PRESS CONFERENCES: Billy Donovan & Coby White KNOW the Only Way Is Up for the Chicago Bulls

PRESS CONFERENCES: Billy Donovan & Coby White KNOW the Only Way Is Up for the Chicago Bulls

Yeah, I mean a few I think the you know we we cross matched a little bit and put you know um just a switching person on the huff because I thought you heard us the first game you know from behind three and then you know some of our coverages without question you know were blown especially in some switches in in some reds that that was a little bit of an issue. Um, yeah, we needed to be cleaner and better in those areas. No question. And talking about getting to the rim, you shot a pretty something you can do to coach that. How does that improve? Yeah. You know, I’m pointing out to guys. Yeah. Yeah. And I and I and I think that, you know, for me, we’ve got to play, you know, basketball in a way that you get rewarded playing the right way, you know, and, you know, we talked a lot about, you know, when you get there, it’s a great thing. We get there a lot. We do a really good job of getting there, but a lot of times we’re, you know, fundamentally, and we talk a lot about this, playing off of two feet and making the right decisions and those early pickups. And you know, until we change some of that, we we got to play, you know, more. Uh we need everybody to help each other, you know, now through a closeout because, you know, we get to the paint real well, we generate closeouts, and I think we’re been number one in the league in generating uncontested threes. You know, we have to do that. That’s that to me, that’s a collective five guys working together. But we got too much standing and guys just try to put their head down and go one-on-one and that’s not a good formula for us. you know, we’ve got to play more the right way, I think. And um I think we’ve shown a way to do that. We’ve gotten away from that. I now give give Indiana credit. I thought their physicality, the point of the screen, our ball handlers really struggled tonight to to handle the basketball and to make some of those plays. That’s why even more you have to utilize each other more and move the ball and make decisions when they do collapse into the paint. We did it sometimes. We had some really good sprayouts and we generated some threes, which was good. But to your point, those finishes at the rim are the ones we’ve got to do a better job making a decision on. It’s still at this point like a 62% shot for us. But the shot that’s in the lane, that’s a 44% shot for us. So even though we’re 29th in the league in terms of finishing at the rim, that’s way better than shooting 44%. Right. So there are some ones that we need to spray out. We need to be better in those areas. Billy, you brought up the isolation. How much how much of that do you think is guys just aren’t familiar with each other just not that fluid rhythm of playing with one another so the attitude becomes I don’t know where this guy’s going to be all the time or I don’t trust where this guy’s going to be so screw it. Yeah. No, I think there is some of that. No question. I don’t and I don’t think when I say not play I don’t think it comes from like a bad place like I want to get mine. I think it’s more like we just necessarily don’t have necessarily sometimes a lot of playmakers so to speak out there because of the injuries with some of our backcourt players which is fine but we’ve got to more collectively move and help each other off the ball and I think when we stand and watch and it’s not only the ball hands the guys on the court too have got a space and move as well and there’s no question there are guys that are in roles right now that they’re probably not accustomed to being in and there are guys handling the basketball that are probably not as accustomed to handling it, but we we let too much stuff get blown up tonight where we couldn’t even get open. I mean, or get the ball in bounds or dribble the ball up against pressure. Like, we got to get better at that. Um, but I do think that, you know, certainly there’s been a huge responsibility on Josh, you know, and with with IO being out and Trey out and Kevin out, you know, you got a limited ball handlers and you’re trying to stagger him and Kobe and dealing with Kobe with a minute restriction. It just is what it is. But we’ve we’ve got to utilize each other better than than we do, you know, and we can still generate better shots. And I think we’re generating. And I do do agree this. It’s great that we’re going, but we don’t have to shoot it. We can still stop and spray it out and generate, you know, like if a guy like Julian Phillips is not going to play really off the dribble a lot, I feel pretty good about him shooting corner threes and catch and shoot threes, he’s been pretty good at that. You know, Patrick Williams, the same thing. So, we got to be able to generate shots for each other. Some of it’s moving off the ball. Some of it’s when you get downhill making the right decision. You know, some of it is moving correctly when Vu gets the ball in the post and giving him an outlet. We had a couple inside out threes. It’s it’s just really everything that we’ve got to we got to clean up and be better. And some of it we haven’t practiced quite honestly uh with the guys that are being out, which is fine, but we got to I to me the one thing we have talked a lot about has been at the rim. Can we make better decisions? because right now we have more we we get more shots blocked than uh I think there’s only one of the team in the league that gets more shots blocked than we do at the rim. We just got to make better decisions in those spots of the floor, you know. And some of it is when you leave the floor early and you pick up the ball at the free throw line and you’re going off of one leg and you get there and it’s like, uh oh, I don’t think I can really get, you know, and now you’re trying to make a decision. It becomes hard. Yeah. Well, I I think it was a couple things. I think one was, you know, we had a really really just calling like we had really hard time handling the basketball against the pressure. We just did um you know, getting it across half court at times, getting it inbounded at times. I thought that was a major problem. I thought even just passing the ball guys, we were denied