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PrintBesides Salmons, Kirk Hinrich skipped practice Thursday with a sprained left ankle, Tyrus Thomas sat with a sore shoulder and flulike symptoms and Luol Deng remains out with the stress fracture in his right tibia.
And this doesn't even factor in bumps and bruises to Tim Thomas' back and Derrick Rose's wrist.
"I like my chances," Salmons said about appearing in Saturday's matinee against the Nets.
Del Negro called Salmons' groin the most serious of the new injuries, although the MRI performed Wednesday led doctors to tell Salmons the pain could grow but the injury shouldn't get more serious.
So, there you go. If Salmons is out it's a big deal due to the lack of depth at SF (and insistence from Vinny to go Kurt instead of going big...can we at least try it?). And I thought Deng would be farther along now than providing no updates at all.
But with 5 of the last 6 games at home, the Bulls are likely still making the playoffs.
And while I'll never say that's a bad thing, I am already anticipating the spin regarding Vinny's coaching if they do make it (especially with these injuries), or by some miracle win a couple games. Last week Mike McGraw put forth the possibility of the Bulls 'pulling an Atlanta': figuring that with a strong regular season home record they could win all 3 home games.
Is that a goal? Atlanta won 37 games last year, more indicative of their performance than 3 playoff wins. They parlayed all that goodwill and momentum from the playoffs into 43 wins so far this year (still stink on the road), and Hawks fans are stuck with a cruddy coach who uses every opportunity to bring up a first round playoff series that they lost as some benchmark for success.
I'm at the point where one of the most important decisions in the offseason will be who's going to be the coach-in-waiting for the inevitable Vinny firing. Because I certainly see him as the coach next year, confident in his performance after getting a playoff appearance, making the same mistakes and not achieving close to what this team could do. So then when he's canned 20 games into the season, I won't stand for another interim disaster. Someone better be there and ready.
