BULLS LOCKER ROOM: ‘Next Man Up’ Chicago Bulls Top Pistons in Season Opener

BULLS LOCKER ROOM: ‘Next Man Up’ Chicago Bulls Top Pistons in Season Opener

I thought the ball may have went off of him one, but with the time on the clock, even if I lost the challenge, I I thought it was worth it just from the perspective I still have one timeout left. I don’t know if I would have done it had I been out of timeouts, but I thought with having two that it was worth the risk, you know, and I actually talked to the officials because I know in some of the stuff when we have these league meetings is they look at the whole possession. So, it’s about what happens in the entirety of the possession. So, you know, obviously I’m I’m happy it worked out and Josh was able to make make free throws. Obviously, you guys got a lot of contributions from a lot of players, but you got to start with V, who obviously was preseason optional for him, but just hit some huge shots for you late tonight. Yeah, you know, I I I think that, you know, I listen, Vu does an unbelievable job professionally taking care of himself. And I think, you know, getting ready to turn 35 and the fact that he had an entire training camp this summer in Montenegro, I think he was one of the league leaders this summer in minutes played, you know, per game. He comes out of that, you know, he’s got to fly obviously back here. You know, he’s got kids, he’s got school, takes care of himself, and he’s worked incredibly hard in training camp. And I, you know, listen, he’s playing two different styles. The way they play in Montenegro is a little different than the way we play here. and he kind of um worked his way through it. But, you know, when he’s playing at that level on both ends, it just it it really incredibly helps our team. Yeah, he really competed defensively. Yeah, he was great at the rim and he was rebounding and he was physical up front and and when he does that, that just gives us a different dynamic, you know, before the game that we just don’t have necessarily a lot of shot blocking. But as long as he can keep himself between, you know, himself the offense and himself between the offense and the basket and make people finish over him, he’s such a good defensive rebounder and I just thought he did a great job positionally tonight. How much do you think um uh you know, pretty much every question to him for the last two weeks was how old he is. How much do you think he’s motivated by, you know, hearing that all the time? What seemed like a natural human reaction that everyone’s trying to run me out? Yeah, I mean I don’t know. He we I’ve never really talked to him about it, but um he loves playing. You know, I give him a lot of credit. He is not a guy at all. Like our team practices. He never asked for days off. He never asked to sit out of drills. I mean, he practices and he is one of the first guys in there. He lifts weight. He takes care of his body. He eats really, really well. You know, I personally think with the conditioning, he keeps himself. He can play for a long time because he’s really smart. He’s really skilled. And he’s got a wealth of of knowledge of the league and he knows how to play. So, um, I don’t know if that motivates them or not, but I do think, you know, for him, you know, as these guys get towards the end of their career, the roles change and minutes change and all that stuff changes, but, you know, for us, I just appreciate him professionally, the way he keeps himself in shape like he does to be able to go out and play cuz, listen, I mean, it’s a big adjustment for him and we’re playing 100 miles an hour now, running up and down the floor, and he finds ways to get to the three-point line or get down the floor, maybe some early postups. You know, again, with the way we’re playing, I think it’s pretty impressive at his age for him to play the minutes he played tonight and play him effectively and productively help the trail threes and all that and keep the ball alive. He’s able and it’s great because he’s so good at moving the ball to the next side and he really, I think, is one of those guys that he can score on three different levels. He can play, you know, the mid mid post area, you know, on pick and rolls into the pocket. He can shoot threes. He can play this back to the basket. And then he’s a really good facilitator. So I think you know a lot of times when he is defensive rebounding he’s trailing we can work the ball through him and he’s going to make good decisions from from that from the top. One more uh so much for the slow starts but also what what did you see what you thinking when it got to you know 20 whatever 25 when it got to 10 they hit three to make it 105 what did you see from your team because in the past there’ve been a lot of times where that overcame this team. Yeah. Um, listen, I think in today’s game with the number of possessions, how fast teams are playing and guys ability to make shots, the lead and