K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reports: The playing time teenage rookies Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry received Friday night in the Bulls' exhibition finale against Denver resulted from a strong practice showing at Friday morning's shootaround and nothing else.

Coach Tim Floyd made that point resoundingly clear in a passionate defense of his decision to bench the heavily hyped first-round draft picks Wednesday in Denver.

"I'm going to do what's right for the basketball team and what's right for those young players, regardless of anyone who's sitting anywhere behind me on the bench, the media or people in the organization," Floyd said. "That doesn't make a [difference] to me. I'm going to do what I think is best for those young players because I'm very interested in them having success."