The Bulls’ Depth Is Their Secret Weapon | How Chicago Became the NBA’s Most Unselfish Team

The Bulls’ Depth Is Their Secret Weapon | How Chicago Became the NBA’s Most Unselfish Team

The Chicago Bulls have started off their season 3 and 0 for the first time in four years. And this is a really solid start, not only because of the number of wins and the teams that the Bulls have played, but also how they’ve gotten it done. On today’s episode, we’re going to focus on the hows of the Chicago Bulls win streak so far and two glaring weaknesses that I’ve also already kind of noticed about the team that have me a little bit concerned. We’re going to talk about all these things and more right after this. What’s going on, Bulls fans? Welcome to another episode of Chicago Bulls Central, your number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related. I’m the host, Hayes, but more importantly, you guys can follow the channel at Bulls Central Pod on every social media platform we happen to be on. With that said, let’s go and get into this content for the day, y’all. And uh the Chicago Bulls are 3 and 0. They are 3 and 0. And they’ve gotten here being 3 and 0 by playing as a team and by a team at every level. We’re talking about multiple players averaging double figures. We’ll get into that. Uh, you know, for for the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls are leading the league in assist percentage despite them having one of the highest turnover ratios in the game of basketball. We’ll get into why that’s important as well. They’re playing defense as a team. This is not a team with a bunch of one-on-one individual defenders, but we are top 10 in defensive rating in the NBA to start off this young part of the season. And it’s because of physicality, the fight that this team is playing with, and then also rebounding. Rebounding has also been a key strength for the Chicago Bulls team at the start of the season as well as they are also in the top 10 of rebounds. Absolutely. And that is because they do it as a team. The key part and the part that makes this team special is that they do everything as a team. And that’s just what it comes down to, right? There there’s every once in a while there was those teams there’s a team or a couple of teams, right, that they get it done without having a true superstar. And the way that they get it done is by the team and the level of play that they have, the connectivity, coaching, whatever you want to label it as. And the Bulls so far through this early part of the season look like they could be one of those teams. Now, how far they can go, it’s way too early to determine that, right? I’m not saying that this is going to be a team that goes on some long playoff run that surprises an upset in the first round. I’m not saying that. It’s way too early of a season, and that’ll be way too hyperbolic. You guys know I’m level-headed when it comes to reviewing the team. I get very excited when my team wins because it’s my team. This is the team that I’ve rooted for for almost 40 years, right? So, you know, it comes down to that part of it. But the way that this Bulls team is winning is through how they’re doing it as a team. And to me, that’s what makes it feel more sustainable is the fact that they are doing this as an entire team. Let’s get into the details of what I mean by how they’re doing it as a team. The Chicago Bulls through three games have had a different leading scoreer in every game so far this season. Nicolvous in the first game, Josh Giddy in the second game, Iodumu last night, right? They have all led the team in scoring through through the early part of the season. The Bulls also have six players averaging in double figures. Um, and that that’s that’s really big when you look at like the balance of attack and that’s something that is becoming a weapon of the team is that you don’t really know who is going to to get it done every single every single night, right? Six players averaging in double figures. Those players are Josh Giddy at 19 points. You have him there. Uh you have Nicolvous who’s leading the team in scoring with 20 points. Iodumu with 16 points, our third highest score. Uh Kevin Hurder and Modis Buzzales each averaging 13 points per game. And so you have those guys right there that are getting it done. Those are the six players that are averaging in double figures for the Chicago Bulls. Oh wait, I mentioned one of the the the most important ones. Trey Jones averaging 13 points per game. And so when you have that number of players that are averaging in double figures, it makes it more diff difficult for the defense, especially in clutch moments to key in on any one player. One of the kind of I almost came in here saying that it was going to be a knock for the Bulls, right? Is that the Bulls as it stands right now don’t have a single player that you view as a closer, right? You don’t have that player that is like, “All right, this game’s close. It’s a it’s a three it’s a three-point game. We’re going to get it to this player every single time down the court.” And then I sat and thought about it. I was like, “Wait a second. Why am I mentioning that as a negative when honestly that could be part of what is helping this team go right now? We’ll see. I do think as the season goes on and as you get into closer games and as you get into playins and playoffs, you do need that player that is going to be able to put the team on their back