Jaden Ivey stood at his locker Thursday night time at United Middle and delivered a message that prolonged past basketball.
“Loaded postgame from Jaden Ivey, who thinks tonight was his first DNP of his profession,” Joel Lorenzi reported on X, because the Chicago Bulls guard addressed the media after a 110-101 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Ivey didn’t play within the defeat, which dropped Chicago to 24-32 and prolonged its shedding streak to seven video games.
“It doesn’t change my character and that I’m right here to ‘do his job, glorify God,’” Ivey mentioned.
Requested whether or not he anticipated the potential of not enjoying, he responded: “Going into it, you gotta have a look at who’s on the roster. … getting traded, that’s what occurs within the NBA.”
Chicago reshaped its roster on the commerce deadline with seven offers, together with buying Ivey from the Detroit Pistons in a three-team commerce. The Bulls now have a crowded backcourt that includes Josh Giddey, Anfernee Simons, Collin Sexton, Tre Jones and Rob Dillingham.
The fourth-year guard mentioned he was knowledgeable he didn’t play for “a sequence of causes,” together with knee soreness that has lingered.
“I’ve been coping with knee soreness in my knee,” Ivey mentioned. “I’m positive individuals can name it out — I’m not the identical participant I was. That’s why. I’m not the J.I. I was. The outdated J.I. is useless.”
He added: “I’m alive in Christ it doesn’t matter what the basketball setting is. … regardless of what number of DNPs, what number of factors I rating, these issues are a short lived factor. Jesus is everlasting.”
Ivey clarified that the knee concern has not stored him out of form however acknowledged it has affected his explosiveness.
By way of 37 video games this season between Detroit and Chicago, he’s averaging 8.5 factors in 18.1 minutes. In 4 video games with the Bulls, he has posted 11.5 factors, 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 28.8 minutes per contest.
Earlier in his profession, Ivey averaged 16.3 factors as a rookie and 17.6 factors in 30 begins in the course of the 2024-25 marketing campaign with the Pistons. His profession averages stand at 14.8 factors, 4.0 assists and three.5 rebounds throughout 218 video games.
On Thursday, Simons led Chicago with 20 factors in his fifth sport since arriving in a commerce, whereas Isaac Okoro added 16. Giddey and Jones returned from hamstring accidents, every enjoying over 21 minutes.
The Raptors, fifth within the Jap Convention at 33-23, have been paced by Brandon Ingram’s 31 factors, eight rebounds and 6 assists.
Regardless of the setback, Ivey mentioned he’ll keep prepared.
“Says he’ll be prepared when his identify is named,” Lorenzi wrote.
Chicago hosts Detroit on Saturday night time, providing Ivey a possible matchup in opposition to his former group.
