NEW YORK – Billy Donovan is preparing for the inevitable.
The Bulls coach doesn’t know when, doesn’t know where, but he knows it’s coming. After all, most of the new additions to the roster weren’t playing these kinds of minutes, and they definitely weren’t playing at this pace.
“I do think this group is going to hit the wall,” Donovan said. “Coming out of the All-Star Break, what those last 27 games are going to look like for us physically is going to be a big factor.”
That’s why he’s trying to control workload as well as get as many players in the gym between games for conditioning, doing his best to soften how hard that wall hits back.
What Donovan can’t control? The negativity surrounding the organization – specifically the front office – in the aftermath of the trade deadline.
Thanks to the 123-115 loss to the Nets on Monday, the Bulls have lost five straight games – three since the deadline. All fine and good, as they have obviously picked a “stage” of the soft tank. What the Bulls are being ripped on for is not the players they traded, as much as why they waited so long to move a few of them and the return they received.
While Donovan is not on social media and pretty deaf to the outside noise, he doesn’t exist under a rock. He knows what’s being said and even discussed it with his locker room.
“Are they coming into the situation going, ‘OK, what are we trying to do here?’ “ Donovan said. “If that (negative) stuff is out there, and I’ve tried to talk to them about what our focus is and what our direction needs to be inside our team. There are guys with expiring contracts, some guys that want to play, so we gotta help each other, go out there and compete. All that kind of stuff is important, so I’ve tried to redirect their focus onto that. ‘What do we got to do to get better as a team?’
“I can see people on the outside, ‘Are they really trying to win? What’s with this group because who is going to be back, who isn’t going to be back. Maybe these guys are auditioning, they really don’t care.’ I still think inside that locker room these guys are professionals, and they don’t want to come in every day, work, try and buy in and it’s like, ‘OK, we’re just going to experiment with all this stuff.’ “
Besides, there’s enough experimenting going on from Donovan, as the coach is just trying to mix and match different lineup looks and see what works.
The starting group remained the same, as Donovan went with Guerschon Yabusele, Isaac Okoro, Matas Buzelis, Anfernee Simons and Jaden Ivey, while Nick Richards, Collin Sexton and Rob Dillingham saw minutes off the bench.
With the Bulls down six with 2:55 left in the game, however, it was Sexton, Simons, Okoro, Buzelis and Richards for closing time. It did not go well, as the group actually lost ground with the defensive breakdowns continuing.
By the time the final horn sounded, what most summed up the latest loss was the Bulls being led in rebounds by the 6-foot-2 Dillingham. He had a career-high seven.
Just the latest example of how small this group is, as well as how they are trying to figure it all out on the fly.
“We’re going through it,” Ivey said of the growing pains after the latest loss. “Going through it together. That’s how you learn, that’s how you grow. That’s how you make each other better and figure ways to win the game and affect the game, communicating and talking, and being there for one another.
“As we continue to progress in games, we’ll understand that and make adjustments on that.”