NEW YORK --- The Bulls assigned Chandler Hutchison to the Windy City Bulls as the G League affiliate begins training camp so that the second-year forward, who has missed all of training camp and the start to the regular season with a hamstring injury, can get practice reps.
"This way, he can get as much contact as possible," coach Jim Boylen said. "I would envision him (being there) through Wednesday. And then we'll re-evaluate where he's at and where we're at and see when he rejoins us."
Boylen said he doesn't know if Hutchison will be available for Friday's home game against the Pistons. The Bulls travel to Cleveland after playing the Knicks at Madison Square Garden Monday night.
Otto Porter Jr. said he's good to go for the Knicks game after needing six stitches to close a cut in his mouth during Saturday's home opener against the Raptors. Porter, who took a Stanley Johnson elbow to his face, returned for the second half of that game.
"I feel 100 percent ready to go," Porter said after the Bulls' morning shootaround. "As long as I can eat, I'm fine. Just trying to be available as much as possible. Unless I can't play, I'm going to work with my teammates."
Porter is averaging 7.3 points in 23 minutes on uncharacteristic 26.1 percent shooting, including 23.1 percent shooting from 3-point range. The six-year veteran is a career 48.2 percent shooter, connecting at 40.3 percent of his 3-point shots.
"It's only a few games," Porter said, talking about the team-wide shooting issues. "We're still getting our legs up under us. We're still learning as a group. We're still learning our identity. The 3-point shots, as long as we can continue to take them at a high clip, we'll start making them. We're not shying away from shooting 3s. We're going to continue to shoot them and start making them."
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Porter said the ball movement and spacing offensively could be better. He's focused on making the extra pass to help in that regard.
"I think he's working on regaining his rhythm and getting himself up to kind of game speed," Boylen said. "We've got a lot of guys that are trying to do that. I say it's a team thing. Obviously, he has great pride as a player. And he wants to help the team win.
"What I don't want is his frustration from maybe it not going how he'd like it to go to carry into his belief or work ethic. Because we love having him on this team and we believe in him."
Has Boylen seen any of that?
"I think we've all struggled a bit with just getting into the flow," Boylen said.
The Bulls are shooting just 29.2 percent from 3-point range.
"We're just going to keep taking good shots," Boylen said. "That's all we can emphasize---good shots by the right people. I think for the most part we've done that. I do think we need improvements in understanding our spacing and deep drive decisions."
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