Bulls veteran Young ready to make season debut vs. Wizards
The Bulls should have another veteran in the lineup Tuesday against Washington. Forward Thad Young said he's ready to play after recovering from a left lower leg infection.
"Talked to coach and told him that I'm ready to play, so it's up to him to make a decision as far as time or if he's going to play me tonight and stuff like that," Young said after the morning shootaround. "But for the most part, told him I'm ready to play. Feeling good.
"There's no problems, no issues. Been able to get out and play a little basketball, some 3-on-3 and stuff like that. Haven't really did any 5-on-5 activity because we haven't had much time to practice nor much time to get in the gym for long periods of times with these games kind of jumping over each other."
Lauri Markkanen was listed as questionable on the injury report with a left calf contusion. He left Sunday's loss to Golden State late in the fourth quarter after colliding with an opposing player.
With Young back, it will be interesting to see if Bulls coach Billy Donovan uses a 10-man rotation. The Bulls could use all the veteran help they can get, so he figures to play Young, Garrett Temple, Tomas Satoransky and Otto Porter, while still trying to develop the recent draft picks like Markkanen, Coby White, Wendell Carter Jr., Patrick Williams and Chandler Hutchison. Zach LaVine leads the Bulls in scoring at 24.0 ppg.
During the first three games, Donovan used a young starting lineup and sent in the veterans with the second group.
"Yeah, I think our second unit can be really good, just from the experience standpoint, understanding concepts," Young said. "We have a lot of defensive guys in that second unit, and then we have a really good point guard in Sato who's started in this league, so he understands how to actually orchestrate and run offense and get us into position.
"And then you have a couple glue guys in that second unit that can actually play, but I think the best part about it is we have a unit that can really play some good defense and get the ball back for us."
Like the Bulls, Washington is off to an 0-3 start, having lost to Philadelphia and Orlando twice. New addition Russell Westbrook had triple-doubles in the first two games, then sat out Sunday's loss to the Magic. So he should be rested for this one, although the Wizards are missing second-year forward Rui Hachimura with an eye issue.
This is the first leg two-game series, with the teams meeting in Washington again on Thursday.
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls