Is There A Benefit To The Bulls Returning This Season?

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Bulls players may begin voluntary workouts on Friday.

Right now, most of the players are not in town, and the Bulls have been sitting out of a traditional playoff spot. So unless the NBA returns by resuming the regular season after shutting down when a Utah Jazz player tested positive for coronavirus back in March, new team President Arturas Karnisovas may have to wait to see his guys play in person.

CBS 2's Luke Stuckmeyer caught up with NBA senior writer Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. Stuckmeyer asked if there was a benefit to the Bulls coming back and playing games this season.

"Unless you're Jim Boylen trying to audition to keep your job, I'm not sure if there's any added benefit from a health standpoint; from a performance standpoint, you kind of know what you have. Like, OK, we want to see a few more games with Lauri Markkanen – don't we have a big enough sample size of how he performed; how much more room he has left to grow?" Goodwill said. "I don't think there's a legitimate chance of the Bulls being one of those teams that we invited – like you're most often hearing these 20 teams. It would be the 16 playoff teams and kind of like three or four teams around the fringes – and possibly being some type of pool play, almost like the Olympics."

Does Coach Boylen still have shot at a job at the end of the season? Goodwill doesn't think so.

"There's always a chance. I don't think it's a good chance. I don't think it's a great chance. I think it's slim – maybe even slim being optimistic," he said. "I do believe that Michael Reinsdorf – Bulls president and son Jerry Reinsdorf – wants to keep Boylen, but you're not going to cut your new guys' legs off from under them on their first big decision. He has to give the new guys their autonomy and freedom to decide on who their next coach is going to be."

The Bulls are 11th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference standings.