Derrick Jones Jr. returns early from fractured finger originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Chicago Bulls’ long road to making their roster whole took a step forward on Saturday.
Derrick Jones Jr. — who began the day listed “out” for a home matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but was eventually upgraded to questionable, then available — is slated to return from a fractured right index finger suffered on Jan. 25 that initially threatened to hold him out for six-to-eight weeks.
Jones Jr. has missed the team’s last 17 games with, first, a right knee injury sustained in the first quarter of a Jan. 12 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, then the finger, which he fractured when a basketball hit his non-shooting hand funny while reeling in a pass in a 5-on-0 practice drill.
At the time, the team said there was a possibility Jones Jr. could return earlier than the six-to-eight week window for the finger to fully heal, so long as the pain subsided enough that he could play with a protective splint on it.
Head coach Billy Donovan confirmed before the Thunder game that that scenario played out. In turn, Jones Jr. returns just two-and-a-half weeks into that initial timeline.
“The biggest thing was, for the first couple weeks, was letting the finger calm down and the discomfort calm down,” Donovan told reporters. “We got it to that place, and then the next thing was, could he get out there and do some contact. We’ve obviously been limited with practices, so trying to create some situations for him after shootarounds, even days we’ve had off where he can come in and do some things where there is some contact.
“He has some discomfort there, I’m not gonna say he feels 100 percent. He doesn’t. But the doctors have always felt very comfortable that he could come back. The healing process is gonna be six-to-eight weeks, but him playing was really going to be (based) on how much discomfort he had to deal with and whether or not he could play with that discomfort. I think as he’s gone through a few days here, he’s felt like it’s tolerable. And the doctors feel very, very comfortable with him playing with the splint and where he’s at right now physically.”
Donovan took a wait-and-see approach to firm expectations for the bouncy, sixth-year forward, but he no doubt boosts a bench unit ailing in the wake of long-term injuries to Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams.
Jones Jr. is averaging 6.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and shooting career-best marks from the field (58.2 percent) and 3-point range (40.5 percent) in 17.2 minutes per game in his first season with the Bulls, which has featured 31 appearances so far.
Click here to follow the Bulls Talk Podcast.
Download
Download MyTeams Today!
