Days of Our Bulls: Robin Lopez has to be removed from a chippy Monday practice

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Bulls center Robin Lopez is available to any NBA team that wants to trade for him and is willing to part with draft assets.

He just wasn’t available to the media Monday.

Did all the trade talk get to him? The buyout rumors hovering over him? Nope. Neither had anything to do with Lopez needing a mental day.

At least on the surface.

Bulls coach Jim Boylen said he spoke with Lopez before practice at Santa Monica High School and told him that his minutes likely would be reduced as the Feb. 7 trade deadline approaches.

Did that add fuel to a fire that was already burning? Maybe.

Either way, Boylen said practice got “very, very competitive” — code for chippy. At one point, Boylen had to send -Lopez out of the gym for close to 10 minutes to cool down after a run-in with guard Kris Dunn.

“Just competitive people, man,” Boylen said. “It got physical, and guys have pride. Guys want to get better, and I’m pushing this team to compete every day. Pushing it to play hard. That Bulls across the chest means something. That starts in practice, that starts with iron sharpening iron, making each other better. That’s what we’re trying to do. We did that [Monday].”

This is the Bulls, so asking if punches were thrown isn’t out of line.

“No, no punches thrown,” Boylen said. “Guys came back [into practice] and treated each other with respect, and, yeah, this happens every day in our league and happens on good teams that I’ve been on. Competitive people in a competitive environment trying to get better. Good day for us.”

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But was it a good day for Lopez?

He has done his best to play the good soldier during the rebuild the last two seasons. He has seen his playing time reduced more than a few times, and Boylen said it’s likely to happen again.

When asked if he knew what was wearing on Lopez that would get him so angry in practice, Boylen said, “I’m going to play some different lineups. I’m going to play some different people. We’ve gone Bobby [Portis]-Lauri [Markkanen], we’ve gone Jabari [Parker]-Lauri, we’ll go Jabari-Bobby at some point, so those lineups don’t include him.

“He’s got pride and he wants to play, but he’s all for the team and he understands. You don’t expect guys to be happy with their situation or their minutes or whatever. That’s not part of this league. What’s part of this league is you’ve got to do what’s best for this team, and you got to do what the coaches ask you to do. RoLo has always done that.”

At least in a Bulls uniform, but for how much longer?

There were some heated trade talks about Lopez a few weeks ago, but the Sun-Times has learned they mostly have quieted down. Buying out Lopez isn’t an option yet because the Bulls don’t want teams to think he could be had by just waiting.

So Lopez is back in limbo.

“There’s kind of been a little shoe-dangling over the past couple years,” Lopez said recently when asked if he thought he was the next trade shoe to drop after Justin Holiday was sent to the Grizzlies.

But until there’s some clarity with Lopez’s situation, teammates beware.