BULLS PRESSERS: Coby White INJURED as Billy Donovan, Josh Giddey & Tre Jones Look to Step Up

BULLS PRESSERS: Coby White INJURED as Billy Donovan, Josh Giddey & Tre Jones Look to Step Up

Uh Kobe is was it the realization that the calf is just not going to be ready? Was it the condition or did he have some kind of setback that made you guys go? No, it just wasn’t a setback. You know, I think that I mentioned to you guys the ramp up period was the hurdle was on the treadmill running and once he kind of got past that he was able to get on the court and then start running and moving which he did do that. I think Casey maybe mentioned to me before the Minnesota game he was out there moving around running which was fine. Then the next step was, okay, we get him in practice, which he did do, and he went through the majority of it um on Saturday. But I think coming out of that practice, he felt tightness again back there, you know. So until he can get that removed, cuz I think that’s probably what ends up happening is once it’s tight, he keeps pushing through that, that’s where the problem’s going to occur. So it’s like when he was on the treadmill running, it wasn’t like it was a setback. I mean, he’s pretty conscientious about saying, “Okay, this is bothering me.” And we stop. You know, it’s the same thing in practice. You know, he went through some of it and he said, you know what, he told the medical staff, “This is tight.” So, until he can get past that hurdle on a consistent basis, because I think we had talked about the minute restriction for him was going to be hopefully between 20 and 24 minutes, but we’re not even at that place right now until he can get on the court and at least play without any significant tightness in his calf. Is he being shut down now? like what’s the he going to be up to these next I they’ll certainly shut him down from in terms of the ring and the cutting cuz that’s just going to aggravate the tightness more. But the the loading part in the weight room and the treatment and all that stuff, he’ll be very very active. I think I mentioned to you guys my concern with the the the time that he’s been gone is just when you have a lower leg extremity injury like that, it’s just hard. even though he’s doing everything he can do from a conditioning standpoint, it’s just not the same as playing and banging and going against guys. So, um he won’t be shut down where it’s like, hey, he’s in a boot or he’s in some kind of, you know, device to protect his leg. There’s none of that. It’s just a matter of they’ve got to get back in the weight room and he’s got to try to continue to restrengthen it and then, you know, letting that area calm down and try to really try to build strength back up in it and then when the time’s appropriate, put him back on the court again, see how he does running around and see if that occurs again. But, you know, we kind of got up to a couple different roadblocks with the treadmill situation cuz there’s like he doesn’t really necessarily have any pain. It’s not like he’s walking around with any pain. It’s just the issue is is that when he gets to this ramp up in certain points, it bothers him, you know, and so to until we can get that rectified, um, and I know the medical maybe said it was going to be about 2 weeks to to to reevaluate and we’ll see where he’s at after that, but he’s not going to be shut down for two weeks. He’s going to still do stuff. Do you have a game plan? I know you don’t like to share necessarily, but how do you approach not having him in the starting group? Do you have a preference in terms of play what you’re looking at? Yeah, you know, I think the You know, this is kind of part of I don’t think we’re any different than any other team. There’s, you know, you you go into it before the Minnesota game and you’re saying, “Okay, it’s the last preseason game, last look at our guys, last look to establish identity and we didn’t really play great against Denver.” And then you’re looking at the totality of your team. And then all of a sudden, you come out of that game and there’s no Zack Collins, right? and you go in as I mentioned to you guys after the thing I was very very optimistic with the way it was trending with Kovi that you know he was going to end up being available and he’s not. So I think for us it’s it’s not even about the starting part to me as much as it more is can we collectively play to an identity for 48 minutes and like I’ve said before our starting lineups could change based on teams we’re playing against based on injury who’s in who’s out. Some guys may have minute restrictions. Um, you know, nothing major, but you know, got IO’s dealing with a thumb and you got Patrick’s kind of, you know, dealing with a a groin. Nothing major, but like you’re dealing with these things. So, sometimes you go into games and things can realistically change. Whereas a coach, you could have a plan. This is what we’re going to do. But all of a sudden, medical says, well, listen, this guy’s on a minute restriction. Then it’s like, okay, is it worth starting the guy? Is it worth bringing him off the bench? So, I