- Bulls coach Billy Donovan moved Patrick Williams and Ayo Dosunmu to the second unit and Donovan believes it could facilitate their development, particularly the young power forward, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. “This may actually help his development, putting him in some situations where he can be a little more aggressive. I still think the development part for him is in place,” Donovan said.
- Despite the lineup changes, the Bulls aren’t going anywhere unless Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic do a better job of blending their talents, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago writes. LaVine concurs with that assessment. “Coach got to make his decisions, but you know the best players on the team, we got to be the ones that make the plays,” LaVine said. “On bad days, take the criticism. Good days, make sure to help us win. Play defense. Make the shot. That’s what you do. That’s why you’re in position to do this. It’s a player-driven league. I think it always starts from top to bottom.”
The Lakers have internally discussed the possibility of packaging Russell Westbrook and draft picks in a trade offer to the Bulls for DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on the latest episode of his Lowe Post podcast.
“The trade I saw (speculated by Bill Simmons of The Ringer) was Russ and both (2027 and 2029 first-round) picks – one with light protection on it, I think – for DeRozan and Vucevic,” Lowe said (hat tip to RealGM). “I can tell you 100% for sure the Lakers have had internal discussions about that very possibility, (about) if it would ever come up.”
Lowe quickly added a caveat, clarifying that the Lakers wouldn’t necessarily pull the trigger on that deal even if the Bulls were interested in it. I’ll add my own caveat: “internal” trade talks should be taken with a grain of salt, since all 30 teams will internally discuss many, many trade scenarios that will never come to fruition or even be broached to potential trade partners.
Still, as Lowe went on to explain, it makes sense for the Lakers to keep an eye on would-be playoff contenders who might struggle this season and decide to pivot to becoming sellers. The Bulls are off to a disappointing 9-13 start.
“You look around the league, like any responsible team would, and say, ‘OK, we know the Pacers option is there, the Utah option was there, the Spurs option doesn’t excite us much,'” Lowe said of the Lakers’ approach to Westbrook’s trade market. “… Both picks for the Bulls guys is certainly something their brain trust has thought about. Otherwise they’d be irresponsible.”
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Grizzlies forward Ziaire Williams, who has yet to play this season due to a right knee injury, is getting close to returning, according to Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal (Twitter links). Williams has been doing 5-on-5 work as he enters the final stage of his rehab process.
- Responding to Michael Scotto’s interview with Jerami Grant, which addressed Grant’s upcoming free agency, Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report (Twitter link) says he doesn’t expect the Trail Blazers forward to even reach free agency next summer. Highkin believes the Blazers and Grant will reach an extension after he becomes eligible for a longer-term deal in January. For what it’s worth, Portland would be limited during the season to offering a four-year, $112.65MM extension, so if Grant – who is having a career year so far – wants to try to get more than that, he’d have to wait for his current contract to expire and become a free agent.
- In their first game without Karl-Anthony Towns available on Wednesday, the Timberwolves turned to rookie Wendell Moore to fill out their starting lineup. As Chris Hine of The Star Tribune writes, Moore – who had played just 11 total minutes in four NBA appearances prior to Wednesday – was as surprised as anyone by the decision. “I came here and it was just another day,” this year’s No. 26 overall pick said after playing 20 minutes in a win over Memphis. “Came to get my work in. I was going to cheer my teammates on and just get this win. Once I got the news, I knew I had to shift my mind-set into gear and be ready to go.”
The Bulls made a change to their starting lineup on Friday against Golden State, replacing Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams with Alex Caruso and Javonte Green.
The new-look starting lineup didn’t exactly set the world on fire – the five-man group was outscored by seven points in just over 10 minutes of action – but head coach Billy Donovan said he liked what he saw and doesn’t expect it will just be a one-game tweak, per Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. He added that it wasn’t a defensive-minded move to try to slow down the high-powered Warriors.
“It was more to see, ‘Let’s see what this looks like,'” Donovan said, according to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “I’m always evaluating and you’re not trying to make a decision after two or three games. But I think there’s a pretty decent body of work for the number of games we played. And I just wanted to take a look at something different.”
