The Fastbreak: Bulls season opener, Coby White injury, Matas Buzelis stock and defensive rotations

The Fastbreak: Bulls season opener, Coby White injury, Matas Buzelis stock and defensive rotations

What’s up everybody? Welcome in to another edition of the fast break. We are presented by Dunkin Donuts. I am Casey Johnson and yes, we have finally arrived at NBA opening week and here are the four story lines I’m going to be most closely monitoring about the Bulls this week. Number one, the team’s depth. It’s going to be tested early and in a way that the Bulls did not want or envision. And yes, by now surely you know that Kobe White has been sidelined for at least two weeks with that calf strain. He tried to ramp up in practice Saturday. Took contact for the first time since early August. Did not come out of that well. Experienced some tightness with that calf. So he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. That means he’s going to be sitting out a little bit and miss at least four or five games. And look, one thing that Kobe White and the Bulls are both in lock step on is they’re taking the big picture view with this injury, not only because of how important he is to the team’s uh fortunes, but also because Kobe White is in a contract year. We all know how tricky calf strains can be. We all know unfortunately the worst end outcome of that leading to potentially some Achilles issues. So Kobe and the Bulls are going to be smart, but this is not where they expected to land. In fact, all preseason, all you heard from Billy Donovan was that Kobe White was projecting to be ready by the season opener. So, there’s a significant piece missing. Another significant piece missing, whether he projected as a starter or not, was Zack Collins. He’s obviously out with that displaced fracture in his wrist after taking a charge from Julius Randall. And look, this is a blow to the Bulls depth and also their commitment to this new style of play. They want to be more physical. They want to have more rim protection. They want to be in yourrface defensively. Zack Collins was projecting to play a big role for the Bulls. And you know, he’s going to be re-evaluated in four weeks, so it’s not a long-term situation, but again, both of these injuries are a blow to the team’s depth. And that’s all we’ve heard touted uh during the preseason was how deep the Bulls are. You’re going to see it pretty quickly. There’s some minor injuries the Bulls are nursing, too, as we head into the regular season opener. nothing you ever like to see. I would assume is nursing nursing a thumb injury and Patrick Williams has got some lingering impact of a groin situation. So again, this is about the team using 10 11 players. You’re going to see different starters out there. In fact, Billy Donovan has talked about the starting lineup being matchup dependent at times and that is very very unconventional. So, we’re going to see how it plays out starting Wednesday and then obviously again on Saturday in Orlando. All right, second story line I am monitoring. Can Noolovic switch or I’m sorry, flip his switch. He had an extremely slow preseason. Let’s go through some numbers. They’re painful. In four games, he shot 34% from the field, 15% from three-point range. Now, he did average 8.8 rebounds. He’s obviously always going to be impactful on the glass and 2.5 assists kind of low for him and also that those were offset by 2.5 turnovers. This is just preseason basketball. So, let’s keep this in perspective. And Noolic is coming off an impressive run for Montenegro in Eurob Basket where he averaged 20.8 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 4.4 assists. He also shot 56% both from the field and from three-point range at Euro Basket. Now, the three-point line is a little bit shorter in in Euro Basket, but still, that’s some serious shooting. And we all also know that uh Nolvich is coming off his best season as a bull in his last three seasons. But that preseason play cannot be overlooked. It was um you know obviously a veteran easing his way into the season but he did not play to his standards and with Zack Collins out for the short term with that wrist fracture Vu is going to be leaned on to play a significant role. Uh Jaylen Smith did start that last preseason game alongside Nicole Vuchovic in a double big look that Billy Donovan wanted to try, but Vu is going to be the main man in the middle and he needs to step it up. He knows this. The Bulls know this and more often than not, Noolic has responded when challenged. But also, let’s zoom out and look at big picture for Nicole Vuvich. We all know that he expected or at least thought there was a chance he was going to be traded at the deadline last February, and he’s made it clear he wants to finish his career competing for a championship. That’s not going to happen this season. Now, to his credit, he leaned into the Bulls offensive organizational philosophy. switched last year, played fast and had his best year as a bull. He also talked multiple times about how the team’s youth kind of re-energized him. So again, more often than not, when the bell rings, Nicole Vuch is there to answer it, but he needs to play better than he did in the preseason. All right, number three. Who’s guarding Kade Cunningham on Wednesday? And this leads to a larger point I want to explore. It goes back to what I was talking about earlier where Billy Donovan has talked about the starting lineup potentially being uh in flux all season and changing um and that being matchup dependent. But we would project that Isaac Aoro who has the ability to guard one through four uh would probably be on Kate Cunningham and the Bulls would probably hide Josh Giddy on a wing potentially Tobias Harris. Uh, but this is again a larger point here because then you turn around on Saturday against the Orlando Magic and who’s the Magic’s best player? Well, it’s probably France Vagner. So, you got to put Isaac Aoro on him. And then you’ve got Josh Giddy on Jaylen Suggs. I mean, these are going to be seasonl