think you should look at the total 48 minutes. I’m not that wrapped up in who starts quite honestly as much as I’m wrapped up of can we sustain a level of play that we want to Billy I know the league is the league and everyone has to deal with it but you guys especially a lot was made by our tourists of how you guys finished last year regular season not the Miami game but regular season and it would seem like a quick start is dire for you guys because there’s been so many poor starts to the beginning of the season. How disappointing is it for you then personally that again the schedule’s rough out of the gate and you’re going to be, you know, kind of undermanned a little bit with whether Zack and Kobe and Yeah. I mean, for me, I feel bad for those guys. I really feel bad, you know, for Kobe and Zach in particular just because one, you know, they’re obviously out. But the other thing, too, is those are two of our better workers. I mean, I give Zach a lot of credit. I mean, if the trade happens and he’s got 27 games with us, 28 games, and he didn’t really have a ramp up period to understand how we were playing stylistically. Now, he has a whole summer and he came came back in great shape. And Kobe’s always been a phenomenal worker. I mean, you guys have covered him. I mean, he every year always seems to get better. So, I’m disappointed for those guys. Uh, I think for us, it’s two big losses, quite honestly. I think anytime you lose good players off your team, it definitely is an impact there. Um, but I’ve talked to these guys that, you know, we’ve got to utilize our depth as best as we can. And to your point, you always want to get off to a good start during the year. But listen, we’re we’re playing opening part of schedule’s hard. It it’s hard. You know what I mean? And, you know, we got to have other guys are going to have to step up and play. It is what it is. It’s really control what you can control. This is what’s this is what’s in front of us right now, you know, but at the end of the day, you’re going to have moments in time in the schedule where you have injuries. There’s going to be moment in time in the schedule. The schedule goes against you where you got four games and seven nights and there’s going to be times where the schedule does favor you. So all these things are going to get thrown out. But you got to look at, you know, over 7 months or 82 game schedule. Can we play and control the things that we can control to the best of our ability? So is it ideal with those two guys being out? No. But God willing, come 7:00 on Saturday night, that ball’s getting thrown up and whoever’s there suited up needs to go out and play. And we all need to do that. really it feels like one of the trickle down effects of Kobe being out is maybe modest uses from what we see in the preseason. I’m not sure if you expect that to to carry on these next few weeks, but assuming Kobe comes back in 3 weeks a month like how do you preserve what Madison has done in the preseason and it might in these next few weeks in terms of when Kobe comes back comes back. Yeah. I don’t think that we really listen, we don’t have the kind of team that, you know, we’re quote unquote like and and and I don’t mean like isolation in terms of just holding the ball for 24 seconds. When I’m saying isolation, I mean the ball’s in a guy’s hands and okay, you go make the play. I don’t think our team’s like that. So, we’ve got to be predicated on ball movement and player movement. And you know, I want Modest to be as aggressive as possible. You know, with Kobe or without Kobe, you know, um there’s going to be five guys out there and in a lot of ways certainly you’re going to run things for a Kobe, for a modest, you do do that. But in the course of the way we’re playing pace and speedwise, when you get into trying to manufacture a guy’s usage rate, the first thing that goes down is your pace and your tempo and your speed. We’ve got to play fast. I said this last year, you know, if we don’t run, we’re done. And that’s that’s definitely the case this year. And the next part for us, and we talked about that after the uh season, the season was over and going into this season. We got to be a lot more physical defensively. So, I don’t see Kobe coming back. Kobe’s always been a good team guy. So is Modis. They need to learn to play with each other, you know, and it’s not going to be, hey, your turn, my turn. We got to do it collectively with five guys on the court as best we can because we just don’t have what I would consider put the ball in a guy’s hands and just let him go and make a play. It’s just not built that way. I have some macro. What would you uh consider as a successful season for the whole this season? Well, listen, I understand it’s a totally resultorientated driven business. I totally get that. and you you know you’re going to be measured by the wins and losses in your record and those kind of things, right? And I think that there are things you have to do. I think there are things that it’s okay. I think there are things that you have to do to get the results you you want. So, you know, can to me