the swings and the margins going back and forth from being up to down is just going to it’s going to be there. Um, I just was really did not like the way we came out the first three possessions defensively or offensively to start the third. You know, we needed to be better there. But I thought we rebounded real well, got the lead back up. You know, obviously they made a really, really strong push. I think one of the things that hurt us and I, you know, we’re going to need everybody. We got in foul trouble. You know, that I thought that hurt with Isaac being in foul trouble and then Josh got into foul trouble. Um, and you know, we probably played some guys maybe a few extra minutes. I had to get Modus off there. I thought he was getting a little bit tired. Um, and at least give him a blow to finish the game. But, you know, when Isaac’s out there defensively, that really really helps our team. when he’s off for that period of time, you know, we’re just a little bit different defensively. What was behind the choice to go with the Trey Jones um pick and roll on those three or four possessions late? What you kind of see there to initiate those sets at least? Yeah, I I think that um you know, just looking at different matchups and who was guarding who on the ball, you know, they’re really good whether it’s Holland, you know, or Thompson. Um they can really get into the ball a little bit. Tobias Harris was on Trey a few times. We thought maybe putting him in pick and roll, he and Bouch could play kind of play an off-centered angle pick and roll. And the biggest thing I think that that happened was Trey got downhill and I think he really made passes and it generated ball movement for us. And then a few times he found Vouch late in the pocket for some jump hooks. We didn’t really execute it that great the last time we ran it, but for the most part it was just something we just went back to. We got I thought some good actions on it. We got a variety of different actions on it, so we just kept going back to it. Billy. Oh, three at the end. You chose to play defense straight up. Other teams in that situation might have intentionally fell in the throat game. What’s your philosophy in thinking that situation? Well, I’m I’m I’m We practice it, you know, and we talk about it. The the thing that’s really hard is when there’s I think it was 13.8 seconds like that. First of all, it’s a lot of time, you know, to to do that. The other thing, too, is the players have got to feel comfortable because the these guys are so smart. the minute like if you’re off the player a little bit and you go to grab the guy, it’s really really hard when those guys see that and they just rise up and shoot. The last thing you want to do is give up three free throws. I’m not opposed to it. I like fouling. I’ve I’ve been a part of losing games fouling up three and I’ve been a part of winning them, you know. Um, I just felt like with 13 seconds to go, if you foul them and they make two free throws right now, we’ve got to either call timeout, use a timeout, or we got to inbound the ball length of the floor, and then we got to handle potentially one or two traps, and then we got to get fouled, and then we got to go to the free throw line and make two free throws. Like, everybody talks about fouling up three is great. It is great, but with 13 seconds to go and if you foul right away, there’s a lot of stuff that can happen. There’s a lot of things you have to do to take advantage of that. Now, when five or six seconds, you know, where you know, you know, you’re going to get it in bounds and they got no timeouts, they go to length of thought. It’s a little bit different, but I thought it was a lot and I didn’t know if we would, we talked about it in the timeout, but I didn’t want to foul right away with that much time because there’s a lot of things we have to do after that. Curious about uh just cutting this year. It seems like that’s been I’m sorry. Just curious about your emphasis on cutting this year. It feels like that’s been a much bigger part of your offense. Obviously, M had the big dunk on that, but what is sort of the commentary from you guys internally about uh any sort of emphasis you’re putting on that this year, maybe more than last year? Yeah, I mean, we’ve we’ve put a lot on it. Um just from the perspective, I think, you know, you know, you you go through the off season, you talk to the players and stuff and you always kind of pick their brain, where do we get better? And I think one area we all we all knew we had to get better, it was in the half court, right? Um because we were that team where if we really really ran and that got shut off or the game got slowed or there was dead balls or fouls and we were playing a lot in the half court, we at times struggled, you know, with that. And for us, we’ve got to get bodies off of us and we don’t have like a player that you’re just going to put the ball in his hands and just say, “Okay, go