Chicago Bulls are heading to Phoenix on Thursday night for a clash against the rising Suns — their first of five straight games on the road. They’ll also square off against DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine’s Sacramento Kings (sans Zach), Jimmy Butler’s Golden State Warriors (sans Jimmy), and both Los Angeles teams on their California-heavy road trip.
Beyond the Kings game, Chicago will likely be an underdog in each of those matchups as their shameless tank continues.
© Matt Marton-Imagn ImagesBulls Bullets — March 5, 2026
While we know that new ailing guard Jaden Ivey won’t be joining the Bulls on their upcoming five-game Western Conference road trip that tips off Thursday, two key frontcourt cogs may be back. Brian Sandalow of The Chicago Sun-Times reports that power forward/center Jalen Smith and small forward Patrick Williams may both return for Chicago during the road trip. Williams has been out since February 24 with a quadriceps injury and is considered doubtful for Thursday’s tilt against the Phoenix Suns. A calf injury has kept plus-minus king Smith on the shelf since February 22, and he, too, is doubtful for the Suns clash. Smith has looked reborn as a four in Donovan’s offense, where his lack of rim protection ability hasn’t nearly been as much of an issue as it is when he jumps at center. On the year, he’s averaging 10.3 points on .490/.385/.731 shooting splits, 7.0 rebounds, 1.3 dimes, 0.8 blocks, and 0.5 steals in just 20.3 minutes per. 10-time All-Defensive Team Warriors forward Draymond Green, 36, has slipped a bit this season. He has been a frequent minus in lineups and has often resorted to shameless fouling when his coverage assignments have broken down. During a new interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr broke down why the four-time All-Star’s game hasn’t quite aged like that of his MVP teammate Stephen Curry — or Kerr’s former MVP Bulls teammate Michael Jordan.“Every player is different based on skill,” Kerr said. “I think in general, the highly skilled players like Steph [Curry], tend to age better because they rely on their skill after their bodies fail them. It’s harder for a guy like Draymond who made his entire place in the league by being smarter and tougher and better defensively than other people and figuring out the game.”
As Robinson notes, Green’s ability to predict plays was essentially his superpower.“So it’s not as simple as Draymond just to add a low post move like Michael Jordan did,” Kerr added. “It’s really about deciphering, ‘Alright, how are we playing now and without Steph and without Jimmy, what does this group have to do and how can I fit into that?’ That’s a discussion that he and I have had. We have talked about it in recent weeks.”
Although the Bulls are clearly in blatant tank mode thanks to a whopping seven trades leading up to this year’s deadline — having dropped 12 of their last 13 contests — $100 million starting point guard Josh Giddey recently expressed optimism that Chicago would be able to turbocharge a rebuild, according to The Chicago Sun-Times‘ Joe Cowley.“When I was in Oklahoma, we went from the worst team in the league to the best team in the league in 24 months,” Giddey noted out of his run with the Oklahoma City Thunder. “We did it pretty quickly. A lot of rebuilds don’t necessarily happen that fast. Obviously, with the people and personnel we had it got sped up pretty quickly. Over those three years, we built a lot of really good habits, winning habits.”
From the moment he touched down in the Windy City, former Chicago Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau was all-in on intense practices, per ex-Bulls power forward Taj Gibson. The beloved vet, who’s now back in the league as essentially a coach on the floor for the tanking Memphis Grizzlies, hopped on the “All The Smoke” podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to talk about the Thibodeau era.Tom Thibodeau had the Bulls ready for WAR ?@TajGibson was thrown into the fire immediately against Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer & MVP Derrick Rose on the daily ? pic.twitter.com/nKAuCLyLYl
— All the Smoke (@allthesmokeprod) March 5, 2026
“It was hell. Because you think about, we got a young Thibs. Imagine Thibs back then. You think he was tough now, imagine him back then. We didn’t have no regulations, we didn’t have no strict timing. No large training staffs. So then, you’re dealing with the Thibs factor. And Thibs is that guy. He’s gassing the situation up every day, ‘Oh you’re gonna let the first team destroy you guys again? You guys [are] getting thrown around like rag dolls!’
“And then you’ve got Carlos, in the back of his mind, he’s hearing the chatter. Joakim is the biggest s— talker in the whole NBA. Every day he’s clapping, ‘Yeah, T.G., you all not doing nothing today.’ And a couple times, I tried to fight him. I was like, ‘Yo.’ And that’s how it had to be. Every time in practice, we went at it. We tried to fight, we tried to scrap because we had to go against guys like y’all, the Clippers, we had to go against the top of the top every day. It was no holds barred.”
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