in certain situations and we were trying to back cut, but we couldn’t like sometimes break free. That was a challenge. I do think some of the decision- making in the lane, you know, was an issue. Those those two things probably stood out the most to me. How do you help the team get through those situations? Yeah, I mean, one of it is, you know, you come back and set some high screens for him, you know. Two, you have to have maybe some other guys initiate the offense like a Dalen or a Javon, you know, based on who’s guarding who. I mean, Nemhard’s a really good defender. You know, we’ve got to utilize different different handlers, so to speak. And that’s why I was saying before, it can’t all fall on Josh. You know, if they’re going to send two guys on every inbound pass to prevent it from getting it, sometimes somebody’s got to bring the ball up the court and that guy’s got to be able to bring the ball up against court against pressure and maybe initiate, you know, some kind of actions. Um, but, you know, when he’s off the floor and Kobe’s out there, it can’t all fall on him either. You know, I think we’ve got to do a better job quite honestly of finding Booch, you know, and like Uch got the ball several times in the post and he’s very very unselfish. He’ll spray it out and he’ll pass it. It generated some shots for us. We’ve got to generate shots collectively. We’re not going to do what they did and throw the ball to Siaka and let him take step backs and we just that’s not us. We can’t play that way. And uh we’re going to have to utilize and rely on each other. We’ve shown doing it. I think to Joe’s point, there’s probably a lot of guys in different roles and different responsibilities that we’ll have to work through. Uh, but I think for us, the the the sum has got to be greater than the parts. What you see from in terms of driving? Yeah, like I think he did a lot of really good things. The one thing that was encouraging was the backboard. You know, he got to the re got on the glass a little bit. I think the free throw line was good, you know, and and I do think as a young player him getting there this, you know, he’s he can also make some decisions too of when to spray it, you know, and when to go up and and finish it. Um, but overall, I like the way he tried to attack. I thought some of his turnovers came from not reading early enough the shifts. There’s times where he’s trying to drive and there’s three guys there. Just do that, you know, and it gets it into the next action. And certainly we want to attack downhill, but we got to recognize when the floor is loaded up like that, it’s hard to get to the rim sometimes. And they’re screaming on the bench, get back and load up. And we’re saying the same thing about them. So, you know, I did think he did some really, really good things tonight. And and and you know, to your point, got fouled uh going to the rim, but I also thought the six turnovers, you know, the decision-m’s got to be better, too. And I think maybe Josh had five. I mean, that was 11 of whatever the 18 between the two of them, and those are two of your primary ball handers. We got to be better there. Uh whatever we do, we got to do it together. Uh the most important thing is I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen a lot of different situations. I’ve been a lot of different scenarios. Um the most important thing is we can’t start pointing fingers or nothing like that. We are I’m not saying by any means we’ve done that, right? But you know, we’re all human. So for us, we got to the most important thing for me right now is we got to stick together. It’s still a long We got 60 I don’t know how many games left. It’s still a very long season. Um, like I said, I’ve been through the ups and downs here for seven years now. So, the most important thing is we stick together through this. Um, the season always going to be filled with adversity. Um, so we got a chance to to change the narrative. Um, right now, uh, so the most important thing for me is is we we don’t let go of the rope and we do this thing together. Do you feel this thing is easily fixable or is it going to take some more? Nothing in the league is easily fixable. We’re playing against the best competition every night, the best players in the world. So, for us, we going to have to put in the effort. We going to have to fight and claw our way back to where we want to get to. Uh, but I believe we can. Um, like I said, we’re a close group. Um, we got a lot of great relationships on this team. Uh, so for us, uh, we just got to continue to have the honest conversations we having with each other. Um, and continue to grow. Um, it’s going to take, you know, it’s going to take all of us and it’s going to take a ton of spirit, a ton of heart. Uh, but it is fixable, which is the most important thing. in those in those honest conversations you mentioned, what are some of the problem areas you guys are? No, just just, you know, we have lapses tonight, beginning, you know, we fought in the first half. Um, third quarter, we had a little bit of slippage and they went on that run and now we clawing our way back, clawing our way back instead of, you know, letting it be a snowball effect, you know, um, we hold each other accountable in terms of, you know, one or two mistakes. All right, now we got to refocus and lock back in. Uh, so I think and you know we had those honest conversations tonight on the bench during timeouts and you know everything ain’t going to always go to you can have the conversations and you can be hold each other accountable and stuff still can go bad. It still can not go the way you want it to but that’s a step in the right direction is is holding each other accountable and having those conversations. And then just the you look at the stretch this these past six or seven games from the outside it looked like this is sort of a stretch that you guys could use to sort of buff your playoffs and obviously you guys lost like four or five lottery teams in that stretch. I guess how are you guys viewing the trajectory of this team after the stretch? You feel like you’re a playoff team? Like how are you guys talking? Yeah, I feel I feel like we still got a chance to make a run. Like I always say, we got a lot of season left. Uh, and in this league, I’ve been in this