manufacture a shot. Just go get one.” And maybe you forced to double team and that creates ball movement. So, we have to do it kind of collectively because we’re just not built like that team-wise. And I’ve always felt like the holes got to be better than the parts. And that’s why I like what Trey did at the end of the game with Vu because even those those two guys were playing pick and roll. I mean, outside of V making a couple floaters, everybody else kind of touched the ball a little bit, you know, and because Vuch is a good passer, I think cutting around him helps us, but we have to do that cuz you know, listen, Detroit’s a very good defensive team. They’re very, very physical. You just get bogged down in the half court and there’s very, very limited movement, we’re going to have a hard time. I’m sorry. MC Billy with with Modis. I mean, obviously it dunks two points, but at the same time, those two fourth quarter dunks, especially one on Stewart, I mean, that’s an attitude thing. That’s a physicality thing of, hey, you know, I I’ve arrived and I’m I’m going to challenge you. I mean, how important is that for for you guys to see that from him and also the team to kind of feed off of that? Modis, you know, is is they talked about this maybe pregame. I mean, he’s fearless in a lot of ways. You know, he just is. He’s not he’s not afraid and he’s competitive and I think he’s driven and I think that’s why he’s got a great opportunity to realize his potential and ability. Um he’s incredibly incredibly athletic, you know, just very very explosive and he’s got very very light on his feet. Um he gets off the floor very very quickly. Um, you know, like I I thought there were some plays tonight where, you know, the defense kind of crawled up in him a little bit and he lost it a couple times. Like those are the things he’s going to learn, he’s going to get better at, but the talent and the athleticism is there. The thing I think that has the opportunity for him to be really good, as I was talking about before the game, is he’s very driven and he’s not afraid of the moment. I mean, he leans into stuff. Um, and it was good to see him finish those two plays because those were two big plays for us. You know, certainly the one on the back door one that Trey found him cutting to the basket. That was a huge play. Billy, along those lines, you just talked about the plays he made that sort of gave you momentum and felt like he understood that you guys needed those plays. I I know we talked so much about his runway, but do you get the sense that he’s kind of come to understand what a game requires from him at at certain moments? Like, how has he grown there? Well, he said to me tonight, he says, “I’ve never heard you yell at me so loud because I there was like two or three possessions where he’s standing there spectating and I’m telling he’s got to get to the glass.” Like, I think there’s so much more to him that he can do. Um, listen, the dunks are a byproduct of his athleticism and his explosiveness, but let’s be honest, Trey threw it to him and he ran out of the corner and caught it and dunked it. He was in transition and they found him in the middle of the floor when he dunked on Stewart. I am not taking away those team. Those were highlight spectacular athletic plays, right? But, you know, the other things I think I try to look at is is like he God God gifted him with that. He’s got that and he’s fearless. But, you know, how else can he impact the game, you know, when the dunks get taken away and they were incredible, but like the rebounding part, handling the ball against pressure late game, those kind of things. And like I said, he’s not afraid. But, you know, also I think to me he got set up by his teammates in both of those situations. And then his individual talent you saw basically on display once he left the floor because he’s he is really really really explosive and incredibly athletic off the floor. I mean and and he’s not afraid as I was telling Joe. So I mean they were two incredible plays. They were great plays but you know I think for him he can do that. He’s been he he was able to do that when he first got here. You know the thing and I want him to keep doing it. They’re a great place, but he’s just got to keep growing out and growing out in those things. You know, I’m anxious just to look at the film because, you know what, of our starting group, he’s minus 10. You know, I want to know I’m going to look at the film and want to know why. Like, what are the things that are happening there? And again, it’s I think he wants that. He wants to be coached and pushed because he wants to be great. So, yeah, those plays are great, but it’s got to be other other areas of growth for him as well. Can you talk about this roster? It looks like you’re really deep this season. You’re even missing two guys tonight that would, you know, normally be in in the rotation. Yeah, we have pretty deep deep process which