Latest DeMar DeRozan News Sends Bulls' Season From Bad To Worse

If Chicago plans to climb the Eastern Conference standings in their 25 remaining games, they'll have to start chipping away without All-Star DeMar DeRozan. Slated to at least miss Wednesday night's contest against the Indiana Pacers, he'll likely also be out for the Thursday night bout against the Milwaukee Bucks before the All-Star break, where DeRozan was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star roster for the sixth time in his career. After leaving last night's game against the Orlando Magic midway through the fourth quarter, DeRozan underwent testing today that luckily turned back better than early indications showed.

Everyone Knew Something Was Up

DeRozan said postgame that this injury has been lingering for over a month and that last night's pain reached unbearable levels, pulling himself from the game in the fourth quarter. Watching him play over the past several weeks, it's been evident something was bothering the All-NBA talent. In every other month of the season, DeRozan has averaged over 26 points, shot near or above 50% from the field, and averaged over 6.7 free throw attempts per game. This month those have plummeted to 18 points, 46% from the field, and under five free throw attempts per contest.

Dodged A Bullet

DeRozan has been the only steady force for Chicago this season; while Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine have had sporadic excellent stretches over the year, the lone 2023 All-Star for the Bulls has held the ship down on a more consistent basis than either of his two former All-Star teammates. Leading the team in points, assists, and minutes per game, the former Raptor and Spur has been one of the most irreplaceable players since arriving in the Windy City.

Battling with a right quadricep strain earlier in January, where DeRozan missed three games, this is shaping up to be a very similar injury in both magnitude and the timetable for his return. Luckily, the first time, Chicago traveled to Paris, France, giving him more rest time than an average regular season week would have. The All-Star break will be the perfect opportunity to rest and recover this time. Grade One strains typically take anywhere from 2-to-4 weeks to heal, so assuming he misses the next two contests in the next two days, the Bulls would not play again for eight days, a very realistic goal for his return to action.

Oh Boy, Here We Go Again

Last night's loss against the Magic extended the Bulls' losing streak to four games, a mark they've now reached three times this season. How many times have they won four or more in a row? Zero. They're shooting 20-for-102 from three-point range, or 19%, during this four-game skid. The gap between Chicago's three-point shooting mark and the 29th-place shooting team is equal to the gap between the 29th-place team to the 2nd-ranking team in the league! Their 20 made threes over four games is similarly laughable, considering the Boston Celtics just made 21 three-point shots in their last game alone.

Chicago is out of the playoffs entirely and has a Pacers team who beat them without their best player in the last matchup and a Bucks team riding a 10-game winning streak up next. Safe to say, without DeRozan, they'll almost certainly be on the outside looking in over the All-Star break.

Can the Bulls regroup, recover over the time off, and come back with a healthy DeRozan ready to make a play-in tournament push, or are they throwing in the towel altogether? Regardless, expect significant changes this summer, barring a historic comeback story in the final months of the 2022-23' campaign.