The Bulls are back on Thursday, as it doesn’t appear the NBA is moving quickly enough on their regular season problem to sim the rest of the season for a third of the teams, including the one solely occupying the Chicago market.
Games still have to be played, unfortunately. In the wake of the trade deadline, the Bulls got pummeled with their hodgepodge of 6’2” acquisitions. This lead to the stories from those covering the team about how the team is finally rebuilding, and even possibly tanking. Even if too little and too late, it was a declaration of a direction.
I’m here to remind everyone that you do not, under any circumstances, have to give Arturas Karnisovas credit.
Seeing this only has me feel I didn’t give enough shit to Arturas Karnisovas for his latest press conference. That was because it was repetitive of the same crap we’ve been hearing for years. How is it that they were interpreted as a change? It was a very changed roster, but I received little to sense it was a change in philosophy:
There’s a core (it always changes, this time it’s Giddey and Matas and a few role players plus the totally unproven Noa Essengue)
Want to acquire young players with experience
It’s of highest importance to have structure, thus why it actually wasn’t a mistake to keep Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu last year.
Head coach Billy Donovan is in charge of player development, and who he plays in the regular season is part of that process.
One of AK’s consistent axioms that he is correct on is that the trade deadline can disrupt the team. In the wake of trading Zach LaVine for three rotation players the year prior, the team got absolutely waxed in back-to-back contests against the Pistons before heading into the All-Star break.
Then we saw what happened after the break: an above-.500 stretch to end the season culminating in a 15-5 finish, that AK clearly bought into as a sign his team was progressing even though he says now that he knew they’d be mediocre…but also didn’t want to be mediocre…yet didn’t make moves before the season…
…it’s tough to discern the biggest item of bullshit that AK says in the giant pile of it. But I’ll try, and think the biggest turd is that their rebuild-don’t-call-it-that “stage” is “not skipping steps”.
Their player acquisition and roster construction philosophy is exactly what skipping steps is! The steps they are skipping include losing to improve your own pick quality, trading guys earlier, and pursuing more long-term (and riskier) assets like future firsts versus ‘youth with experience’ that need new contracts soon.
This past trade deadline they didn’t even fully commit to that!
I don’t think they actually wanted Anfernee Simons and Collin Sexton but they were the contracts that were required. And they aren’t “good at their jobs” so didn’t flip them before deadline hour
The best confluence of youth/experience resides within Rob Dillingham, who just turned 21 and is in his only second season
Jaden Ivey is 2 years younger than Coby/Ayo, which isn’t nothing, but there is no commitment: they only gave up Kevin Huerter to acquire him, and his free agent market is likely so light plus Qualifying Offer (and cap hold) is so high that they may waive their matching rights and/or sign him quickly to a low figure (but still risky given his injuries) new contract.
On the fringes, they acquired 22 year old Leonard Miller but sent out the same-aged Julian Phillips. Dalen Terry (23) was traded for a veteran, and Ousmane Dieng (22) was re-routed immediately – and had two productive games for the Bucks already – for another veteran.
Simply needing bodies, they signed Mac McClung, a 27-year-old guard, to a 2-way contract. The bodies are back, and he’s still around for some reason.
The Bulls – and this is Donovan and his bosses – have a philosophy of player development where they emphasize structure over opportunity. So while it’s true that the Bulls did get younger at the deadline, they didn’t fully embrace it to use these final 27 (oh god, so many) games as a laboratory environment. Plus if the result is losing some games along the way, that’s not the worst thing.
If they were embracing a rebuild and not skipping steps, they wouldn’t state concerns about cohesion, or find it necessary to get veteran frontcourt players when they could have kept Dieng and/or sign younger players off the street to play with Lachlan Olbrich (22).
And if this was a rebuild, AK wouldn’t abdicate the playing time decisions to his head coach, a nominal subordinate. In the Bulls’ case, Billy Donovan has outsized influence, receiving only agreement and praise from AK and ownership. Part of it is a relative insecurity – well earned! – to their own acumen, but it’s important to remember also that AK doesn’t have a different philosophy than Billy, even though they should have different perspectives given their jobs. They all want to win, and as soon as possible.
Thus why we get these differing quotes regarding Dillingham. He did receive significant minutes since his arrival and has said how he appreciates the opportunity versus the contending Timberwolves, playing with freedom and not worrying too much about mistakes.
But then Donovan said not so fast(via):
The games heading into the break can be junked. What is far more significant is how Donovan will figure his playing rotation with ‘his guys’ Josh Giddey, Tre Jones, and Jalen Smith all returning to action.
Will Dillingham and Ivey even play? Miller hasn’t. The veteran bigs in Guerschon Yabusele and Nick Richards have. While there is more disruption than last year, remember how quickly Jones, Huerter, and Zach Collins made their way into Billy’s heart. I still maintain that Buzelis only played so much after the break last year because of injury. It is very possible that Simons and Sexton continue to receive minutes because Billy likes veterans and wants to do right by them (both heading into contract years) and in turn those veterans will play hard for him and maybe even win some games.
That’d be different than a rebuild, and far different from a tank. But it’d be the same old Bulls.