the the part is can we play to an identity cuz I think the identity gives us the best opportunity to get results we want. But I’m not going to sit here and start to speculate over 82 games what our record’s going to be or where we’re going to be. We got to play the games and we got to obviously earn it and prove it. So to me, can we add on to take another step the physicality, the rebounding, the deflections, you know, can we take care of the ball? Those are things we have to do with a young team. They’ve got to understand the things that really go into winning and we’ve got to establish that before we can start talking about what kind of results we want. I know there’s teams around the league that are in a position where the season starts and they know, okay, this is where we’re expecting to be, you know, a deep playoff team. we we haven’t made the play. So for me to maybe make a comment like that, we got to prove that first. So I think everything for us is about what we can prove. And I do know this that we played I think offensively in a way speed and pacewise that was good for our team, you know. But here’s the other thing too is our effective field goal percentage on offense was 11th best and our effective field goal percentage I think on defense was like 12th. Well, why are we 24th or 25th on offense? So, why are we 24th or 25th on defense? It’s all the other stuff. It’s the offensive rebounds, taking care of the basketball. It’s getting to the free throw line. Now, we’ve gotten to the free throwing a lot better this this this preseason. And I guess preseason, I’m not like throwing all the eggs into that basket, but we got to the free throw line a little bit more. We’ve been a little bit more active. We we we came out of the preseason fourth best and taking charge. Guys are trying to do that stuff. But for us to take another step to me the the the real can we do the things physically that really good teams do you know and I think that’s to me what I look at in terms of the it’s hard for me listen I’m trying to win every single game but the result part is hard for me to sit there and say uh after 82 games my expectation is to have this record this record this and I expect to be here here and here that’s the goal but we got to earn that before we can talk about expecting something like that have won even longer. You’re here now 5 years got hired I think just before season where you know so you have a long-term perspective. Where do you think this franchise is now given the fact you’ve been here 5 years and you’ve seen a lot of change and a lot of different things developing. Where where do you think the franchise is? Well, I mean, and again, I I I hate, you know, necessarily trying to rehash the past or go back, but since you asked about like where we are, you don’t need to get into the real specifics like we traded this guy or we traded here, but just sort of as you know, as a ship moving forward. Yeah. I think I think in the conversations that have taken place clearly going into the second year at the trade deadline my first year bringing Buchin and then Lonzo and Demar and Caruso and some of the guys we did it was clearly we’re trying to win now right that was definitely that’s what we’re trying to do and I’m not going to go back through that whole year but at the point we’re at now what ended up happening was we kind of whatever words you want to use rebuild, pivot, retooling. I It doesn’t make a difference. Our team’s totally different than it was when I middle of my first year to start my second year. Right. So now it’s okay. We got all these younger guys that clearly we’re trying to build and I know Joe had mentioned, you know, about quoteunquote the star player or whatever it is and got to maybe does Josh or Kobe evolve into that maybe. But I feel like my responsibility of where we’re at right now is I got to help these guys understand what really goes into winning and what it takes, right? And I do think stylistically, you know, once Lonzo we lost and and so much was on Demar and he was like unbelievable, but we really didn’t play at a lot of pace. We kind of were up against an analytical number. We didn’t take a lot of threes and believe me, Demar’s one of the favorite guys ever coached and and and I loved Zack. All those guys were wonderful. But as you pivoted out of that, where we’re at right now, okay, we’re going to play faster. We tried to do that last year. Okay. Well, the next iteration right now as you start to break things down is we’re here. So, I think we’re in I don’t want retooling, rebuilding. It’s the second year of can we continually move forward, you know, about building out an identity that you feel like, okay, stylistically, this is a good system, style play. And like, listen, you know, I don’t know what Mazda is going to look like four years from now. You know, I don’t know what Josh is going to look like four years from now. You know, obviously V is 35 years old in a week. You know, he’s been around for a period of time. I don’t know what Julian’s going to look like or Trey Jones or I don’t I don’t know. But I like our guys