in some moments. And I can’t say that the Bulls have that yet, but through this part of the season and especially when you’re missing your best score in Kobe White, it’s good that you have that many number of players that are all contributing to your point per game total. in playing. And listen, Patrick Williams is right outside of that, averaging 9.3 points per game. And to further highlight this point of why it makes it more so so important for the Bulls to be able to do this, the Bulls have no player averaging above 14 shots per game. None. And that’s Josh Giddy averaging 14.7 shots per game. But other than that, it’s only five players averaging a double- digit shot attempts per game. And barely that. I added in Kevin Herder because he’s 9.3. I rounded up for him there. But even Kevin Herder like so you have Josh Giddy averaging 14. Nicolola Vousvich is averaging 12. Keep in mind Vu is averaging 20 points on 12 shots per game. And this is why when Bulls fans like to crap on Voo and act like Vu doesn’t still have a role on this team. No, V is still very important to the Chicago Bulls team as the team is currently constructed. But Vu is averaging 12 of shots per game. You have Iodumu averaging 11 shots per game. Manis Buzzalees averaging 10.3 shots per game. And then right there, Kevin Herder at 9.7 shots per game. Now, some of that may surprise some people, right? A lot of people thought that Modis Bzelis was going to take some huge number of shot increase. Had kind of set the expectation there to not expect that because I, you know, I I expected the lines here to go to Vu and those guys. But even more so, it’s because of the balance that you’re having here and how everybody is getting it done and everybody’s having a place in the offense. What that does is that keeps everybody involved in the game. When you see this team down the stretches, especially with some of these games being close down the stretch, everybody’s a threat because the Bulls pass the ball really well. We lead the league in assist. We’re second in the league in assist percentage, but outside of even just that, um, you have everybody engaged because they know if you make the right move, the ball is coming to you. This the the the ball is not sticking with any one player. And not to knock who, you know, our opponents coming up next, uh, Demar Rosen and Zack Lavine who are on the Sacramento Kings, but not to knock them, but just to be real, is that when they were on this team, you kind of knew, hey, in these moments, the ball was going to go to this guy. And you saw the defenses react to that because they knew it was going to go to Demard Rosen, who was going to try to dribble it around the mid-range, pump fake you, try to get you into a foul call or make a difficult shot. With this team, it can be Kevin Herder as the trailer on a three. It can be Josh Giddy trying to get to the get to the rim, get to the free throw line or hit a floater. It could be Trey Jones creating off his drives to pass to Manus Buzzel. It could be a lot of different things. And because of that, that’s that’s added into a weapon for the Chicago Bulls team that you’re seeing have a a massive effect in the way that defenses have to prepare for this team. And so the fact that you have no players averaging over 14 shots per game, the fact that you have uh six players averaging double figures on the season, we had eight players to score in double figures last night. The unselfishness of this Chicago Bulls team is absolutely a weapon. The the Bulls offense has become unpredictable, but unpredictable in a good sense in the fact that there is so much synergy between the players that we have on this team, so much selfishness on the floor. Everybody is playing to try to make the play to win the game. Nobody’s playing for themselves. Nobody’s playing for the numbers. Nobody’s playing for for selfishness. This team is a truly unselfish basketball team. And and that’s a really good thing when you when you come down to it. 33 assists against Atlanta. The Chicago Bulls are averaging some of the highest number of assist in the league as it stands right now. Um and that’s great. Um you you look at this Bulls team, they’re averaging 27.5 assists per game. There are only a handful of teams that are above them in assists per game. Now, I will say this, the Bulls got to get the turnovers together because they’re one of the highest turnover rated teams, which we’ll talk about a little bit, and how if they can get those turnovers together, I truly feel that this offense isn’t just going to be good. This offense has the chance to truly be elite. And I do not use those words lightly. They have the chance to truly be elite. The Chicago Bulls right now are one of the most improbable, undefeated teams in the game of basketball. Not just because they don’t have the player that you look at and you say, “Oh, that that’s a star. That’s that’s a a star in this league.” They don’t have the player that you look at and say, “Hey, they they they can absolutely dominate every single game in and out.” Right? And they’re doing it without Collins, without without Kobe White, right? The Bulls and the Philadelphia 76ers are both 3-0 to start the season. They are tied for the best record in the Eastern Conference. Now, this is so early in the season. It doesn’t matter. The standings right now don’t matter. So, I get it that and and Bulls fans are excited. They’re happy to have their team being