{"id":155123,"date":"2026-02-22T10:34:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155123"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T10:34:44","slug":"chicago-rocked-by-a-new-setback-as-rising-guard-jaden-ivey-is-ruled-out-for-at-least-two-weeks-with-persistent-knee-soreness-delivering-a-blow-that-instantly-disrupts-the-chicago-bulls-rotation-and-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=155123","title":{"rendered":"CHICAGO ROCKED BY A NEW SETBACK as rising guard Jaden Ivey is ruled out for at least two weeks with persistent knee soreness, delivering a blow that instantly disrupts the Chicago Bulls rotation and momentum. Insiders describe the development as \u201ca critical brake on Chicago\u2019s progress,\u201d hinting that the timing could not be worse for a team trying to stabilize. Pressure tightens around the organization as every signal suggests the Bulls must reshape their short-term approach to survive the stretch ahead..ll \ud83d\udc47\ud83d\udc47\ud83d\udc47"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulls\u00a0guard Jaden Ivey will miss at least the next two weeks with left knee soreness, the team announced Saturday.<\/p>\n

The news comes two days after he was\u00a0healthy and active against the Toronto Raptors but did not play. And though interim coach Wes Unseld called it a \u201cbasketball decision,\u201d Ivey explained in his\u00a0postgame remarks\u00a0that the noticeable lack of explosion could be a product of soreness in his knee.<\/p>\n

Billy Donovan, who returned to the team following the death of his father earlier in the week, said Ivey had his\u00a0knee checked out by a doctor\u00a0and will be reevaluated in two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Bulls'<\/p>\n

In four games since being acquired from the Detroit Pistons at the trade deadline, Ivey scored 11.5 points in 28.8 minutes per game, shooting 41.7 percent from the field. His jumper has looked solid, but he completely lacked the explosive first step that made him a top pick in his draft class.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started to get more minutes in the first few games,\u201d Donovan said, \u201chis minutes were in the 30s, and you could just see he wasn\u2019t stopping and starting. He didn\u2019t have that explosiveness that I felt like you saw when you watched him play. But again, he was cleared to play, and he played, obviously, minutes in Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he did not come in necessarily complaining about any knee soreness, that had just started to come up a little bit as he communicated with the medical guys. So I think as they try to do some testing on him and then get it looked at, it was just more that they feel right now, they\u2019ve got to get him a lot stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It has been a challenging road for Ivey over the last year. Last January, Ivey suffered a broken fibula and underwent season-ending surgery. Ahead of the 2025-26 season, Ivey had an arthroscopic procedure that cost him the first 15 games of this season.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Bulls\u2019 126-110 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, head coach JB Bickerstaff offered some perspective, having spent a year plus with the Bulls\u2019 new combo guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had a difficult go of it,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cWhen he was with us, he was playing at an extremely high level early on. Andthe one play happens where he gets injured on it, and then he was put in a difficult situation from there. Being able to come back from that type of injury isn\u2019t easy. Having to do it in a situation where a team had established itself in a different way, and now you\u2019re trying to find your rhythm with not trying to step on anybody\u2019s toes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the injury happens at the beginning of this year, that kind of sets him back. So he wasn\u2019t in an easy situation, but I thought he handled it extremely well from team standpoint, an individual standpoint. But I think a fresh opportunity for him will be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ivey played his first four games with the Bulls following the February 5 trade deadline, but didn\u2019t look like himself. And while he hasn\u2019t looked like his pre-fibula injury self all season, it\u2019s unclear whether he\u2019s degraded even further since leaving Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after the game against Toronto, it was our decision as a staff,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cBut we did bring up to the medical. I think the medical guys felt too, after the first four games, he\u2019s not moving great. And then I think that\u2019s when we started to maybe talk to him a little bit. Not me, but the medical guys. And I think he started to say that he was having some knee soreness. And some of the knee soreness, I think, is coming from lack of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Bulls will now use the next few weeks to build him back up, with the idea that adding strength to the surrounding muscles may alleviate the soreness and help him recover some of his explosivity.<\/p>\n

\"Bulls'<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they tested his strength, there was some weakness there in the muscles,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cAnd then what happens is, when there is a weakness there, you\u2019re going to end up getting some knee soreness. So it\u2019s just a matter of him having to build back up that leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was able to play on it, but you always get a little bit worried when a guy potentially has weakness there and he\u2019s not able to start and stop as well. It could lead to something bigger and become a bigger problem. So the idea of shutting him down and trying to work on his strength is something to try to build him back up, where, one, he can play better, and two, he feels better because I don\u2019t think he feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the unlikely event that Ivey is ready to go at the end of his re-evaluation period, he will have missed eight games, including his DNP on Thursday. That will leave the Bulls with 19 games to evaluate his potential fit with the team long-term as they navigate their summer plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected a full recovery, but the timing we didn\u2019t know,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cThen, the part of it for him, believing it and trusting it, right? That happens with injury too, especially when you\u2019re that explosive and your athleticism is so unique, you got to find that trust back in it. So it\u2019s one of those things that we expected it to be a full recovery, but you just never know a timeline on those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether he makes a return this season or next, the Bulls, like the Pistons, are confident he will make a return to his former self.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s a there\u2019s a feeling that if you can get some more strength back, that he can get back, certainly, to where he was athletically,\u201d Donovan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulls\u00a0guard Jaden Ivey will miss at least the next two weeks with left knee soreness, the team announced Saturday. The news comes two days after he was\u00a0healthy… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":155124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\nCHICAGO ROCKED BY A NEW SETBACK as rising guard Jaden Ivey is ruled out for at least two weeks with persistent knee soreness, delivering a blow that instantly disrupts the Chicago Bulls rotation and momentum. Insiders describe the development as \u201ca critical brake on Chicago\u2019s progress,\u201d hinting that the timing could not be worse for a team trying to stabilize. 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