is very important. Uh, you know, it’s a long season. You know, the the pace of the game is uh, you know, is much quicker now than we were before. And so, you need a lot of guys to be able to to sustain that and to play that pace for a long time. And, you know, Billy really put an emphasis on that to have everybody ready. Uh, you know, also, you know, fortunately, we have guys like Kobe and Zach out who are very big part of, uh, you know, what we do. And, uh, you know, but it’s part of the season. You know, it’s part of everybody goes through it at some point and you have to have the next man mentality and um some of that tonight and but again it’s just one game just the first game of the year. We have to do it again in a couple days after that for 81. B I know I know dunks are only two points but it seems like modest a certain amount of energy kind of you guys kind of can feed off of that. Is it because he just is so fearless in the way he attacks people? I mean, going at Stewart’s not an easy party to to choose. I mean, do you guys get that sense when he does that and it does kind of just get you guys going? Oh, for sure. You know, it’s those are big plays, you know, don’ts, walks, anything like that. They bring energy into the crowd. They bring energy, you know, to the team. It’s a huge play and I’m very proud of Mattis. He became a man tonight. You know, he got his first legit poster. Uh, he tried to claim he dunked on D’Angelo Russell or something last year, but I’m like, Matt, you’re two feet bigger than a pound. So, you know, this this is the first one. So, yeah, and he’s finally a sophomore, now more rookie. So, yeah, he’s grown, which is is nice to see. Um, but yeah, it was a big play for us. It was it was a needed time, too, cuz they kind of make a comeback and it was great play, you know, by him. But, you know, he’s able to do that. He has, you know, great physical attributes. Um, very athletic guy and he just, you know, I think he enjoys taking on their challenge and that was great play. You know, Steuart is a big guy. Uh, I think he caught some of the ball. Also for us being the finisher was huge. You played with a lot of really great players in your career. What do you see in Mos in terms of like his potential and what he can become his friend? Yeah, I mean with his size, you know, his ability to handle the ball uh the way he moves and it’s very unique. Um excuse me at that size. His shot has come along very well. Um I think you know just can be a really good all-around player. And what I really like about him is that he has a little bit of cockiness in him, but not in in a bad way. I mean, he just has belief, which I think all the great ones do have. So, obviously this one, he still has to continue to work, but he’s I think he’s taken huge steps from last season, even throughout last season and over the summer and this year. And you guys can I think you can tell the way he played. I know it’s just preseason, but you can tell he was I think played with more more poise, making better reads tonight as well. And he’s going to continue to get better. But yeah, I think he has all the potential in the world to to be a great player. U and I’ve mentioned that immediately last year that B’s got a great one and I think it’s up to him now. I assume um there wasn’t a specific strategy to play let’s say five relative or four in different games in the preseason and then play like you did in the first quarter. Um, so I I assume that’s what you’re trying, but what was the first quarter difference when you came out as, you know, as aggressive as you did to, you know, building up to it? And like I said, for me, preeason, um, cuz I played so much in the summer. Uh, I played, you know, 10 games. Um, and, you know, it took a bit of a toll on my body and I just used the preseason to kind of reset and get, you know, ready for for for regular season. And you know, I’ve been through it before, so I knew kind of what I needed to do. To me, it was more using the last game to kind of see where I’m at. And, you know, I felt good throughout the whole time. I just, you know, was taking it, you know, slowly to to to not overdo it at that point to be ready for now for this and for a long stretch of a year. So, um, so yeah, I mean, at this point in my career, I know what it takes. I know what I need to do to get ready. uh you know I knew I would be ready for the opener and you know tonight I was able to get going but you know and I had a good game but more importantly for me is just you know I feel physically where I’m at me mentally and I felt really good going to the game and so hopefully I can continue. How about also you know the finish you get to 105 105 you had a couple of big floers at that point too. Team always hasn’t always finished as well when you know when somebody made a run at you know what did you do? What did you see at that point? I thought we just came together as a team at that point. Um, you