listed as the number one team in the East. That’s great. It’s all fine and dandy. I I I I’m not knocking that at all because I’d rather be here than than winless, right? But it’s still a very early part of the season and there’s still a lot of season left to be told. But what the Bulls are doing here not only feels sustainable, it feels intentional. It feels like this was the vision when they brought this team together. And for people, me, myself included, who at times have said, “Does AK truly have a vision?” I think that we’re seeing that this is it. This is how this team in AK’s mind should be built. Now, eventually, you need a star. Usually, to get to a place of being a true contender, you need that star. But I’ll say this, the Bulls are set up to where if a player ascends to being a star on this roster, the Bulls have the supporting cast to get it done. If a star wants to come to the Chicago Bulls by chance this off season, the Bulls have the infrastructure now to get it done. The Bulls are in a place right now that they rely on what they do as a unit and that is more difficult to stop than if you had just a star player that’s getting it done. And we’ll see, right? Even if you look at this last game against Atlanta, you had six Bulls that scored in the final five minutes. That’s how this attack goes for the Chicago Bulls team. And it’s difficult. Keep in mind, the Bulls started off trailing 112 to 111. And I got to say this, I I know that it has not been this way for me and for a lot of Bulls fans over the last few years, but Billy Donovan is coaching the hell out of this team. And objectively, I got to say that if if if for example, let’s just remove it that that it’s Billy Donovan. If you remove the name, let’s say the Bulls did change coach this off seasonason, and a new coach came in and the Bulls were playing this way with this record, doing it as a team, people would be like, “Hey, that coach is down there doing his thing.” But because it’s Billy Donovan, there seems to be a little bit more reluctance from some some parts of the fan base to admit Billy Donovan is coaching this team about as well as you can. The team that has this type of makeup, Billy Donovan is doing an amazing job at getting the most out of these players, about having everybody locked into what their role is and what they need to do. Hell, we saw Patrick Williams as a small ball five and guard Christophs Porzingis pretty damn well at parts in this game last night. It’s been great to see. And so hearing that the offseason talk that Billy Donovan and this team talked about has actually uh translated has been good for me. Hopefully it’s been good for a lot of Bulls fans to see this team ain’t playing and this team is coming here trying to show that they can get it done as a team and I got to commend them for that one. right now. Part of the Bulls, I talked about the unselfishness. This is a Bulls team. That depth is the real weapon and the real part that makes this team special. You look at the fact that we just talked about six players to score in the final five minutes, right? You have six players averaging double figures. You had eight players scoring double double figures last night. And keep in mind, that’s without Zack Collins. That’s without Kobe White. When Kobe White comes back, you’re looking then at Trey Io, Zack Collins, Kevin Herder, and P. Will coming off the bench. Not only could that be one of the better balanced bench units in the NBA, but it’s just it it’s it’s not balanced just because of talent. I won’t even say that it’s one of the most talented benches in the NBA. We got to see how it’s going to come together, but it’s about how they fit together. Much like with the starting lineup and the team overall, it’s about the fit that you have there. You have IO and P will that can defend. You have IO as well who can score. You have IO Trey and Kevin Hurder that can all score. You have Zack Collins who plays solid functional big man defense and just a a a tough big man style game. Right. Um the Bulls right now are ninth in pace in the league. Ninth in pace. Not number one like they were last year, but ninth in pace. And when you have a team that can go legitimately 10 or 11 deep, Julian Phillips has given the Bulls some really good minutes. Jaylen Smith had one good game, two bad games. We’ll see how that goes for him over the course of the season. But the Bulls depth is this Bulls team can legitimately go 10 or 11 players deep every single night. What does that do? A, that allows you to play your pace without worrying about wearing players down. B, hopefully that’s going to help you keep players more healthy as the season goes on. And the Bulls have legitimately used their depth to wear teams down so far through the first three games of the season. While also being ninth in pace, the Bulls are now sixth in defensive rating. We were number one in defensive rating coming into last night’s game, but when you give up over 120 points, guess what? Your defensive rating is going to drop quite considerably, especially when it’s only three games in the season. So what we’re seeing from this team is pace, the depth, defense, physicality, all these things are playing off to be a weapon for this Bulls team. And as long as that continues, this team is going to be in a lot of games. How many of those games are going to win? Are they going to win? We’ll see, right? We we shall see how many of those games they’re