Bulls
A majority of the players who signed contracts over the summer will become eligible to be traded on Friday, but, even so, the Bulls are finding a very dry market for a LaVine deal. It’s not the ideal scenario for VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas.
Do the Zach LaVine trade rumors and the new Ring of Honor capture your imagination? Didn’t think so.
While the last two wins have showed some substance, coach Billy Donovan knows his team’s path to success is first fixing the defensive lapses, and then taking it from there.
If the Bulls continue spinning in mud for the rest of this season, they definitely picked a bad time to do it. It’s not the best year to have a high draft pick.
It’s easy to forget DeRozan’s three seasons with the Spurs and coach Gregg Popovich, but they taught the veteran what it means to be a leader and playmaker. Is that the formula for the Bulls moving forward, and can Zach LaVine join in the unselfishness when he’s able to return?
It wasn’t pretty for White and his teammates in the first half on Saturday, but then White remembered that failing to shoot means getting cussed out. And shoot he did, scoring 28 points in the second half.
White & Co. finished fifth in the league in defensive efficiency last season. They entered Saturday’s game against New Orleans sitting at 21st. If the Bulls are going to start getting their season back on track, the guard knows where it needs to start.
As the Bulls remain uncompetitive and, in some minds, irrelevant, the Bucks are favored by a number of analysts to return to the NBA Finals in what would be their eighth straight postseason.
If the results tell us anything, it’s that voters were, on the whole, unable to distinguish between one brand of awful and the other.
The team announced Friday morning that LaVine would be sidelined at least another week with a sore right foot, but is that really a bad thing? There are growing signs that while the Bulls might not be better without the two-time All-Star guard, they definitely aren’t worse.
If change is on the horizon, it won’t always be like this. There will be lulls and growing pains throughout the season, but these young players brought an energy and spirit that had been missing.
Donovan said the team doesn’t specialize in one particular coverage; it has multiple defensive schemes it can run throughout a game. But with the Bulls sporting the 22nd-worst defense in the NBA, they need to find some answers.
Both broadcasters worked for the same owner and were in similar situations. Yet Benetti’s relationship with the Sox differed from Amin’s with the Bulls.
Losing is one thing, but doing so with little effort — especially on the defensive end — is unforgivable for a unit that had a top five defensive rating last season.
The season continued slipping away Tuesday — and in embarrassing fashion. The Celtics ran up the score on the Bulls in a 124-97 victory.
Meeting with the traveling media in Boston on Tuesday, Karnisovas acknowledged the struggles his roster is going through, insisting, “I’m not running from it. It’s my responsibility.’’
Nikola Vucevic said in October that the “Big Three” of himself, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine needed to deliver early this season or there would be an or-else. We’ve reached or-else.
Thanks to giving up a franchise-record 25 threes on Sunday, the Bulls watched a 21-point first quarter lead quickly disintegrate at the hands of the Nets. It was the fourth straight loss and the seventh in the last eight games.
While Donovan never would come out and call his roster soft, he once again expressed his frustration with his players’ lack of consistent physicality throughout a game.
According to DeRozan, there’s more than enough in the current Bulls locker room to turn the sinking ship around, and that’s why he wants to give this group time to figure it out.
DeRozan was frustrated enough by his team’s poor play in Friday’s In-Season Tournament loss to the Raptors, but his frustration boiled over thanks to some last-second shots put up by his former team with the game well in hand.
Several players met the French standout in January when they played the Pistons in Paris, but actually facing Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama? Film doesn’t do him justice, Alex Caruso said.
That’s a question they’re going to have to answer — if they haven’t already — whether or not there’s a strong trade market for LaVine, a player with all the physical tools but some that too often go unused.
While the rest of his teammates and the coaching staff headed off to San Antonio on Thursday, LaVine met with reporters to discuss the latest on his foot injury and his future as a Bull.
Dosunmu’s efforts in the Bulls’ previous two games were pivotal in securing the team’s first winning streak this season. He averaged 14.5 points, 4.5 assists, three rebounds and 2.5 steals.
The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 8. The majority of the league becomes tradable Dec. 15, when free-agent contracts signed in the summer can be moved. That means LaVine might have played his final game for the Bulls.
Donovan is not asking Coby White to be Lonzo Ball as far as advancing the ball and pushing the team up the floor, but there are definitely little habits White can add that made Ball so effective.
Coming into the season, the Bulls were looking to change their shot profile, get to the free-throw line more and play fast. They’re putting up more threes — and missing many of them — but little has gone right. Could one of the “Big Three” be moved to the bench? If only it was that simple.
LaVine said he’s been dealing with what he described as a mid-foot sprain since the Bulls’ victory Saturday against the Heat.
After coaching the Thunder to a 243-157 record and five playoff appearances in five seasons, Donovan left when the team opted to rebuild. Less than four years later, the Thunder are reaping the rewards of general manager Sam Presti’s work and the Bulls are in the same place they were when Donovan was hired.
‘‘People have to make decisions however they see fit,’’ DeRozan said. ‘‘You may agree with them, you may not, but it’s part of being in this game.’’
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