MIAMI – There’s no whistle dangling around Zach Collins’ neck, so personnel matchups are not his department. That doesn’t mean that the Bulls big man can’t hope.
And Collins’ hope?
At some point this season he gets minutes with Nikola Vucevic to see what the duo looks like on the floor.
“I always hope it happens,” Collins said on Saturday. “I enjoy playing with another big guy on the court, whether it’s a four or five, being able to interchange. When I was in Portland to start my career, that’s kind of what we did.”
There are a few obstacles, however.
First, Vucevic missed his seventh game nursing a right calf injury, so the duo can only get a look if they are both available, and secondly, there’s a question of would it slow down the machine?
Billy Donovan’s philosophy this season has been run, and when a player feels tired, run some more. Donovan, however, did admit that he would even be intrigued to see how a Collins-Vucevic frontcourt would look, especially because of their skillsets.
“It’s something I’ve thought about and talked about, but since the (All-Star) break we just haven’t been whole,” Donovan said. “The challenge in that is do we lose some of the pace and tempo and speed by going bigger? But I’m not opposed to it because I think Zach has done an excellent job with the opportunity he’s gotten. (Reserve) Jalen (Smith) has played well too, and Vooch has certainly established himself. I’m not opposed to it but just have to see how do we look in terms of the pace and the speed of which we’ve been trying to play with? They’re both veteran guys so they could probably figure it out.”
Possibly, as soon as Vucevic can get back, which may be soon.
The center went through a full-contact scrimmage on Friday and then was a participant in the morning shootaround, so the hope was he was close. Donovan felt close enough that it could go down on Monday, when the Bulls host the Pacers.
The Bulls then do have two off days to get some practice in before a Thursday game with the Nets, so maybe the Collins-Vucevic duo gets a look then.
“Spacing is such a big thing in the NBA, so that’s always a wrinkle, but I would love to see it,” Collins said. “To play with a guy like Vooch, who is so smart, it would just be so easy to figure out with a guy like that. He’s a veteran, he knows how to play basketball, and his skillset is a complement to a lot of different things. I personally would love to see it, but we’ll see what happens.”
Body count
The Bulls were slowly moving towards getting whole again, with Vucevic a full participant the last two days, as well as Patrick Williams (right knee).
Williams has missed nine consecutive games trying to get the knee right but has cleared the last few obstacles.
“Pretty optimistic about this upcoming week,” Donovan said of Williams and Vucevic. “When they do come back there are going to be minutes restrictions on both guys.”
Unless Vucevic’ minutes restriction is at the 20-minute mark, Donovan did expect him to start once again.
Ball-ing out
Lonzo Ball (right wrist) missed his third consecutive game with the injury and there were still no indications of a return date.
Donovan did say that the injury wasn’t as bad as the wrist injury he suffered to start the season and miss 15 games, but the organization wants to be very cautious with it so it doesn’t worsen.