going to win. But a lot of things are coming down the wire here. And this Bulls team is looking really good as it stands right now. Now, with that said, you guys know, and I know there’s going to be what when Bulls are on winning streaks, people don’t like to hear the bad things no matter how how real it is. But we got to get into some of the negatives. I have a couple of concerns for this Bulls team. One being turnovers, right? The Bulls are averaging 17 and a half turnovers per game. That’s pretty bad. The Bulls are also giving up a lot of fast break points and points off turnovers. So, kind of I think all those things go hand in hand. you get those turnovers down and then I think the the other things start start coming along with it, right? Like you’re not giving up as many transition points if you’re not turning off turning the ball over as much. You’re not giving up as many fast break points if you’re not turning turning the ball over as much, right? So those things kind of go hand in hand and I want to see the Bulls really tighten up on those turnovers. If they can do that, I think a lot of things get better and easier. and the Bulls defense, which the defensive rating is already one of the best in the NBA. I think that that can improve quite drastically if you then start looking at, you know, where things can improve for this team. Like like it it gets better if you’re not if you’re not giving up turnovers and then the other team is getting easy points, right? So, I think that that’s something to look at for as it stands right now. The Bulls are sixth in net rating in the NBA, second in assist percentage, 28th in turnover percentage. That’s why we got to get that together. seventh in rebounding percentage, which is excellent overall, right? We are really good rebounding team offensively and defensively. We are in top half of the league in both those offense and defensive rebounding percentage. Not the number, but the percentage, right? Uh 13 in in true shooting percentage. And so the Bulls have some things that are really working for them. We’re also in at in 14th in the top half of the league at free throw rate, which is something that we talked about coming into the season. We wanted to see the team do a little bit more of. So, those are really good things, but turnovers are still a weakness for this team. We got to get that tightened up. And then this, I will admit, this is kind of a concern right now because of seeing what Chris Stops did last night. Um, skilled bigs, right? Like Jaylen Duran didn’t really do much against the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls played pretty well against Jaylen Duran. Uh, even despite my concern coming into that game over, you know, how Jaylen Duran would would cook Nicolus. Um, but the Bulls have done, I guess, an okay job at guarding bigs. window Carter didn’t really go off against the Chicago Bulls at all, but those skilled bigs that can do a lot of different things, I’m a little bit worried about those guys and how the Bulls are going to defend those guys because Nicola isn’t as always good about that. Now, I will say that as much as it’s it’s a concern in the fourth quarter, Nicolus played some of his most inspired big man defense that I’ve seen in a while from Vu. So, I got to give him credit for that part of it, right? Um, but those are the two of the things, a few of the things that I’m really looking for this team to kind of tighten up on. tighten up on those turnovers. Tighten up on the fast break point points allowed. Tighten up on those things. The big man defense. I think it’ll get better when Zack Collins is back. No doubt about it. Right. Uh Jaylen Smith is just he’s such a Mitch bag. Like when he’s on Jaylen Smith is going to play when he’s playing with a rhythm. I think we’re going to see some good Jaylen Smith games. Make no mistake about it. I’m not saying that it’s going to be like just all bad for Jaylen Smith, but it’s been a lot of bad for Jaylen Smith through three games with one game of him looking excellent, right? So, you know, we’ll see. Maybe he bounces back next game. We’re going to need the depth against the Sacramento Kings. But, you know, we’ll see what how that’s going to be. But overall, this team has a lot of things that are going right for them and a lot of things that feel very, very sustainable, which gets us to the last topic. I’ve seen a lot of people ask, what’s going to happen when Kobe White comes back? Is he going to start? Is he going to come off the bench? And while I have said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe a couple of games are coming off the bench just because you’re coming back from injury, not because you’re slated to be off the bench going forward, but Kobe White is going to be a starter when he returns, despite how good Trey Jones has played. And make no mistake, Trey Jones has been playing excellently, right? Trey Jones will move back to the bench when Kobe White comes back. No. And for everybody trying to get Q saying, “Well, move Josh Giddy to the three.” Josh Giddy is not a small forward. If you haven’t learned anything from what happened in OKC, Josh Giddy is not a small forward. He’s not a point forward either. He’s a big jumbo point guard. That’s what he is. He’s better at defense when he’s playing point guard. He’s better at on ball defense when he’s playing point guard. Pick and roll defense is a problem regardless. Josh Giddy is a point