Dosunmu and Williams remained in the rotation, logging 21 and 19 minutes respectively, and Donovan said he appreciated how they handled the new roles.
“I understand there’s always a level of prestige with starting. I get all that. But I also think those guys see a bigger picture,” Donovan said. “It’s not like I said to them, ‘Hey listen, I’m moving you out of the starting lineup and you’re out of the rotation.’ I was really pleased with the way both responded. They’re team guys. They want to win. I’m sure in their heart of hearts want to start. But I also think the team is more important to them.”
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- Donovan is hoping that the move to the second unit will encourage Williams, a former No. 4 overall pick, to avoid getting passive on offense. “The one thing we’ve been trying to do is to try to get him to be more aggressive,” Donovan said, per Johnson. “I think being out there with three terrific offensive players in Zach (LaVine) and Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) and DeMar (DeRozan), sometimes there aren’t as many opportunities. I told him in doing this I wanted him to be more aggressive offensively, that he was going to need to be somebody who could give that group a little bit of a pop. I look at it that this may actually help his development.”
- Although the Bulls were pleased that Dosunmu and Williams accepted the lineup change without complaint, LaVine suggested that his teammates should view their demotions as a challenge. “I don’t think they should be happy or satisfied with it at all,” LaVine said, according to Johnson.
- Writing for The Sun-Times, Cowley questions why Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf kept a lid on the contract extension that Donovan signed with the team before the season began, arguing that it’s a disservice to fans to try to keep that sort of move under wraps.
- Donovan’s extension is a reflection of how the connection between him and president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has grown in recent years, according to Johnson, who notes that the two men speak almost daily and says there’s “never any misunderstanding in their shared, direct conversation.”
- How can the 9-12 Bulls turn their season around? Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic tackles that topic, suggesting that more minutes for rookie first-rounder Dalen Terry would be a good place to start — he has only appeared in 10 games for a total of 33 minutes thus far in ’22/23.
So far this season, 19 of the NBA’s 30 teams have played at least .500 basketball, and many of the clubs that have fallen short of that mark are ones we expected to do so. The Magic, Pistons, Hornets, Rockets, Spurs, and Thunder, for instance, were widely considered during the preseason to be lottery-bound.
If we set aside those six teams, along with the 19 who are .500 or better, five clubs remain. These are the teams that entered the season expecting to be in the playoffs and have fallen short of their expectations so far.
Let’s start with the most obvious one of the five: the Lakers got off to a miserable start to the season, losing their first five games and 10 of their first 12. They’ve bounced back to some extent as of late, winning six of their last eight contests, but three of those victories came against San Antonio, and L.A. is still just 8-12 overall, good for 13th in a competitive Western Conference.
With Russell Westbrook adapting well to a sixth man role, Lonnie Walker enjoying a breakout year, Anthony Davis looking like a superstar again, and LeBron James back in the lineup following a groin strain, there’s some reason for optimism in Los Angeles. But it’s still not clear if the supporting cast is strong enough for the Lakers to make a real run, and it remains to be seen whether the front office has the appetite to move one or two first-round picks to acquire real upgrades.
While they’re ahead of the Lakers in the standings, the 10-11 Mavericks are currently out of the play-in picture too, holding the No. 11 seed in the West. Like L.A., Dallas has a top-heavy roster, with Luka Doncic submitting an MVP-caliber performance this fall. But Doncic can’t do it all himself, and the Mavs’ supporting cast beyond Christian Wood and Spencer Dinwiddie hasn’t produced like the team had hoped.
Over in the East, the Heat (10-12), Knicks (10-12), and Bulls (9-12) find themselves out of the top nine and vying for the No. 10 spot in the standings.
Of these three teams, Miami probably has the most reason for optimism. The Heat have been hit hard by the injury bug in the first quarter of the season, but appear to be getting healthier, with All-Star forward Jimmy Butler on the verge of returning. This iteration of the Heat may not get back to the NBA Finals like the 2020 squad did, or even to the Eastern Finals like last year’s team, but it would be pretty shocking if they missed the postseason, given how much talent is on the roster.
