Hutchison trolls Bulls after Wizards make playoffs originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
With the Wizards' 142-115 win over the Indiana Pacers Thursday night, former Bulls forward Chandler Hutchison is on his way to the playoffs.
And Hutchison, who the Bulls dealt at the deadline as part of the three-team trade that netted Troy Brown Jr., Daniel Theis and Javonte Green, got a dig in during the team's postgame celebration.
Via Hutchison's TikTok:
While Hutchison qualifies the video with "It's all love," the message ("When you get traded and you help your new team make the playoffs," with laughter in the background) is clear. And it's not his first post-trade shot Hutchison has taken at the Bulls. Shortly after notching 18 points and five rebounds in his Wizards debut, he posted a since-deleted tweet that read: "“One man’s trash…..”
NBC Sports
The Bulls fell short of the play-in despite an active trade deadline that signaled an intention to win now; the Wizards, meanwhile, surged late in the season to clinch the eighth seed and a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers. On the day of the deadline, the Wizards trailed the Bulls by four games for the final play-in spot; by season's end, they finished three games ahead.
Hutchison, a first-round pick in 2018, appeared in seven games for the Bulls in his third NBA season, missing time due to a bout with COVID-19 and then the team's final 22 pre-deadline games for personal reasons. Bulls coach Billy Donovan spoke positively about his interactions with Hutchison throughout the latter absence, and before the trade, implied that he was close to returning.
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"I think he’s moving closer and closer to playing. I am not quite sure when that date will be. I do think it will be sooner than later," Donovan said before a road game against the Denver Nuggets on March 19 (six days before Hutchison was traded).
Asked on March 30 his reaction to Hutchison's post-Wizards debut tweet, Donovan conveyed the following: "Well, first of all I didn’t see the tweet and I’m obviously hearing it for the first time. I always felt for myself coming in and not necessarily being around Chandler for any length or extended period of time, he was a great guy to get to know. Obviously he was, I think, working through things on his own. I made several comments about really appreciating his honesty and his strength in what he was doing. But I always felt like Chandler and I had a good relationship, so I don’t know necessarily who maybe the tweet was directed at or was it just an organizational thing? I’m not quite sure. But anyway, it’s hard for me to comment on it because I just don’t know the context of which he was talking about."
In 18 regular-season appearances with the Wizards, Hutchison averaged 5.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. In the Thursday's play-in tournament victory, he tallied six points, two rebounds, an assist and a block in 20 minutes.
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