guard. Get over it. That’s his position. His height does not it does not and anything the height gives him actually an advantage playing at point guard because he’s able to see over most his defenders and still survey the field the the court better. Right. So no, Josh Giddy is not a forward. He’s not going to move to the small forward. He is a point guard. And when when Kobe White comes back, that’s where he’s gonna at at you know, Kobe’s going to be the shooting guard. Trey’s going to move back to the bench, but there’s still going to be minutes there for Trey uh Trey Jones. Trey Jones has been too good for the Chicago Bulls for him to phase out of the rotation. And you’re still going to see some lineups where Kobe Giddy and Trey are out there. Trey Jones is going to be out there, but overall, you’re still looking at it’s still going to come down to uh Kobe White’s going to be the starter. And I I’ve seen I see the vision and how this team can that the offense can take it even a step further once Kobe White comes back. We’re towards the bottom of the league in offensive rating right now. That’s going to change quite considerably when Kobe comes back. Now the defensive rating, we got to work. We got to look at that, right? And and Kobe’s going to have to understand how to come back. And the way that I see Kobe coming back as well, and Kev asked me this on the live call, which I think was an amazing question, is that Kobe’s gonna have to understand how to pick his spots, right? meaning that it’s not going to be every quarter Kobe White’s going to get eight shots. It’s just not going to be that. That’s not the way that that this team is going to play the best. Kobe’s going to have to understand, hey, uh, you know, Giddy has it going, let me let me get the ball to Giddy. Modus has it going. Let me facilitate to Modus. He’s going to have to recognize those things, but he’s also going to have to recognize, all right, as things are starting to slow down, we haven’t had a bucket in the last couple possessions. Now, it’s my time. I’m about to get us a bucket, and we’re about to get the momentum back, and then we’re going to go back into our offense. That’s what I would really love to see be the next step and the next phase for Kobe White once he comes back into this team is understanding the es and flows and when his spots when it’s time for him to go on the runs and when it’s time for him to be you know just a facilitator at times with his ability to drive and that’s really what Trey Jones who’s leading this team in assists right now has been doing is creating off drives which is also how Kobe White creates. So that’s just a thing that I wanted to look at is that Kobe White will still be the starting shooting guard. No, they’re not going to try to get cute with the lineups. That’s just going to be the thing. And we’re going to figure it out. We’re going to figure it out. But I’d say this, I love being in this place where it’s like, hey, do we have enough minutes for all these guys? And less than, hey, why are we playing this guy? Right? That’s what it’s been the last couple of years is, hey, why is this guy in the rotation? And this year it’s going to, it seems like it’s going to be, hey, hey, do we got enough minutes to play a couple of more of these Right? And that’s what you love to see. And hopefully that continues as well for this team. But hey, as things stand right now, this has been a great start and an exciting start to the season for the Chicago Bulls. Now, we just got to see what are the next steps and how we continue to refine this. And looking at the rest of the week ahead, the Bulls have three more games going down this week. If you count Sunday as part of this week, some people look at it as as starting off the next week. But Sacramento, two games against New York coming up. And those games against New York are going to be tough. The Sacramento Kings game is going to be tough as well. Do not overlook the Kings. Don’t overlook anybody. But hey, this Bulls team is fun to watch, man. And um I’m glad we’re where we stand right now. But let me know what you guys think on all of that down below. Make sure you guys are following us at Bull Central Pod. You can send us any feedback, questions, comments, concerns, bull [email protected]. Lastly, if you want to leave a text message and our voicemail for the mailbag, the number to do so 773-270-2799. And we are the number one spot for everything Chicago Bulls related. But that is thanks to you lovely and beautiful people. And like I like to end every episode on go Bulls. Love you guys. See you right if you can y’all. Peace. This has been a presentation of the break media.

The Chicago Bulls are off to a 3-0 start — their best in years — and they’re doing it with team basketball, elite defense, and unselfish offense.

Haize breaks down how Billy Donovan’s system has the Bulls thriving without a single dominant scorer. With six players averaging double-figures, balanced shot distribution, and one of the best bench units in basketball, this team looks dangerously complete.

Plus:

🔹 Why Tre Jones, Ayo Dosunmu, and Josh Giddey have been perfect fits
🔹 The Bulls’ defensive rise (6th in rating, 9th in pace)
🔹 What’s still holding them back — turnovers and guarding elite bigs
🔹 Why Coby White will still be the starter when he returns

Could this be the most balanced Bulls team since the early 2010s?

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