Bulls' Carter has new injury; Boylen gives vets different roles
While center Wendell Carter Jr. missed practice with another injury, Bulls coach Jim Boylen gave Thaddeus Young and Otto Porter Jr. different jobs.
Carter left Tuesday's opening practice after turning his ankle. He returned to practice the next day, but sat out Thursday with a tailbone contusion, the result of two hard falls.
"We think he'll be just fine, but he's having a hard time getting in a stance and moving," Boylen said. "I think he's really frustrated. He's not in a very good mood, let's put it that way."
Young and Porter were given the day off from practice, but Boylen had them help with coaching.
"They kind of coached," Boylen said. "I assigned them each to a team or to a group at a station and they helped coach it and lead and be a part of it."
Part of the plan was to give a couple of veterans some time off on the third day of camp. But Boylen also wanted to help establish their roles as team leaders.
"What I want our guys to do is take ownership of their teammates, how we practice, how we play, how we lose, how we win. And have it mean something to them," Boylen said. "The other thing is when you worry about other people instead of yourself, a lot of good things can happen."
LaVine passes on World Cup:
USA Basketball struggled to fill out the roster for this summer's FIBA World Cup in China. Bulls guard Zach LaVine confirmed that he was asked to join the squad, but declined.
"I hurt my ankle in the summer a little bit, rolled my ankle when I was working out," LaVine said. "But they reached out to me. I declined it."
Besides the ankle issue, LaVine said he hope to someday be on the original list of invitees to Team USA training camp, not a guy who gets called after others back out.
"I want to be recognized as a dude that will be reached out to in the main group," he said. "I don't want to be on the injured list or reached out to afterward. No disrespect to them, but I think I'm just as good as anybody, if not better than everybody on that team. But I have to go out there and prove it.
"You never want to turn anything like that down. It's a once in a lifetime experience, so hopefully I'll be on that track to being able to be selected for the real Games."
Bull horns
Coach Jim Boylen said guard Shaq Harrison left Thursday's practice early with a hamstring issue, but the injury is not thought to be serious. Center Luke Kornet (turf toe) and Chandler Hutchison (hamstring) remain sidelined, but Boylen said Hutchison is ready to increase his activity. … Boylen on the first three days of camp: "Our spirit is good. Our chemistry is good. We have guys taking ownership in each other in a positive way. We've got old helping young, we've got young guys bringing energy and pushing guys and competing."