Chicago and New York, meanwhile, were both considered borderline playoff teams entering the season — oddsmakers had them as the East’s ninth- and 10th-best teams ahead of training camps. So it’s perhaps not a surprise that they’re both hovering around .500 and looking more like play-in contenders than serious candidates for a top-six seed.
Still, both teams had higher aspirations than simply contending for a play-in spot, so it will be interesting to see how they approach the trade deadline if their inconsistent performances continue.
Will the Knicks put some of their future first-round picks back on the table in search of an impact player after missing out on Donovan Mitchell? Will the Bulls – who have already traded away two of their own future first-rounders – continue to push their chips into the middle of the table or will they pull back and hope for the possible return of point guard Lonzo Ball can help fuel a second-half surge?
We want to know where you stand on these five teams. Do you expect the Lakers, Mavericks, Heat, Bulls, or Knicks to finish the season as a top-six seed, securing an automatic playoff berth? Are you counting on some of them to have to clinch postseason spots via the play-in tournament? Will some finish outside the play-in altogether as bottom-five teams in their respective conferences?
Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!
After sounding optimistic about Lonzo Ball‘s rehabilitation process at the beginning of November, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan struck a different tone on Wednesday evening, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago.
“It’s been really slow,” Donovan said. “I’m just being honest.”
Ball underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure on his left knee at the end of September and was set to be reevaluated in four-to-six weeks. Today marks nine weeks since the surgery was performed, but there’s still no clarity on when he might make his 2022/23 season debut.
Donovan said that Ball “has not necessarily suffered a setback,” according to Schaefer, but he’s “not even close” to resuming contact or on-court work.
“He’s working through more and more. But it’s not like I can give you any report, ‘Hey, he’s running, he’s cutting, he’s jumping, he’s doing individual skill work, the next step is we’ve got to get him some contact.’ To be honest with you we’re not even close to that,” Donovan said.
“Him working through the pain he was experiencing before, there has been improvement in that area, but they’re also trying to continue to build up strength because of the lack of time he’s had, so to speak, training. They’re constantly, like, all hands on deck, everyone is evaluating. There’s a lot of people that are involved in trying to help him.”
As Schaefer notes, “everyone” includes Chicago’s medical staff as well as specialists in Los Angeles, where both of Ball’s recent surgeries were performed. He missed the team’s final 42 games of the ’21/22 regular season after undergoing left meniscus surgery in January.
Ball last played on January 14 and obviously has yet to play this season.
One noteworthy point from Donovan’s aforementioned answer is that Ball is still experiencing pain, though he’s shown “improvement.” The coach later expanded on that, per Schaefer.
“He is better after the surgery, I will say that, but is he completely pain-free? No, and that’s what they’re working towards,” Donovan said. “Or, at least, if he does have some pain, he’s able to play through some of it, work through some of it. All these guys are dealing with pain as the season goes on in some form of it. But for him it’s the pain that has [prevented him from] getting back to playing.”
The Bulls were the No. 1 seed in the East at the time Ball was injured last season, holding a 27-13 record. They went just 19-23 the rest of the way and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Bucks.
Chicago has certainly missed Ball’s defense, long-range shooting, and ability to push the pace in transition. The Bulls have had a rocky start to the ’22/23 season, currently holding a 9-11 record.
Coach Billy Donovan signed an extension with the Bulls before the season began, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Donovan had two years remaining on his current deal when he negotiated the extension during the offseason. Charania doesn’t provide details of the extension, but he writes that Donovan is now under contract “for several more years.”
Chicago is just 86-88 under Donovan, but the team has shown steady progress since he became head coach. The Bulls were coming off a 22-win season when he was hired in 2020. They went 31-41 in Donovan’s first season, then improved to 46-36 and reached the playoffs for the first time in five years.
Charania points out that Chicago was among the league’s best teams last season before Lonzo Ball‘s knee injury in January. Through January 1, the Bulls were fifth in the league in offense and 10th in defense and they held the best record in the East for much of that time.