know, one of my floers, you know, guards made the drive are able to find me in that pocket, which is probably my favorite shot. And then, uh, you know, I was able glad the ball went in. And then I think just defensively, especially in the last couple plays, we did a really good job, especially Isaac, who did a great job on Kade, um, making it tough for him and we just came together and, uh, Josh made some good free throws as well. Uh, I think hopefully we’ve learned from some of the past um mistakes we’ve had, you know, any end of close games, but again, it’s just one game, so it’s good to to to win it. See how it goes forward. Duran is alone physically. You seem really engaged defensively. What was kind of your game plan against him? Just try to match his physicality. Uh, you know, he’s big guy. Him and Stewart, you know, they once they get downhill, they get to the rim. It’s tough if you don’t meet him early and try to push him away. It’s tough to do anything. So, I was trying to just, you know, be as physical as I can and match his his intensity. Uh, you know, he he got a couple loss, he got a couple play spots, but, you know, he’s going to do that. But, yeah, just try to be as physical as I can, try to make it as tough as I can for him without without fouling. Uh, make it tough for him to finish. Um, yeah, you know, thought we did a good job as a team collectively on some of those plays where I helped and somebody had to rebound. Know Patrick had a few of those, had a few good box outs, other guys as well. And so, you know, I guess it was, you know, a very good collective effort. I thought the the difference scene toward the end was your offense in the past tend to get stagnant and you particular the team, you know, toward the end. So, they tried to make a play, but you guys kept movement. You kept the ball moving. It seemed like you created opportunities for you that maybe, you know, helped to hit help to win the game. It was a point of emphasis, you know, to continue to play our style, you know, whatever point of the game it is. You know, maybe obviously towards the end the game, the the the the pace is going to slow down a little bit. You’re going to have to, you know, uh play a bit smarter, but I think we can still play pretty pretty pretty quick and try to execute pretty fast. Uh you know, we we try to really run that they’re really pretty aggressive in the pick and roll, so we try to kind of spread him out and play that angle. You know, we tr we treed knee a lot. He was able to get downhill, made some right plays, and able to to get some good looks out of it. Yeah. Um, we’ve been emphasizing that we got to start faster, like we can’t be laxidasical coming into the games. We got to be ready and, uh, just, uh, just go out there and compete right from the jump. Can you talk about the depth on this team? It looks like that might be one of the big advantages that you have over some other teams. Yeah. Um, we have great players on our team. I every I believe everyone’s a great player on this team. Everyone knows their role. Um, everyone wants to play with each other and um, they’re excited. How’s the angle? It was good. Yeah, it just got I just rolled it a little bit. It’s nothing honestly. Just iced it. It’s fine. Um, you we were asking Billy about like back cutting and that being a bigger part of your offense this year. Um, does that like come naturally to you? Has that been an emphasis on the team and obviously it led to a couple big dunks for you? Can you just kind of walk us through those plays? Yeah. Um, I just read the game honestly. I no I never I never really was a cutter in the in the beginning but um once I realized like it opens up the floor, it creates movement on offense, I started to do it. So um and can you just walk us through those two big dunks that you had in the fourth court? Uh yeah, so Ice actually drove drove baseline. That kill cut is always open. Um uh he hit me but he blocked the shot actually. He blocked the he blocked the dunk and I just pushed through, finished it. And then the other one was Trey driving, right? And um that lob, you know, the low man is always not really aware of what’s going on sometimes and if you back cut them, the lob is always there. And Trey is a great passer, so I knew he was going to throw it. Mus when the one with Isaiah, I mean, he I think he had two or three blocks at that point. Do you know it’s him or do you just it’s a body and I’m just going to jump over? I’m Yeah, I’m not really worried who’s there. I’m I’m athletic enough to finish over anybody, so I’m I don’t really care who’s there. It’s only game one, but how important was it to be able to be challenged at the end and still get the win? Um, I’m just proud of our guys for pushing through. You know, that’s something we didn’t have in the past. And everybody came to a collective group and we we knew we had to fight for the for the last possessions and came out with the win. Had something