There have been some issues with the Bulls playing smaller this season, but for now coach Billy Donovan was focused on worrying about fixing roster issues in-house. Then again, he also knows he has a very aggressive front office that is always evaluating.
Even before Patrick Williams went down to a wrist injury that could cost the forward the regular season, Billy Donovan knew they were rolling out a smaller roster for the 2021-22 campaign.
The Bulls coach was fine with that concept, especially because he felt like the chaotic aggressiveness in which the defense would play would offset the likelihood that rebounding would be an issue. In some instances the rebounding has been a wart, especially with the Bulls checking in on Saturday 18th overall in rebounding differential (minus-1.3 per game), but not Donovan’s major concern.
What the coach was more focused on was the number of fouls being committed by his team, and was that because of the lack of size?
“It’s hard to be really, really good defensively when you’re sending teams to the free throw line,” Donovan said on Saturday. “That’s something we’re going to have to solve. Some of it is we’re going to have to be more disciplined, some of it is because of size, guys try to reach or slap when they’re in a tough spot instead of just playing vertical and make a guy make a play.
“There’s also a balance of we’re at our best defensively when we physical and we’re scrambling, we’re more active and we’re generating turnovers. You don’t want to take away our team’s aggressiveness.”
That’s why Donovan was looking at it as all in-house fixes.
At some point this season that may change, and when the vice president of basketball operations is Arturas Karnisovas it very well could.
Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley have shown patience with the roster when need be, but also shown an aggressiveness to turn weaknesses into strengths quickly. That was on full display over the summer, when the front office almost completely flipped the roster.
Donovan was asked before the game with Miami if the lack of size could lead to a fix by going outside the organization, and indicated that Karnisovas & Co. were always evaluating.
“We have not spoken about that,” Donovan said. “My guess is that Arturas, Marc, all those guys are evaluating the team every day and looking at ways that they can help our group. With Tony [Bradley] here, we’ve had times where we’ve played a little bit bigger with a back-up center, but there’s also times where matchups and who we’re going against it may be better to go a little smaller. Some of the teams we’ve played against have kind of adjusted to us and played a little bit smaller.
“I don’t know if we’ve gotten totally hurt on the backboard. I haven’t had those conversations to say, ‘Hey listen, we’re going to try and do something between now and whenever it may be.’ For me as a coach, just working with the guys we have, and those guys have been great to work with, and for the most part pretty much kept themselves ready.”
Whistle blowers
Donovan has taken a very proactive approach to getting his players to stop arguing and dwelling on deemed bad calls by the officials, and instead getting ready for the next play.
The Bulls have had some issues this season with that, and Donovan wants it to stop.
“I think in general we’ve got to be able to move to the next thing,” Donovan said. “I’ve always felt that when there’s a dead ball and free throws are being taken, if you want to walk over to an official and have a conversation that’s fine. But when the ball’s being inbounded you’ve got to move on to the next play, revisit that at another time.”
