Isaac Okoro’s Physicality Sets Tone in Bulls Training Camp

Isaac Okoro’s Physicality Sets Tone in Bulls Training Camp

Training camp is underway, ladies and gentlemen. The Bulls wrapped up their first day of practice. We got to see some footage and clips from the advocate center of the guys putting in work to get ready for the season. Crazy that the Bulls first preseason game is a week from today. But coming out of practice today, we did get to hear from various players as well as Billy Donovan speaking to the media. And so in this video, I wanted to highlight and recap day one of training camp for the Chicago Bulls. So what’s going on everyone? You’re listening to Bulls Central here. Hope you’re all doing well. Now, I’m sure a fair amount of you focused on the Cubs today in their first postseason game in the National League Wildard. Happy for all the Cubs fans there. I’m not a Cubs fan. Not really much of a baseball guy in general, but happy for the city of Chicago getting some representation in the playoffs. Feel like that’s pretty rare these days. But in any event, the Bulls had their first official practice of the season. No offsite training camp like they had a couple years back. It was in Chicago. And of course, we didn’t see the full practice. Most of the practice obviously is done behind closed doors without the media present. But for when they did open it up to media members, we got to see modest getting up shots, running up and down the court, throw down dunks. They were out there doing drills, working on ball movement, speed, and getting out and running down the floor, which is going to be a primary focus of the team’s offense. Not that we got to see a ton of footage, at least what has been shared thus far, but the vibe does seem to be a bit different. Like the guys were around laughing, joking a bit with each other, but they were also focused, locked in, and playing with a semblance of heart and hustle and dare I say it, physicality. Obviously, we have to see that happen in games and not just in practice, but still good to see nonetheless. In the limited clips I saw from IO, he looked great. He was moving well, shooting well, didn’t seem bothered by that shoulder at all, which is great to see. He did say he was fully healthy and ready to go immediate day, but sometimes players say that and then you see them in practice and you’re like, “Yeah, something just doesn’t really seem right with these guys.” But Io, based on what we saw, looked great. Looked like he hadn’t missed a beat since before going down with that injury last season. Like I mentioned, we did get to hear from some of the players. We got to hear primarily from Isaac Aoro, which I feel like is the first time we’ve actually got to hear Aoro speak to the media since he was traded to the Bulls. there wasn’t like a press conference for him after the trade because he’s not that high profile of a player to warrant that. I was surprised he wasn’t chosen to speak to reporters on media day being one of the few new members of the team. So hearing from Aora for the first time was enlightening first of all because we learned that uh he actually heard about being traded to the Bulls. Evidently he was in a hot Pilates class and then came out of the class and got a call from his agent about the trade. It’s a cool business, man. No pun intended there, where you can just be out doing your daily routine and you learn you’re getting moved to a new team and moving to a new city. But hey, good to see that he likes to keep in shape during the offseason by doing hot Pilates classes. But one thing that I liked hearing about Okoro is you can tell he definitely wants to do what’s best for the team, do whatever it takes to help the team win. Like he was asked about, you know, being in the starting lineup or coming off the bench and he said he’ll do whatever Billy Donovan thinks is best for the team. I want to win. Billy Donovan did also add that Aoro is a quote we guy, not an I guy. In other words, a guy that isn’t going to come in with an ego and start making this about himself and how it’s going to benefit him and his career or his next contract, but is a team player that will do whatever is asked of him, which I love. As you guys know, I like the guys who are ultimate team players and play winning basketball and not letting their ego get in the way when things aren’t going exactly how they want it to. One call out, and this one came from Drew Stevens of the Bigs, who we had on recently, uh, that in five on- five scrimmages today, Billy Donovan mentioned that he purposely kept one group on the court while continuously subbing the other groups, which would suggest that the Poles are aiming to play even faster going into the season. I mean, outside of Uch, they do have the personnel and the youth to be able to play with the fastest pace in the league next season. They did finish second in pace last year, only behind the Memphis Grizzlies. A stark contrast from years before where the Bulls finished in the bottom of the league in pace. So, I don’t know, maybe we’re reading into this a bit too much and Billy Donovan choosing to go with five on- five scrimmages in this fashion. But either way, we do know the Bulls are going to want to get out and run the season. That worked for them towards the end of last year. They’re going to try and replicate that, but of course, add physicality as that was obviously the theme coming out of media day yesterday. Aoro called that out, by the way, talking about how these young guys, they love to play fast, they’re young, athletic, and what he wants to bring to the team is physicality. He said he takes pride in bringing physicality and tenacious defense to his team. And we saw that right away where there was a clip from Aoro taking a charge in practice against Julian Phillips, already bringing that level of physicality in training camp, not caring about sacrificing his body in a five on five scrimmage in practice. So I love that. In reporting coming out from Joe Cowi as well, he mentioned Kobe called out defense talking about how over the course of the past few weeks where they’ve been playing in pickup games, he’s been taking charges in those games as well. called out how the Bulls were in the bottom half of the league in charges last season and how that will be another aspect that will greatly help them. Aoro also talked about how that defensive mindset is contagious for a team that when you see one of your teammates dive on the ground and going after loose ball, you see that they’re playing hard and you don’t want to be the one guy who’s not playing hard, which I 100% agree with. That’s what made Caruso’s impact when he was on the court or even Lonzo last season when he was available so palpable because you could see a level of intensity pick up when those guys were on the court because the rest of the team wanted to match their level of effort. Modis also called out the impact that Aoro has already had on the team setting the tone defensively. We also got to hear from Noah Sen, obviously his first training camp, first practice in the NBA. Spoke about how there was a lot of energy in the whole group, how it was great to see everyone together and competing together. He mentioned he spoke to Billy Donovan about his role, which didn’t seem clear outside of just bringing the energy on both ends of the floor and doing what he can to help the team win. I personally don’t have much expectations for Asen and his role this season. I don’t expect that he’ll have a spot in the rotation. I mean, outside of him having a dominant training camp and then you hear Billy Donovan mention that he’s going to have an active role in the rotation, you’re probably looking at a rookie who is going to be getting playing time pretty sparingly and spend a fair amount of time with the Windy City Bulls. Anyway, those were some of the highlights coming out of day one of training camp, hoping to get some more video footage and highlights of the players as the next few days continue. I would have liked to see/heard more about the Bull’s first day of training camp, though. I feel like since I’ve been doing this and making videos on YouTube, training camp coverage over the years has become more and more limited. And I don’t know if that’s just because the Bulls are keeping these sessions more behind closed doors than they used to. And so all you’re seeing are the brief clips that are being shared from the Bulls social media account and the interviews with players and coaches. I’m sure as the days, like I said, go on, we’ll see more stuff from the Bulls content team where they share their all access to Bulls training camp. Perhaps it’s just too early to get that full view of the behind-the-scenes interactions and happenings for the guys preparing for the season so far. I’m going to have someone from the Bulls Beat come onto the channel later this week though, so be sure to tune in to that. Be on the lookout for it. In the meantime, guys, be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one.

Reacting and recapping to Day 1 of Bulls training camp

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