Bulls' Thomas breaks arm, to miss 4-6 weeks
A week to forget for Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas took another wrong turn on Friday.
During a weight training session at the Berto Center, Thomas suffered a fractured radius in his left forearm and is expected to be sidelined 4 to 6 weeks. X-rays confirmed the injury and he'll undergo surgery Saturday at Rush University Medical Center. When practice ended Friday, coach Vinny Del Negro wasn't certain of Thomas' status.
"I'm not even exactly sure how he got hurt yet," Del Negro said. "He kind of tweaked his arm a little bit and got an X-ray. It's pretty sore. I think he was doing some type of pull-up or whatever and kind of injured his arm a little bit. It's just unfortunate."
Thomas missed Tuesday's game against Milwaukee and the following practice with the flu. He felt well enough Thursday to take a commercial flight to Cleveland and scored 6 points in 12 minutes during the 86-85 victory over the Cavs.
The fourth-year forward started the first three games of the season. He's averaging 8.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.
Thomas' injury almost certainly means rookie Taj Gibson will become the full-time starter at power forward until further notice. Gibson turned in his best game of the season against the Cavs, finishing with 11 points and 7 rebounds.
Gibson, the No. 26 pick in the draft out of USC, was a pleasant surprise during preseason and has been an important part of the Bulls' defensive improvement.
Tim Floyd is the least successful coach in Bulls history, but he must have done a nice job at USC of preparing Gibson for the NBA. Gibson said he heard all about Floyd's experience with the Bulls, which included some very young teams and very poor records from 1998-2001.
"(Floyd) always talked to me about the Chicago Bulls, from the first time I met him," Gibson said. "Every day, we would talk about things I could get better on in practice. Talk about everything I need to do if want to take the next step to the NBA. Every day, we just went over it.
"One thing I loved about college was just learning every day. Not having to worry about much besides going to class and learning the game of basketball."
This could also mean more playing time for the Bulls' other rookie, 6-9 James Johnson, who has appeared in just one of the five games so far.