Bobby Portis’s ankle sprain is going to cost him 2-4 weeks

Yet more injuries for the Bulls:

Portis suffered the sprain in the final minutes of Wednesday night’s loss to the Nets, going up to block a shot. At that point he was on the court for 15 straight minutes and in that stint took 14 shots plus earned two trips to the foul line.

Portis had only played 5 games since returning from a knee sprain that cost him multiple weeks. He’s been an active - maybe too active - member off the bench though his 3-point shot had abandoned him lately.

“Everything feels good except my 3. I can’t really make any 3s right now, Even when I make it, it still feels bad. Other than that, I feel good. My post is back where it was. But everything else is good except my 3-ball. I’ll get it back here pretty soon. I’ll get in the gym, get some shots up, get my reps up. Obviously, I always stick with it no matter what.”

He’s also seen as one of the leaders of the team (they probably think he’s tough!) and now the fabled leadership committee is out of deadlock with two members injured. In case you missed it, Zach LaVine’s ankle sprain was also recently determined to put him out multiple weeks.

This Portis injury isn’t as big of a deal for the team in the short-term because they have a lot of frontcourt, well ‘depth’ implies it’s good, but let’s just say they have ‘options’. One of them is the exiled Jabari Parker, and it wouldn’t be unexpected if he performs better in the Portis role than Portis would himself. Parker was deemed ‘out of the rotation’ but his absence lately has been more due to whatever he picked up in Mexico.

Oh, and Cam Payne has a calf injury, and that removes the ‘in disguise part of’ in ‘blessing in disguise’.

As for Portis, this is bad timing for him personally as he’s set to enter restricted free agency after the season.