Jimmy Butler is injured again.
Just one game after returning from a left knee injury that kept him on the shelf for 11 games, Butler didn’t play in the Chicago Bulls’ Monday night win over the Milwaukee Bucks due to swelling in that same left knee. The Bulls are downplaying the severity of this setback, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, but this is nevertheless troubling:
It’s the same knee that sidelined Butler for 11 straight games after he injured it Feb. 5 in Denver and for one game before that Feb. 3 in Sacramento. Team physician Brian Cole re-evaluated Butler during the game Monday, and Hoiberg said the exam showed the knee to be structurally fine.
Hoiberg said the Bulls will determine a timeline Tuesday for Butler’s return based on how he responds to treatment. For what it’s worth, there is optimism it will be a short-term setback.
“Obviously there’s concern,” Hoiberg said. “Jimmy is a warrior. He’s going to try to play through anything. He developed swelling around that knee and has a lot of soreness in there. Just too early to tell exactly how long this one will be. He’s optimistic he’ll be back soon. I’ll never doubt him.”
Butler returned Saturday under no minutes restriction and after just one full team practice to play 33 minutes, 58 seconds before fouling out. He had undergone four straight days of individual workouts and some two-on-two sessions before his lone team practice.
Let’s get this out of the way: Neither I nor, most likely, you am doctor. We don’t how risky it is to throw Butler back into the fray without a minutes restriction. And yet, it seems unnecessarily risky to throw Butler back into the fray without a minutes restriction.
Yes, he is most important to the what the Bulls do. And sure, only a half-game separates them from a lottery appearance at the moment. But Butler is the lone legitimate franchise cornerstone they have, and rushing him back—insofar as “rushing him back” refers to a failure to take extreme caution before that initial return—makes no sense.
As badly as the Bulls want to avoid missing the playoffs this season, it would behoove them to play Butler’s latest health obstacle safe. The problem, of course, is that we don’t know what playing it safe actually refers to in this situation, and even if we did, there’s no guarantee Chicago interprets it to mean the same thing.
