There will be a point this season in which Billy Donovan finally pulls back on the chase for “competitive integrity” and is no longer concerned with trying to squeeze out wins.
Mark it down for about 10 p.m. on April 12.
That’s about the time the Bulls will have played their final game of the regular season down in Dallas, loading up for the plane ride home.
It happening before that?
Forget it.
The Bulls coach again made that very clear on Sunday. Discussing competitiveness over development on the same night they fell late to the Knicks 105-99, Donovan wasn’t going to change his stance even with his team now in the midst of a nine-game losing streak and continuing to sink in the standings.
“From a locker room standpoint and going in there every single day, as professionals that take their job serious, to go in there and say, ‘Listen guys, we’re not even trying,’ or ‘Hey, we’re going to do this, this and this,’ I have not gotten that,” Donovan said. “So again, he’s not available to play, but let’s see how Jaden (Ivey) can help the group or Rob (Dillingham) can help the group, but our intention is to go out there and try and win every single night. It’s been a challenge from the standpoint of trying to get all these guys on the same page.”
There is a method to Donovan’s madness for his critics, however.
While it again became obvious that the Bulls just didn’t have the horsepower to keep up with New York, especially late, Donovan’s feeling is that force-feeding the idea of staying competitive – undermanned or not – is allowing development to happen. Specifically, for Matas Buzelis.
“The one thing that’s been good on it is it’s been a lot harder on Matas, but I think in a good way,” Donovan said. “When Coby (White) was here and Ayo (Dosunmu) was here and Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) was here, even though (Buzelis) got into the starting lineup, he’s now starting to see the best defenders in the league night in and night out, and I think that’s a great opportunity for him to make a jump because he’s starting to learn a lot.
“The consistency of being able to perform at a really high level against really good defenders and good players is something he’s kind of gotten thrusted into, and I do think that because of his makeup and competitiveness, how much he leans into that, that could really help him.”
Maybe someday soon, but it didn’t help late against New York. While Buzelis did finish with 15 points, he had two good looks on three-pointers with the game within reach and just over two minutes left. He missed on both.
Baby steps?
And while this latest loss wasn’t the third quarter meltdown they had 24 hours earlier against Detroit, it was again a reminder of why New York is competing for a top four playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and the Bulls (24-34) are doing what they can to better their lottery odds.
The culprit was a familiar one as turnovers gave the visiting team an opportunity to grab control of the game for really the first time all night in that third quarter, stretching the lead to as much as 13 as the Bulls turned it over seven times in the third alone.
To their credit they didn’t bow down to one knee, coming back at the Knicks and making it a game with a few minutes left, but still the end result is not good enough.
“We’ve got to find ways to be way more competitive,” guard Josh Giddey said of the latest loss. “It starts with that first unit, we got to set the tone. But we got to find ways one through 15 to get this thing on the right track.”