league for a couple years now, like lottery team or not, everybody talented, bro. Like, everybody here is here for a reason, you know? Everybody here, you know, they got, even though they ain’t winning the way they want to win, they got championship DNA. They got a Pascal Kamana ring. Like, they got really good players over there. And they have a Hall of Fame coach and Rick Carile. So, you know, they ain’t no bad team. They just went to the finals last year. Yeah. They missing a couple pieces. They start off the year. They had a bunch of injuries and they, you know, they obviously was in the hole. But they’re a really good team. So I don’t view every team like, oh, this just because of their record. Like everybody here, the best players in the world, everybody here want to win. Like players don’t go in games thinking, oh, we want to lose tonight. You know, everybody’s talented. Could be. Aside from the results, losses, the team style of play seems very different now compared to the way it was the first two or three weeks of the season. Much more talked about a little bit, much more isolation play. uh opposed to you know moving wall transition the kind of things you talked about. What did you see you know that occurring you know and is there a message in that? Is it just you know sort of desperation guys want to do it themselves because they’re falling behind or what do you see in the change of style? Uh I mean obviously yeah I would agree that it the the off especially the offense have taken a step back in terms of body movement, player movement. Um I honestly think too um teams start to adjust. you know, you get more film, it start to adjust. Uh, so for us, we got to take it as players to figure out ways to to be better at it. And then the coaches give us the formula, but we just got to go out there and execute it. Um, like we played numerous teams who switch one through five. And most of the time when teams play that, they want to slow you down in transition. They want to slow you down in the half court. Uh, some teams like tonight, Indiana, you know, compared to the other teams we’ve been playing, they were sending all five to the glass. Tonight I feel like Indiana was they was going but they was running through the elbows. So they was focus more focused on getting back in transition. So for us we got to figure out ways how can we be take advantage of everything they doing and reading the game in real time you know like tonight they wasn’t switching off ball. So for us like we got to get like a night like tonight we probably got to get some more offball actions you know and that’s that’s on us to read that and and figure out ways that we can be effective as a team. Do you feel like there’s any kind of what you said about lacking some of that movement? No, I I I think we just got to continue to learn. You know, we we we we watch the film from this tomorrow, continue to grow from it, and continue to have the conversations we need to have. Uh but uh like I said, everybody on this team is unselfish and that we all have the want to do the right thing. We don’t nobody on this team has a selfish bone in their body and I wouldn’t want to share the court with anybody else in this world, but with the guys in this locker room. Um, but you know, like I said, we got to learn from it and and the things that we’re seeing as players, we got to voice that too as well. And it’s not just on the coaches, it’s on us, too, cuz we the ones out there playing. So, we got to figure out ways how everybody we can use everybody to be effective because the way our team is is is is shake. Everybody has to contribute. Like, we got to involve everybody. Kobe, is this group are you guys able to have those tough conversations with each other? Have you started having them? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. were able, like I said, because of the what we built during the summer. It started during the summer and and we’ve we’ve have been able to have those tough conversations and like I said, having one tough conversation, having two tough conversations, the the switch might not flip. That ain’t how life work. You know what I’m saying? So, it it’s still basketball at the end of the day. There’s swings and stuff that you have to work on, but I think it’s a step, like I said, in that right direction of being able to talk to someone, them talk to you back, and both of you guys hold each other accountable. I do. kind of nobody obviously you know we had a good start and nobody expected you know five you know that to continue but are you surprised that it’s come to this from that you know from that high to this low this last couple of weeks early couple of weeks is such a diversion no obviously it’s frustration there because you want everybody everybody in this room this locker room wants to win obviously it’s frustration there but it’s part of the it’s part of being in the best league in the world you know it it This this to me is how you build character, how you find out, you know, who you really are. So, are we going to let go of the rope? Are we going, you know, start pointing fingers or which I think what we’re going to do is come together and figure this thing out. So, for me, it’s obviously frustrating. Everybody want to win. You know, you start off six and one and you know, you going like this, but I don’t know how how y’all life go. Is it always like this or does sometimes y’all have ups and downs and flows? ebs and flows. It’s just like basketball in your career. It’s been times where you’ve been disappointed and it’s went like this and you dig yourself out and then go back up. So that’s how I mean it’s a team sport. We got to figure it out. It’s ebs and flows and everything in life and that’s what we got to do. Like right now we like this and then we’ll figure out a way to go back like that. So and then it might be another point in the season we go like this and then we go back up. Like that’s just how it eats.

Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and Guard Coby White speak following the Chicago Bulls’ loss to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA on Friday night. The Bulls have now lost 6-straight games and know the only way is up from this point omn in the season.

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