competitively in terms of what they’re trying to do. And, you know, we’ll see how it all it all plays out. But I just think we’re in the next iteration of what happened last year. Did you have enough time and a lot enough games to know where your team could be on Wednesday? I mean, I I said this, I think, before the Minnesota, the Denver game, you know, these guys have done a really, really good job in training camp. From what myself and the staff have asked them, they’ve been great. And, you know, like I said, to me, we placed a huge part on putting our bodies in play and being more physical. We’re trying to take charges. We’re trying to do things. But the disappointing part to me in in the uh in training camp in the preseason is not the way we’ve played as much as it that we just haven’t been whole, you know, and I thought that that was good last year. We’ve kind of started the year somewhat whole. Like I think Zach came back and was really at a high level right away. It was a kind of a summer for him where he was injuryfree. But we just haven’t been whole. We’ve had a lot of guys in and out, you know. Um, and it’s just kind of the way it goes. I mean, Kobe has not participated other than one day on Saturday in practice. Um, and you know, Zach’s obviously was is now out for a period of time. So, that part is disappointing, but it is what it is. And, you know, no one feels sorry for us and we got to have other guys got to step up and take advantage of the opportunity that’s going to be in front of him. Thank you. Kobe ended last season, you know, those 20 games or whatever. It seemed like you guys really got into a coexistence rhythm. How big of a gut punch is it that you know you guys can’t continue that for the start of the season? You know, not that he’s not coming back at some point, but still you guys had momentum and now that momentum’s halted right now. I mean, it sucks anytime anytime any player is out it’s, you know, tough and you never want to see a player injured and I’ve been through it myself. I know how how tough it is to sit on the sideline of watch. And obviously Kobe is such an important piece to what we do. And I felt like, you know, not just me and him, but him and the rest of our guys had a really good uh strong end to the season last year. So I think that was obviously momentum we were hoping to build off um come opening night on Wednesday, but you know, injuries are part of the game. It happened. And um you know, the medical staff will take care of him when he’s back. I think that momentum will pick up uh you know, fairly quickly from where we left off. What stands out to you as being the most kind of the biggest differences when Trey or Io or someone like that is filling in? Yeah, I mean they’re different players. You know, Kobe is kind of that that go-to scorer and you know when Trey or I or us other guards, you know, are in the game, it’s kind of a different look and you know, I guess at that point when we’ve got guys like that out there, it has to be more by committee, you know, more move the ball. You know, we’re not really Billy’s kind of harped on a fair bit, but we’re not really an isolation team where we’re giving it to one guy and let him go to work. You know, I think our offense is best when it’s out in transition. Then when we get stopped in the half court, uh it’s ball movement, cut in, screening, rolling, um keeping the defense, you know, occupied. So, obviously, as I said, Kobe is different to kind of most of our guys that we in terms of you give him the ball, you let him go to work. Um so, with him out, obviously, we’ve had to adapt and, you know, we’ve had training camp and these preseason games to to work on that. So, I think we’re comfortable with it. You know, we’ve got confidence in everybody in this locker room. So, guys, be ready to step up. Getting downhill was such a big focus for you guys, especially last season. He’s one of the few players that can do that. So, does that change your role or your expectations in terms of how? Not at all. I think um we’ve got a very drive orientated team. If you look around the board, especially from the guard front, a lot of our guys like to get in the paint, make plays. So, you know, it’s been an emphasis for us touching the paint, you know, kind of preseason. I guess when you’re out in transition running, um those paint touches come a lot more naturally. So yeah, you know, as I said, Cove’s a big piece to to what we do, but he’s out, so we got to um you know, learn to learn to deal with it and other guys got to step up and there’s probably going to be a lot more opportunities for other guys. So um it’s about taking advantage of that and hold the fort down, you know, until he gets back. I know you’re about the team and about winning, but do you ever set statistical goals for yourself individually on the start of a season? No, never. No, I never. I mean, you know, stats, I think, you know, they they they kind of come as a byproduct of the team. I think if you go out there, you know, predetermining what you want to try and do with a mat, it never goes well for anybody. So, um, I learned that