Bulls notes

Tyrus Thomas, who had surgery on Saturday to repair the fractured radius of his left forearm, watched Tuesday night's game against the Denver Nuggets from the bench. His arm was still in a cast, but Thomas ditched the sling he had been wearing and put on a jacket to comply with the NBA's dress code. Exactly when Thomas might be back in uniform still is uncertain after his visit to a specialist earlier in the day, although the Bulls are optimistic it will be closer to four weeks than six weeks. ''It's gonna be awhile,'' coach Vinny Del Negro said. ''Everything has gone well, and now it's just a matter of getting him on some cardio program so he can stay in the best condition he can. They're saying four weeks. Hopefully, that's the case.'' ... Without Thomas, the Bulls have just 10 healthy players. They have two roster spots open and there were discussions between Del Negro, general manager Gar Forman and vice president John Paxson about whether to sign another player, but that won't happen for at least a couple of days. ''Not right now,'' Del Negro said. ''We've talked about it, that's still in the works a little bit. We'll have to look at that. With the game [Tuesday] and a back-to-back [tonight at Toronto], there was no reason right now.'' ... Nuggets coach George Karl was the coach of the Seattle SuperSonics team that lost to the Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals. He was asked what he recalled of that series, which the Bulls won in six games. ''I wish we had Nate McMillan,'' Karl said. ''He played nine quarters in the series and I think we won seven of those quarters. When he was on the court, we were the complete team that might have been able to beat them.'' McMillan, who is now coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was hampered by a knee injury in that series.

John Jackson