This Couldn't Have Come at a Worse Time...

Wednesday night against the Spurs, Caleb Wilson was in the middle of his best stretch in a week. 15 points on 5 of 7 shooting in 15 minutes. Then in the third quarter, Wilson went to knock the ball out of Victor Wembanyama's hands. Hurt his right hand and did not finish the game. Just a day later, Shams has reported that Wilson needs surgery on a fractured right hand and will miss 4 to 6 weeks. This is the number 4 pick in the draft, the rookie that the whole team was supposed to be built around. And Friday night, he might not be the only big name missing. Norman Powell is questionable with back spasms, which means against Atlanta, the Bulls could be without their two top scorers. A 1-9 team just lost a reason that a lot of people are tuning in to watch them. So what do the next few weeks actually look for Chicago, and what could they do to actually help them in the meantime? Wednesday mattered because of the week that Wilson had just come through. At Madison Square Garden on November 4th, He scored 5 points on 2 of 12 shooting in a 30 point loss. After that one, he said he didn't really get the ball much to start the game, and that he hopes to be aggressive when he gets the chance. Four days later against Philadelphia, he went for 18. That was the rookie that Bulls fans are getting used to. The one that continued to put up 20 on a losing team. Over his first seven games, Wilson averaged 21.6 points a game. He scored 20 or more in five of those seven. And his first home game was the loudest. 30 points and 14 rebounds against Washington. At Boston on October 30th, he made six of 11 threes. And at Philadelphia, three nights later, he had 24 points and four steals. The one night the Bulls actually won at Milwaukee on October 23rd, Wilson had 21 of their points. Put all 10 games together, and you get 18.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.8 steals a game from a first-year player. The bigger story is how much of the offense has really been his. Wilson takes 16.2 shots a game, more than anyone else on the roster, Powell included. He was also getting to the line 4.1 times a game and making three of them. This summer the Bulls brought in Bryson Graham to lead the front office and Tiago Splitter to coach and ESPN wrote that Wilson was drafted to be the franchise's face on the court and that's why this injury hits harder than a normal four to six week absence. Wednesday was the first night in a week that looked like October again and it lasted just 15 minutes. So the first thing to figure out is how long those shots are actually gone. Shams has it at four to six weeks. And Chris Haynes reported Wilson will be out at least a month. The surgery was set for Thursday, so count from there and four weeks lands around December 10th. But six weeks from Thursday is Christmas Eve. This is where the schedule actually does him a favor. The Bulls play Cleveland on December 3rd, then don't play again until Houston comes to the United Center on December 13th. That's nine days with no games, right where the short end of the timeline lands. If four weeks holds, Wilson walks back in against Houston, having missed 11 games. But if it's six weeks, he misses 18 games and comes back the day after Christmas. Even the best case comes in hot. Houston on the 13th, then Miami the next night on the second half of a back-to-back. The games that he misses are not all soft either. Before that December break, the Bulls see Cleveland three times, plus Denver and the Knicks. They also play three NBA Cup group games without him, starting Friday against Atlanta, and unfortunately history leans towards the long end of that window. A study of NBA hand fractures from 2003 to 2023 found players missed 16 games on average, and surgery pushed that number up. Josh Hart had surgery on a broken left hand as a Lakers rookie in 2018 with the same 4-6 week estimate, so this is a common fix, not a mystery. What really worries me is how many times this rookie has been hurt in the last year. At North Carolina, he missed 6 games with a broken bone in his left hand, and he missed the NCAA tournament after surgery on his right thumb. Before tip-off on Wednesday, he was a game-time decision with a hip injury, and he only got cleared to play late. None of that means he's fragile, however, but it means that the Bulls should probably take the six weeks, if they can. It also hurts his rookie of the year case, where DraftKings had him at plus 340 before the season, just behind Cameron Boozer at plus 270. 