The Chicago Bulls have been hit by a teamwide COVID-19 outbreak and five of their players are out.
Jones is the sixth player to enter the league's protocols in a nine-day span. The team has only confirmed two positives, White and Green. Players must remain in isolation for at least 10 days or until they return two negative tests.
The Bulls were able to sign a 16th player through the NBA's hardship exception because they were missing forward Patrick Williams and guard Alex Caruso.
Stanley Johnson was signed to a 10-day contract by Chicago. The team is expected to meet Johnson before the game against the Heat. The Bulls can still add another player via the hardship exception because of Jones' positive test, according to Bobby Marks.
With the addition of Johnson, the Bulls will have 11 players eligible to play in addition to Caruso, who coach Billy Donovan was hopeful could return as soon as Saturday night. The Bulls will not play again until Tuesday and have only four games in the next 10 days. Although the team has been testing players multiple times per day and altered their practice and shootaround schedules, the Bulls are not in danger of having games postponed, according to the coach.
"I haven't heard anything about it," said the player on the possibility of games being postponed. I think the biggest question is if there is enough players for the team to function, is there enough players for the team to compete?
The health and safety of all the players is the most important thing for our league. I think our guys have done a good job of following the instructions from the league and the medical side. I think it's just this time of year. There has been a spike in this, but I have not heard anything about them shutting down the league for a period of time. I haven't heard that.