similar, but just the the slot cut, the the line, some of the plays you made, the two corner takes the eye. Like, do you feel like you’ve kind of developed this understanding of what the game needs from you at different points? Yeah, it’s just watching a lot of film, uh figuring out what I have to do. I know I’m I’m going to trust my skills every time I’m out there. Uh it’s just making the re reads and uh that’s what I saw on the court and that’s what I’m going to do. Ma felt like whatever you guys needed was ready to What can you say about his performance? He’s an amazing player. He came ready to play. He was really physical from the jump. Um he’s versatile. He can shoot threes. That’s the That’s the one um benefit from having from having him is he could shoot threes, space the floor, he could pass the ball, he could pretty much do everything. So, he’s uh he was great for us tonight. Said that you made a comment to him after the game just that you had never heard him yell at you as loud as he did on a couple different plays. What was some of that feedback that you were getting from him? Yeah. Uh I wasn’t rebounding really well tonight. So, um, the one offensive rebound they got and then they got the foul, I heard him yell and that was the loudest I’ve ever heard him yell. So, um, but you know, that’s what comes with being at like me asking him to coach me. That’s what he’s going to do. And that makes me a better player out there. We’ve seen that balance in the way that he speaks to us about you just in terms of wanting to kind of always keep things level, not to get too high. How important is that for your development? Um, very important. Hearing the truth. That’s what I always appreciate. He’s not going to sugarcoat anything. He’s going to tell me straight up what I need to hear and um I respect him a lot for that. What did you um obviously preseason doesn’t mean much or anything. Uh how did you flip the switch from being down double digits every game to being up 15 or 20 points in this first quarter? Can you repeat the question? What did you see the difference in you guys getting ahead? post in preseason you were behind in the first quarter every game by a lot. It help it helps us. I mean being up anytime being up helps us. So um but we when we get off to a hot start, it’s really tough to stop us because we’re going to be ready the whole game and um we just have to we have to maintain that. What did you see when it got to 105 tied when they hit the three at that point? Last season sometimes it didn’t work out as well. Yeah. uh we would pretty much break down last year like we we got down on ourselves and we pushed through this one and uh I think that’s what coach has been emphasizing at practice you know if if we go down it’s a game of runs um stuff’s going to happen you just got to uh keep pushing keep fighting and uh you’ll come out with the win what did you think of you know you guys were seemed faster while you know you were moving the ball you’re moving bodies a lot more than they How much difference was that in the game to you? Um it’s a big difference. It all started from the beginning when we were playing 14second shot clock uh in September. So we were all we were prepared for the for the night tonight. It’s uh it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of effort um put in in the background, but it’s um I’m just I’m just happy we won. modest part of our pregame interaction with you feeling sensed around how much attention you’ve been getting nationally and locally. Do you have a social media? Do you engage with it? How much attention paid to like the outside world? Yeah, I mean I see it. I try to focus on the main thing, you know, just playing basketball. Um that that stuff doesn’t really matter to me. I just I love going out every night playing um waking up every day and God allowing me to play basketball. We kind of have to do things by comedy and you know when a guy like cob goes out that that opens up different opportunities for different guys and um I thought you know we had a really really team orientated win tonight and that’s the way it’s got to be with us. We have to do it by committee both sides of the ball and um when you have six guys in double digits it makes life a lot easier for um you know one particular player that has to do more than they need to. So um yeah credit to the group. The the bench was awesome tonight. kept us afloat when when our starters didn’t didn’t go on a good run and um kept us in the

Billy donovan, Nikola Vucevic, Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey speak after the Chicago Bulls season-opening win against the Detroit Pistons at the United Center. After losing Coby White to injury in the preseason, the Bulls entered Game 1 with a ‘next man up’ mentality and led for nearly the entire game.

0:00 Billy Donovan
12:09 Nikola Vucevic
18:49 Matas Buzelis
25:05 Josh Giddey

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