Maybe having eight potential free agents on the same team in a walk year isn’t the best idea when it comes to roster construction.
Maybe the defensive and physicality responsibilities shouldn’t be solely put on one player.
Or maybe, just maybe, an NBA executive should take his silly sayings about “competitive integrity” and really understand how to read a room.
Either way, the Bulls (9-14) remain a broken product that has now lost seven straight games, falling to Golden State 123-91 on Sunday, and there doesn’t seem to be a quick fix anywhere in sight.
Billy Donovan has been searching, there’s no mistaking that, but until the coach can help this group get back to playing to an identity, all the film work and coachspeak feels lost.
“Listen, (the Warriors have) had guys out too, just like we have,” Donovan said. “Certainly we’ve had guys in different roles, maybe different minutes. Different starting lineups so to speak, but you want your identity to permeate through your team regardless of who is playing.”
There’s something permeating through this Bulls team, alright. It’s definitely not an identity.
“The memo on us is out,” guard Josh Giddey said after the latest defeat. “Crash the boards, get back in transition, and that’s how you stop the Bulls, and we’ve got to find ways to counteract that and be effective, so game plan-wise we get everything we need to prepare for the game, and it’s about going out and executing. We just haven’t done it.”
That was on display yet again to start the latest contest. With no Steph Curry or Draymond Green to deal with, the Bulls treated the United Center crowd to a first quarter in which they allowed 38 points, were outrebounded 11-6, and gave up 8-of-13 from the three-point line.
Groundhog Day for more than two-plus weeks, as the Bulls continue a very similar formula of starting off slow, sinking in a muddy hole, and having to try and claw and fight their way out for the remaining 36 minutes.
A tough lifestyle to live in the NBA.
So talk of identity is a tough sell these days.
“I do think for some of the guys that have been thrusted into situations where their minutes have changed, responsibilities have changed, we’ve got to be able to stay true and hold true to that (identity),” Donovan said. “That’s the thing I try to look at where, yes, you’ve got all these injuries but what about the things we can control about how we’re supposed to play and how we need to be able to play? Some of the things that have hurt have been the ball-handling issue and the turnovers. We’ve had a lot of responsibilities on particular guys just because that’s one thing that’s kind of gone out with the injuries is the ball-handling, but we’ve got to be able to do a better job with that.”
They do, but it headlines a growing list of things they need to be better at.
Urgency might be a good place to start.
The Bulls actually seemed to get a second wind and put up a fight going into the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to just eight on a Jevon Carter layup with 11:24 left in the game. The problem was a blink of an eye and the visiting team was back up 19 just three minutes later.
Bulls veteran Coby White swears the team is still together, but it doesn’t feel like it.
“Whatever we do we’ve got to do it together,” White said recently. “That’s the most important thing. I’ve been here a long time, I’ve seen a lot of different situations, been in different scenarios, and the most important thing is we can’t start pointing fingers or anything like that. I’m not saying by any means we’ve done that, but we’re all human. So the most important thing for me right now is we’ve got to stick together. It’s still a very long season.”
The problem is it’s feeling longer and longer each day.