NBA limbo is not for the faint of heart.
The “New Guys” learned that the hard way for over 85 hours.
The Bulls acquired Zach Collins, Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter – labeled the “New Guys for days – in a three-team deal that sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento last Sunday, but because the trade deadline was still alive and well through Thursday afternoon, so was the speculation that one or all of the three could be dealt elsewhere.
So they were around the team, but didn’t practice or dress for two games, instead just wearing street clothes on the bench, living in a hotel, and wondering what was next.
Next never came.
Friday’s practice for them was their new reality, as all three went through the workout and were hoping to get minutes and make an impact in their expected debuts against Golden State on Saturday.
Crazy, indeed.
“You’re sitting there, you don’t know what’s going on, and then you see a Tweet, then you see an Instagram post, you call your agent three times every time you see something, and you’re like, ‘Somebody tell me something.’ And they’re like, ‘Ah, we don’t know anything.’ Limbo is a great word for it,” Collins said. “Just being around the team, you want to incorporate but you don’t know if you’re going to leave.
“We’re definitely happy we’re on the other side of it now where we can just relax and get used to these guys, this team, and go from here.”
The feeling was mutual.
Billy Donovan knew enough about all three to know how they would help the team, but did some more cramming in the film room leading up to Friday just in case.
What the coach wants from Huerter is his outside shooting, what he wants from Jones is his pure point-guard mentality and his ability to defend – even picking up the opposition full-court – and what he wants from Collins is some physicality in the frontcourt.
All three were made very aware of that.
“Yeah, we talked about that,” Collins said. “He said when he’s watched me over the years and the film he’s watched recently, he’s noticed that I’m very physical, use my body. Sometimes they call a foul, sometimes they don’t, but I’m always going to try and be physical. That has to be there.”
Huerter agreed and planned to bring his own unique skillset to the mix, especially when he’ll now be with a coach that gets angrier when guys don’t shoot in this up-tempo Bulls offense.
“They want to get up threes,” Huerter said with an excited look in his eyes. “That fits me for sure.”
Which wasn’t the case in Sacramento, and he made that very known.
“It changed a lot (in Sacramento) the last two years,” Huerter said. “Kind of went away from the things we were doing the last year, and they just went in a different direction.
“The flow and the rhythm of the game, I think it was very choppy the past year-plus. The fact that we’re going to play up and down here, the ball is going to move side to side, no one is really going to dominate the ball, not going to run the same action over and over again, (with the Bulls) it feels like a place I should get a better rhythm.”
The hope for all three.
Huerter and Collins are signed through the 2026-27 season, while Jones is on an expiring contract. That means it’s really an extended tryout for each of them moving forward. All they can ask for considering the anxiety of the last week.
“It was a different period of life to be in,” Jones said with a laugh when talking about life in limbo. “I felt like I was really thrown into the NBA with that moment.”