It’s once again time for the Chicago Bulls to employ one of the most crucial clichés in sports: Next man up.
The Bulls were forced to embrace that tenet over the last three months. Injuries defined this season before it even began. So when guards Coby White and Josh Giddey exited Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves with injuries and were ruled out for Wednesday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans — joining center Zach Collins, who is out for at least a week with a sprained toe — a sense of frustrated familiarity hung over the locker room.
White is dealing with right calf tightness, while the Bulls said Tuesday that Giddey has a left hamstring strain. Forward Isaac Okoro described the injuries as a “shock” after Monday’s game but fell back on the same platitude: “At the end of the day, we’ve got to step up as a team.”
The Bulls pride themselves on depth. It’s one of the few consistent positives that coach Billy Donovan and the front office have cited throughout this 15-17 season. Despite the results, the Bulls see themselves as a deep squad with young talent that can be developed into a competitive future.
This belief is built on the foundational ethos that a great depth of moderate talent can outplay a team with smaller reserves of much greater skill. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas serves as the architect for this vision, which he unveiled at last season’s trade deadline — an idea that “nine to 10 very good players” could equate to “two to three star players surrounded by role players” in building a fundamentally sound team.
It’s an unproven hypothesis. The Bulls do play a lot of guys — mostly out of necessity to keep up the second-fastest pace of play in the league. When enough bodies are available, Donovan typically favors a 10- or 11-man rotation. Seven Bulls average double-digit scoring. On paper, this might convey confidence in the bench.
Chicago Bulls’ Coby White drives during the first half against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)
But midway through the season, the team’s prized depth feels like more of an illusion than a reality.
The NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder offer the best example of legitimate depth in the league. Their only starter to average fewer than 10 points (Lu Dort) was an All-Defensive selection who finished fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2024-25. Three bench players average double-digit scoring. And the secondary rotation is flush with two-way players who can gobble up switches while producing efficient scoring.
The Bulls don’t need to compare themselves to the Thunder — after all, this is a rebuilding team attempting to become playoff competitive, not a reigning champion set on terrorizing its conference. But putting the league standard for the concept of depth side by side with the Bulls creates a stark contrast between true versatility and a cheap knockoff.
Despite the sermons they preach about depth and balance, the Bulls are desperately dependent on Giddey and White. Giddey supplies a third of the team’s assists. After cooling off from their 5-1 start to the season, the Bulls have won only one game without White on the court. The pair provided 28.2% of the team’s points over the last 10 games despite missing the bulk of Monday’s loss.
Most importantly, White and Giddey create two clear centers of gravity for the Bulls, the type of offensive presence that forces defenses to switch, trap and help — and in turn creates more opportunities for every other Bulls player. Without either player on the court, opponents can revert to their standard settings.
The Bulls hoped Matas Buzelis would elevate his game to create a third gravitational pull in the offense this season, but the second-year forward hasn’t made that leap yet. He still can’t — or won’t — take over a game, even when his star teammates are sidelined.
Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis and Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey high-five during a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
Tre Jones and Ayo Dosunmu are reliable guards. Jalen Smith and Collins have been dutiful backups in the frontcourt. Patrick Williams, Julian Phillips and Dalen Terry all fit the same limited mold — decently athletic players who are purely reactive, relying on others to create opportunities for them to convert.
But when the Bulls begin to lean heavily into their bench rotations, they suffer a sizable drop in creativity and playmaking. Players such as Williams aren’t elite enough defenders to offset their lack of offensive output. And while reserves such as Kevin Huerter and Dosunmu can pack a punch offensively, they’re not gifted enough creators to sustain the offense with the ball in their hands over the course of an entire game.
The conclusion is obvious — but painful nonetheless. Despite Karnišovas’ stated vision for the roster, the Bulls are still a team with two to three star players surrounded by role players. Their stars are relatively low-watt. Their role players aren’t impactful enough to make up the difference. This isn’t a new model for success. It’s just the original blueprint built with lower-grade materials.
The Bulls bench now enters another grueling stretch of attempting to survive absences. The last time this occurred, the Bulls suffered a seven-game skid. The injury report is shorter now — three players at most, rather than seven — than it was during that collapse. But Giddey’s left hamstring strain could sideline him for a few weeks.
Nevertheless, the role players will be stuck carrying a burden that’s too heavy until White and Giddey are back on the court.