The Chicago Bulls' Jimmy Butler and the Houston Rockets' James Harden were named NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Dec. 22, through Sunday, Dec. 28.

Butler led the Bulls to a 4-0 week behind averages of 23.0 points (seventh in the conference), 7.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.0 blocks. His 40.2 minutes per contest led the league. On Dec. 22, Butler went 11-for-11 at the foul line en route to 27 points, and added 11 rebounds, five blocks and four assists during a 129-120 win over the Toronto Raptors.

Harden helped the Rockets to a 2-1 week, which included wins over the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies. He averaged a league-best 34.7 points and added 7.3 assists (eighth in the conference), 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals. On Dec. 22, Harden posted 44 points, seven assists, five steals and three rebounds during a 110-95 win over the Trail Blazers.

Tom Thibodeau experimented with using Nikola Mirotic at small forward in Saturday's game for the Chicago Bulls against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Mirotic has been very productive in his minutes, which the Bulls are looking to expand.

"I just wanted to get a look at it," said Thibodeau. "It was a start. I want to look at the film."

Thibodeau was asked if he may use Mirotic more at small forward.

"We just have to figure out what we have to do, where we can play efficiently with him on the floor."

Jimmy Butler scored a career-high 35 points in the Chicago Bulls' 103-97 win on Thursday over the New York Knicks.

"Thank god for Jimmy Butler," said Tom Thibodeau. "Big shots, plays defense, gets to line, makes plays, plays unselfishly and hard. Doesn’t take plays off."

Butler is averaging 20.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game in what has become a breakout season.

"He’s playing as well as anyone in the league," said Kirk Hinrich. "He’s been huge for us all year. Don’t know what we’d do without Jimmy."

Carmelo Anthony isn't regretting his decision to re-sign with the New York Knicks instead of leaving for the Chicago Bulls.

Anthon chose to remain with the Knicks for five years and $124 million. Chicago only could offer four years at about $74 million, though had Anthony been able to get Knicks president Phil Jackson to do a sign-and-trade, he could have gotten significantly more.

“No, if I start doing that and saying, ‘What if?’ to myself, second-guessing and questioning myself, it won’t be right. For me, mentally, it won’t be right so I will not allow myself to sway towards asking myself ‘What if?’ with this situation or that situation,” Anthony said Wednesday.

“What’s done is done. I kind of don’t look at it, I kind of don’t think about it anymore,” Anthony said. “That’s in the past for me. … As far as now and thinking about that situation, it doesn’t even come close to me thinking about that.”

Anthony hopes the Knicks will be able to eventually get him more help.

“You think about that,” Anthony said of the not-yet-arrived help. “It’s only right that you think about that. I don’t try to put too much thought into what’s going to happen when we still have [55] games left this season. For me to start thinking ahead of what the possibility is this offseason or next season, I just can’t find myself thinking like that [now].

“You just got to believe. I have never been a quitter in my life or in my career. It is something that you got to believe in, that it will happen and have faith that it will happen and stay the course and just know that this is not the situation that I expected, that we expected. There’s nothing that we can do about it as far as what has happened already. We got to focus on tomorrow.”

Doug McDermott will rehabilitate for six to eight weeks after he underwent surgery to repair a small meniscus tear in his right knee on Saturday.

The Bulls didn't release any official timetable for McDermott's return, and the rehab estimate is fluid based on how quickly McDermott can regain strength and conditioning.

McDermott left the procedure without crutches.

Jimmy Butler credits the mentorship of Luol Deng for his development this season.

The Chicago Bulls traded Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers last season and Butler has since become Tom Thibodeau's most indispensible two-way player.

"It's crazy how everything works," Butler said. "Lu is the main one who always told me to be ready and keep working on my game and be confident. He told me I belonged here. Stuff like that goes a long way and that's stuff that everybody doesn't see and hear. Lu is a key part to me keeping my head into the game.

"He taught me a lot of the stuff I'm doing now. He always had confidence in me. I miss that guy."

Doug McDermott will have an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee on Saturday, the Chicago Bulls announced on Friday. 

The procedure will be performed by Chicago Bulls head team physician Dr. Brian Cole of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. 

A timetable for McDermott's return will be determined after the procedure.

Carmelo Anthony privately made a decision to sign with the Chicago Bulls in the offseason before changing his mind to stay with the New York Knicks.

The Bulls could offer Anthony a four-year, $74 million contract unless they executed a sign-and-trade, while the Knicks signed him to a five-year, $124 million deal.

"It was one part of time where I was just like, 'Yo, I'm going,'" Anthony said in a documentary detailing his free agency that aired Tuesday night on MSG Network.

In the documentary, titled "Carmelo: Made in New York," Anthony talks in detail about how strongly he considered signing with the Bulls.

"It came down to Chicago and New York. Chicago was the one that, from day one, was something that I was very impressed with. They was looking for a person like me to come in and just take them to the next level," Anthony said. "So it was perfect. It was a perfect setup, perfect fit for me in Chicago. But then also I had to think about just living in Chicago. Do I want to live in Chicago? Do I want to take everything that I created in New York and move all of that? It came down to that."

Anthony took several days before reaching his decision.

"He goes to bed one night saying he wants to go to Chicago. He wakes up the next day saying New York. And then he's stuck again," said Bay Frazier, his longtime manager. "That's how he feels. He's so loyal to New York, he wants to stay and become a champion there, which would blow everyone away."

Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry have been named the NBA's Players of the Month for November.

Butler led Chicago and ranked ninth in the NBA scoring (21.9 ppg) as the Bulls posted an 11-6 mark, good for first place in the Central Division. He topped the 20-point mark 11 times,including two 30-point outings, raising his scoring average more than eight points from last season, when he averaged 13.1 points. Butler shot .498 from the field while posting seven games with double-figure free throw attemptsto rank fourth in the NBA in free throw attempts per game (8.8). Butler also led the NBA in minutes (39.3 mpg).   

Other nominees for NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month were Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, Cleveland’s LeBron James, Houston’s James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, Memphis’ Marc Gasol, Miami’s Chris Bosh, New Orleans’ Anthony Davis, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, and Washington’s John Wall.