Bulls guards Tre Jones, Josh Giddey continue moving toward returning

BOSTON — It would’ve been hard to find a better three-on-three game in downtown Boston than the one that took place Wednesday morning.

Team Tre Jones vs. Team Josh Giddey, with the endgame being that all left hamstrings stayed intact.

In that respect, both players won.

Now the Bulls hope that Giddey and Jones can get through the All-Star break with no setbacks and be ready to return next week when the team resumes practice for the final 27 games.

“They’re doing good, they’re ramping up,” coach Billy Donovan said of his two injured guards. “The biggest thing is once that tightness goes away, but there’s nothing that’s been so significant they can’t ramp them up. They’re just trying to get them to a certain stage where they spend more and more time on the court and they get past where it’s tight. There have been previous days where it has been tight where, I don’t want to say they back up, but they hold them.

“I do think they are moving in the right direction and they’re not far away. Hopefully the break helps the healing process, and hopefully we get them back.”

That’s because there are still major decisions to be made and a short runway to reach them.

The Bulls are keeping restricted free agent Jaden Ivey and Rob Dillingham (rookie contract) but want to reach conclusions on the futures of unrestricted free agents Collin Sexton and Anfernee Simons.

That means getting a complete view of them working with Giddey and Jones. But first, Donovan wants to do what he can to get the new guards in better condition to also see how they fit the uptempo pace the Bulls play.

That’s why a lot of guys will have some homework over the break.

“One of the things we’ve tried to do coming into this break and then coming back, for all these guys, is give them some kind of program and something they can do in terms of their conditioning and what they need to do the next week,” Donovan said.

“I get it, it’s the All-Star break, but the situation these guys are going to be in, we need them working to get into better shape.”

Memories

Nikola Vucevic met with Bulls media before the game against his former -team and was asked how he most wanted to be remembered from his five years with the franchise.

“Good professional, good teammate, good guy, that would be the main three things,” Vucevic said. “I wish we had more team success. It wasn’t meant to be for different reasons, but I established some great relationships that will last a lot longer than I play basketball.

I hope the fans remember someone that went out every night and was a true pro, did the best I could.”

Next man down

Isaac Okoro didn’t play because of a sore knee. According to Donovan, Okoro banged his knee in the loss to the Nuggets, and it was acting up against the Nets.

The Bulls opted to shut him down and get him ready for the final push. Patrick Williams started in Okoro’s place.