The Bulls want to lose. We know that. They want to lose so bad that they’re willing to blatantly (so blatantly that Adam Silver had to tell them not to be so blatant) rest some of their better players for no reason other than to hurt their chances of winning.
So why haven’t they played Antonio Blakeney during this stretch?
I’m not dissing Blakeney here, well maybe I am a little bit, but his play doesn’t exactly lead to many wins. In fact, one of the surest paths to non-victory I can see for the Bulls is for Blakeney to play heavy minutes and take as many shots as he can handle (which is a ton; have you seen him in the D-League?). There are no downsides. Blakeney gets to stuff the statsheet under the guise of “development”, the fans gets a show, and the Bulls get an L.
If Zach LaVine doesn’t like it, I bet they can work out a deal where they trade shots for the entire game.
And ignore the fact that my theory looks worse now that Blakeney finally got to play decent minutes for the first time in forever and the Bulls happened to win. I believe my theory is still sound.