very, very quickly in my career. I think, um, I remember sitting down with Mark Begnel and we had this exact conversation about there was games where I not not statistically, but go out there and it felt like I was, you know, predetermining what I wanted to do. So, uh, very early in my career, early on in my career, I learned, you know, it’s not the way to go about it. And, um, no, I never set a statistical goal for for start of the season, start of a game or nothing like that. Thank you. Thanks, guys. the to Zack and that the latest news on Kobe that you guys at least be a couple weeks without him to start the season and which obviously is an important start for this team, right? Yeah, it’s definitely a bummer um being without uh Kobe and our big fellow Zach. Um obviously Zach had been with us um in the preseason and everything. So um he was in a good rhythm. We were feeling well and obviously got banged up there at the end. So that definitely um definitely is a bummer. But I mean with the with the NBA season, it’s a long season. Um and everybody has to stay ready. Uh we know how how NBA season goes. Um you know, any given night, um could be one or or a few guys go out and u next guy just has to stay ready. Um and so that that’s how it is uh with this team. Um you know, depth is a is a huge thing for us with this team. So um we have we have guys that are that are ready to step up and and place for those guys and you know, we’ll try to hold it down until those guys get back. Were you surprised with the the news that it’s going to be shut down for a couple of weeks or did you guys kind of tell at practice Saturday? Yeah, I mean, he’s it’s good to see him up and moving, but Wednesday might be a bit enterprising to say the least that that he’d be ready. Um, I don’t think we could really tell. Uh, I think it’s just, you know, all about how he feels and, um, you know, it’s a long season and so no reason to rush back if he doesn’t feel, you know, fully like himself yet. So, um, you know, we we only want him back when he’s 100%. So, you know, he can give it his all for the for the rest of the season hopefully and, um, you know, just hit the ground running. Josh was just describing him as like a go-to scorer type that can really like, you know, produce the offense um on his own without having that. What does that mean for you guys as kind of like pick up the slack in? Yeah. Um, like you said, just just picking up that slack uh wherever it is. Um, it’ll be on, you know, the entire team. I don’t think it really falls on one person necessarily. Um, obviously Kobe’s our our main score um after the trade deadline and um you know, yeah, he’s our he’s our go-to guy on offense. So, um it’s definitely a huge blow for us, but you know, everybody will be ready to step up and kind of fill fill that gap, you know, as a as a whole. Does it have to be collective or can there be one person that can rise to the top and do that? Yeah, I don’t think it can be one guy that that’ll fill, you know, Kobe’s role on this team. um he was our main score uh there at the end of the year for us and you know when we were um getting things going there in the second half of the season. So um it’ll definitely be as a group um until we get him back and get things going again. But you know in the meantime we’re all ready to step up um and try to fill that role however we can. The fact is that you haven’t had him play games or in training camp much is the fact that you kind of know what you have right now without him? Yeah, for sure. Um, yeah, that’s that’s a piece of it is that we’ve been able to play games now without him. Um, we’ve been, you know, obviously practicing without him as well. And so, um, you know, that that’s a positive on things is that, you know, we’ve been able to, um, kind of kind of play without him so far and see, um, you know, where where guys kind of fill in and, you know, who’s doing what, um, and things like that. But, yeah, we’ll continue to just try to, uh, pound away at this thing. Are you kind of interested to see what you guys are going to be able to do Wednesday night against Detroit? Uh yeah, I think we all we all expect uh we we know we’re we’re going to do um you know, we’ve kind of um been building this thing uh since September now and so uh we’re ready to just play games now. Um you know, we’ve been at it in practice for a little bit going against each other. Had a few preseason games as well, but we’re ready for the for the real thing to get going and get out there. Thank you.

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, along with Josh Giddey and Tre Jones, speak to the media following their Monday practice. The big news of the day: Coby White (calf strain) still isn’t cleared to play, and will be reevaluated in two weeks. That’s on top of Saturday’s news that Zach Collins will miss the first four weeks of the season with a wrist fracture. Donovan, Jones and Giddey speak on what it will take for the team to move forward without those two key players.

0:00 Billy Donovan
14:40 Josh Giddey
17:45 Tre Jones

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