{"id":522444,"date":"2026-01-07T12:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522444\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T12:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:09:12","slug":"chicago-bulls-are-missing-their-double-big-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522444\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls are missing their double-big lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, going big is better.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been a new trick for the Chicago Bulls this season. Small ball wasn\u2019t cutting it. So when the season got tough, the Bulls got tougher by playing two centers at the same time, rolling out a more extensive look at a type of rotation that coach Billy Donovan has tinkered with for years.<\/p>\n

The trend hit a snag when both Zach Collins (toe sprain) and Jalen Smith (concussion) were sidelined this week. And losing these two-center rotations has only taught the Bulls just how much they\u2019ve come to cherish their bigs.<\/p>\n

The Bulls like their two-big look. A lot. It provides a fix to many of the team\u2019s weaknesses, namely their lack of rim protection and their inefficiency in rebounding the ball. For instance, the Bulls gobble up 83.3% of their defensive rebounds with Smith and Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 on the floor \u2014 a steep increase from their season average of 71.5%.<\/p>\n

But while the Bulls regularly voice a soft spot for these rotations, in reality, they haven\u2019t played all that much basketball with two bigs on the court. So far this season, they played a total of 170 minutes with two centers on the court \u2014 90 with Smith and Vu\u010devi\u0107, 71 with Smith and Collins, and only nine minutes pairing Vu\u010devi\u0107 and Collins together.<\/p>\n

After the Bulls prioritized a guard-heavy roster for the past two seasons, the frontcourt voiced support for the increased focus on pairing big men together.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Bulls center Zach Collins makes a layup in the first quarter during a game against the Philadelphia 76ers\u00a0on Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, at the United Center in Chicago. (Dominic Di Palermo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe position is still evolving where you have to do a lot on the floor, but I grew up a big so it\u2019s good to see how relevant they are and actually being in the game when it\u2019s time to win,\u201d Collins told reporters in December. \u2018\u2018I remember when I got to the league, in late-game situations the bigs rarely would stay in. There are still some teams like that now, but it\u2019s good to see.<\/p>\n

The Bulls began leaning into this rotation when they figured out how to make it work. It doesn\u2019t make sense to simply throw two centers on the low blocks and clog up the paint. The preference is to utilize Smith at the four, which is why he has played the bulk of these two-big minutes.<\/p>\n

This has been a welcome adjustment for Smith, who was practically played out of his minutes after Collins joined the team via trade at the deadline last February. Smith was a healthy scratch for 13 of the last 26 games of the 2025-26 season. He somewhat regained his footing in the rotation this season purely due to Collins\u2019 absence \u2014 a 21-game hiatus due to preseason wrist surgery \u2014 but dropped out of the rotation once again when his fellow center returned.<\/p>\n

But opting for two-big rotations gave Smith a second chance to carve out a role for himself in the Bulls\u2019 rotation. At 6-foot-8, Smith can be slightly undersized to defend opposing fives, but sliding in next to another center allows him to create more spacing and show off his 3-point shooting (36% on the season). He averaged 11 points and 9.6 rebounds in his last five games before his concussion.<\/p>\n

Playing Smith with another center helped the Bulls apply even more pressure on the rim, where they take and make the second-most shots in the league. Scoring in the paint doesn\u2019t necessarily require hefty output from the centers \u2014 after all, wings and guards like Coby White, Matas Buzelis<\/a> and Josh Giddey are also at their best when more than half of their points are being scored at the rim. But it will be difficult for the Bulls to get back to this strong suit until their centers return.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s loss to the Boston Celtics<\/a> highlighted the despair in the state of the current Bulls backcourt. The Celtics pounded the paint with Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, a pair of bruising bigs who can still force the issue from 3-point range despite their lumbering dispositions.<\/p>\n

The Bulls, in turn, called up Lachlan Olbrich from the G League to back up Vu\u010devi\u0107 down low. An undersized rookie on a two-way contract, Olbrich couldn\u2019t do much more than bang bodies with Garza in the paint, finishing without a single point.<\/p>\n

\"BullsChicago Bulls forward Jalen Smith dunks over Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero in the first quarter at the United Center on Jan. 2, 2026, in Chicago. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Uncertainty clouds the future for both Collins and Smith. Donovan couldn\u2019t offer a clear-cut timeline for either player\u2019s recovery. Collins will be reassessed later this week, at which point he will optimistically be cleared for a ramp-up procedure barring further pain. But Smith is in a more complicated situation under the league\u2019s concussion protocol.<\/p>\n

Donovan noted that NBA medical staffs now steer away from the grade designations \u2014 i.e. Grade 1, Grade 2 \u2014 previously utilized to assess the severity of a concussion. This means the team does not have specific information to communicate the expected longevity of a player\u2019s return process. On Monday, Smith had not yet begun to clear the tests necessary to return to the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how long it will take,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cA lot of this can be predicated on the symptoms of how he\u2019s doing and that\u2019s going to be up to the medical guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sooner is also better for the Bulls, who could use reinforcements \u2014 and a new spark \u2014 as they sink back below .500 during another string of injuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, going big is better. That\u2019s been a new trick for the Chicago Bulls this season. Small ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,3363,920,919,329,3824,2291,6,446,3853,4104],"class_list":{"0":"post-522444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-billy-donovan","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-jalen-smith","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-basketball","17":"tag-nikola-vucevic","18":"tag-zach-collins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115853745484037217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}