long questions and it ties into the Bulls desire to be a better defensive team and it’s going to need a group effort because you do not have a lot of star one-on-one individual defenders projected in that starting lineup. Let’s assume that Kobe White at some point joins that starting lineup. You’ve got a possible starting lineup, your main starting lineup of Josh Giddy, Kobe White, Isaac Aoro, Manis Buselis, and Nicole Lvuchovic. Of those five, only Isaac Aoro would immediately be placed as a positive defender in terms of one-on-one matchups from that group. And this again speaks to Billy Donovan’s assertion that he may be using starting lineups dependent on matchups. This is very, very unconventional and it sounds good in theory, but I’m going to be really curious how it plays out in practice because uh players typically thrive on routine and rhythm and knowing their roles. And if those roles are always going to be changing in terms of maybe starting, maybe coming off the bench, maybe playing 34 minutes, maybe playing 26 to 28 minutes, that’s going to take a certain amount of sacrifice. You heard that word a lot from Billy Donovan throughout the preseason. And ultimately, this can be a positive because, as I mentioned before, the Bulls have quite a bit of depth. But it really raises a question like who’s going to be the swing starter? Uh because you know Josh Giddy is coming off signing that four-year $100 million deal. He’s going to be out there. Kobe’s your most accomplished player and he’s in a contract year. When he’s healthy, he’s going to be out there. Modus Bisellis is your face of the future. He’s going to be out there. And then Nicole Vuch is that proud veteran um with all-star appearances in his past. So he’s probably going to be out there. It probably says to me that Isaac Aoro may be that swing starter. And as he saw in that last preseason game, um, you know, Billy Donovan went with Jaylen Smith and Nicole Vuvich in that double big lineup to match up against Julius Randall and Rudy Goar from the Timberwolves. And maybe in those looks, Modis Bisella slides to the three in the future. This is all TBD, but again, it speaks to the bigger picture of Billy Donovan taking a very unconventional approach with that starting lineup because more often than not, teams, especially teams that have most of their returning players from the previous season, lock in to the same five starters. That does not seem to be the case for the Bulls this season. All right, fourth uh topic. He should just have a standing spot in our fast break weekly. It is Modis Boozelis again. Um, man, this guy wants to be great. He had five blocks in the next to last preseason game in Denver. And I talked to him about that and he said he didn’t think he played well defensively because he’s good off the ball, but he needs to get better on the ball in terms of his physicality, getting into screens earlier. And along those lines, the day after that game in Denver, I attended the team’s morning shootaround and Manis Bazellis was getting coached up by not one, not two, but three assistant coaches uh who were showing him clips. And at one point, assistant coach Dan Craig actually got up and was putting an elbow in Modis Bazellis’s back. And Manis wants all of it. He wants to be coached hard. He has said he wants to be coached as an alldefensive team player. He has high hopes for himself at that end, and he is specifically pointing to being more physical on the ball, getting into screens earlier. We all saw last year his uh weak side awareness and ability to block shots from the weak side is very advanced for someone of his age, but he really really needs to step it up defensively on the ball. And along those lines, he’s going to be uh entrusted with quite a bit more defensive responsibility this season. You already saw in the preseason both Giannis, he was matched up against both Giannis and Joic at certain times. Those are pretty high-profile assignments. He’s going to be playing uh some players that are more physical and bigger than him uh at times from that four spot as a full-time starter. And along those lines, he obviously tried to get stronger in the off season. I asked him if he feels stronger out on the court. He obviously looks bigger, but does he feel stronger while he’s playing? He said he does. and he said that’s gonna, you know, serve him for the long haul of an 82 game season. But man, this guy’s got the swag. He’s publicly stated some pretty lofty goals in terms of wanting to be the most improved player and wanting to be coached as an alldefensive team member. Um, offensively, he was probably, you know, if not Iodumu, who missed that last preseason game, he was in the conversation for the best offensive player during the preseason. Um, looks to be potentially a three-level score. he did get to the line a little bit more uh in the preseason and he also had some catch uh three catch and shoot three-pointers in transition that I had never seen before. He said it’s something he worked on in the off season. So there’s a lot to dig into and like if you are Modus Balis and Bulls fan and obviously you need to see that translate from the preseason to the regular season. Modis Buzzelis and the Bulls get that first opportunity this week. The Wednesday home opener against the Detroit Pistons here at the United Center. Saturday, a very, very tough road test against an Orlando Magic team that I think could surprise some people in terms of contending for the Eastern Conference Championship if they stay healthy. So, the games are coming. We’re finally ready for some regular season basketball. And uh we appreciate you checking us out here on the fast break. We’ll catch you next time.

K.C. Johnson gets you ready for the Bulls season opener with updates from around the team ahead of Bulls vs. Pistons on Wednesday night.

With injury updates, team strategy and tracking player development, K.C. uses his insight to keep you the most informed Bulls fan.

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