18 games will not exactly lose him that race, but it gives six weeks for all the other rookies to catch up. Whichever end of the timeline it ends up being, his shots have to go to somebody. If Powell can't go Friday either, the Bulls are missing 38.2 points a game, about a third of everything they score. And that's not a hole just one guy fills. The first name in line, of course, is Matas Buzelis. He's playing 26.3 minutes a game and scoring 13.5 points a game. This is his chance to really grab the shots and get back to where he was, get those late possession plays that were drawn up for Wilson. Against Philadelphia on Sunday, Buzelis had 19 points on 6 of 10 shooting, so a bigger role isn't a stretch for him. Giddey had 19 points and 15 assists in that same game, which is the version of him this stretch needs every night. After the Spurs game, Buzelis was the one taking the blame for how he played, so he knows that the bar just got higher. Splitter pointed at turnovers for the reason that they lost, and losing a scorer that can create his own shot is really going to be a blow to this team. Then there's Josh Giddey, who runs this offense at 8.3 assists a game. Wilson made 41.5% of his threes, with Giddey on the floor and 21.1% without him. It's a small sample, but it shows how many of those looks Giddey was really creating. When Giddey sat, Wilson used 35% of the Bulls' possessions, and that's the load somebody else picks up now. Those touches now go to Buzelis, Jalen Smith, and whoever Tiago Splitter decides to put his trust in. Smith is the obvious one. The Bulls were 20.5 points per 100 possessions better with him and Wilson on the floor together. He was the bright spot on Wednesday too, with 23 points on 8 of 9 shooting in the loss to the Spurs. That pairing is gone now for at least a month, so Smith needs some help up front. Patrick Williams has only played three games, and his minutes are the next spot to watch. Noah Sengay is getting 13.8 minutes a game and that number should climb. Whoever gets those minutes has to make shots because the Bulls were last in the NBA from three at 27.2 percent through eight games and 28.9 percent after nine. Nobody needs to become Caleb Wilson for a full month though. A bunch of guys can piece together exactly what he put in to make up for that. Jalen Sellers, the two-way shooter that we cover this week, could also get some of the action too. Whoever ends up playing though, the standings will keep counting. Chicago is 1-9 and 14th in the East. This isn't a team losing coin flips either. Their net rating is minus 15.1, the worst in the league. Through 8 games, they were giving up 129.6 points a game, close to the NBA record of 130.8, set by the 1990-91 Nuggets. All of that happened with Wilson in the lineup for all 10 games. They have already lost three games by 30 points or more in Toronto, Boston, and New York, which is why the record really isn't what this injury has cost them. Their 2027 first round pick still belongs to them with no protections and no, nobody else has a claim or has traded for that pick. It still belongs in Chicago. So what they do in the season, that pick will rely on. The lottery changed this year under the new 3-2-1 rules. The three worst records each get a 5.4% chance at the number one pick. Those three teams get a 16% chance at a top three pick, and they can't fall lower than number 12. That's why these weeks are about what Chicago learns and not where they pick. Wilson's deal also has two guaranteed seasons and team options after that, so the Bulls can control him through 2030. A few weeks this November is only a small slice of that. Nobody wants a rookie hurt and nobody should be happy about a broken hand. But a month where Buzelis and Giddey get more touches and Chicago still has their pick is not such a downside. The real question is, though, what the Bulls do with these weeks. My call is there's no rush to bring him back. I mean, you're already in a losing position with him in the lineup. Do not rush him back and have him come back after Christmas. This season was never about 1-9 or 3-7 or whatever record they could have gotten if they won some of those games. It's about Wilson in April and next year. This really will become an audition for Buzelis who hasn't looked sharp early. What he can do now could mean a real piece for him in December. Could he get some more playing time and consistent at that? Now, I do know that lost reps definitely hurt a rookie, but rushing him back can cause some prolonged injury in that hand, and that's not what we want to see right now. What you'll want to watch is Friday versus Atlanta. Will Norman Powell play, and who will take the spot of Caleb Wilson, and who will take the spot of both of them if neither player plays? With Wilson out, who do you think has to step up the most? Is it Josh Giddey or Matas Buzelis? Let me know in the comments below. Wilson's hand will heal if they give him the time for it to happen, and after Christmas, you'll see him run the offense again. And Friday really is the first look at this team without Caleb Wilson at all, and maybe not even Powell. Until then, the Bulls need shooting from somewhere, and the answer might be in the G League with the Windy City, or if they already keep him up on the roster. And if you saw that video, for sure, Jalen Sellers has been going off in the G League and shot pretty well in the limited attempts he's had with the Bulls this season. Maybe he could be the missing piece.