Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday will return to the Bulls’ rotation in some form after the team had a conversation with the league office, according to a team official.
Although it was reported the Bulls were warned by the NBA, the team official said nothing threatening was issued by the league. The Bulls had dialogue with the league during the all-star break about their long-term plan, as a result the league recently determined that sitting Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday falls under the ‘resting healthy players guideline’.
It’s not believed that either Lopez or Holiday will go back to playing 30 minutes a night, it’s a tricky situation because there isn’t a mandate for how many minutes any player should play. Holiday has played once since Feb. 14, while Lopez hasn’t played at all since the All-Star break.
The NBA is and has been concerned about the optics of resting healthy players, although the Bulls’ counter was that they were evaluating young players moving forward.
That will change over the next 19 games, starting Wednesday against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that has lost 14 straight. The Bulls own the eighth-worst record and many believe the evaluation of young players had the secret motive of trying to improve draft lottery positioning.
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