The team is currently 8-10 as Ball remains sidelined after another surgical procedure on his left knee in September. Sources tell Charania that Ball and the team remain hopeful that he can return sometime in the new year.
The 57-year-old Donovan came to the NBA in 2017 after winning two NCAA championships at Florida. He compiled a 243-157 record as head coach in Oklahoma City, which was a playoff team in all five seasons he spent there.
It’s uncertain how changing agents will impact Pacers center Myles Turner this season, Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack newsletter.
Turner, who is headed to free agency, still has fans within the Pacers’ organization, according to Stein. His name has been in the trade rumor mill for quite awhile, though his initial hope was to play out this season and then head to free agency, Stein adds.
It remains to be seen whether the Pacers will hold onto Turner through the trade deadline if they’re unable to sign him to an extension. He’s averaging 18.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game this season.
We have more from the Central Division:
- Even with Turner in the lineup, the Pacers are vulnerable to getting pushed around up front, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star notes. That point was reinforced by the Clippers’ Ivica Zubac, who powered his way to 31 points and 29 rebounds on Sunday. “He had a great presence around the basket. We didn’t do a good job on him,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “I don’t know what else there is to say.”
- Bucks forward Khris Middleton was once again assigned to the G League’s Wisconsin Herd on Monday to get some practice time and then recalled, Eric Nehm of The Athletic tweets. When asked if Middleton might return to action on Wednesday, coach Mike Budenholzer remained vague. “We’ll just see how today goes,” he said. “We’re not going to put anything ahead of itself and just hopefully he has another great session today, see how he feels and just the old cliché take it day by day.” Middleton underwent offseason wrist surgery and has yet to make his season debut.
- The Bulls are keeping a close watch on Alex Caruso‘s minutes, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Caruso has been dealing with a right ankle sprain and hasn’t practiced in recent days. “Just trying to be conscientious of his minutes and those long stretches for him because he does play hard,’’ coach Billy Donovan said. “From my perspective, there are going to be some nights where he’s going to get over 30 minutes. For the most part, we’re just trying to manage how hard he does play and compete in relationship to the number of minutes he’s getting.’’
The play of 21-year-old Bulls starting power forward Patrick Williams has steadily improved month-over-month this season, and the 6’7″ forward out of FSU registered his excitement about that growth, writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
As Johnson observes, Williams averaged 7.1 PPG and 2.0 RPG while shooting 35.3% on 2.4 threes per game in October. He is putting up 11.3 PPG and 5.2 RPG thus far in November, while connecting on 50% of his 3.3 long-range looks a night this month.
“I think I’m still figuring it out,” Williams said of his play. “But I’m 100 percent locked in on being the player that I want to be… I always felt I had what it took to be a really good player in this league. But now I’m starting to feel like I have what it takes to be a star and a superstar in this league. I’m kind of trying to take that role on and build on it day-by-day… Kind of trying to take it in my own mind now and show that on the court.”
There’s more out of Chicago:
- Bulls reserve guard Alex Caruso sprained his right ankle during Chicago’s overtime loss to the Thunder on Friday. He sat out the contact components of a team practice Sunday due to the injury, and is now questionable to play for Chicago against the Jazz on Monday, writes K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “I just know there was a point in regulation where I could tell his foot was bothering him,” head coach Billy Donovan said regarding the timing of the injury. “The last 2 minutes of overtime, it looked like he planted and I could tell he winced pretty severely. He said, ‘You gotta take me out.’ He didn’t feel like he could move well enough.”
- The 8-11 Bulls have had an up-and-down season thus far. Chicago is continuing to strive for steadier output this season, writes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Cowley notes that the team’s middling record belies some of its more impressive performances, including a pair of victories over the Celtics and wins over the Bucks, Raptors and Heat. Losing several close games in 2022/23 has cost Chicago. “I think that’s just where we are,” All-Star small forward DeMar DeRozan said. “Kind of went through so many emotions already 20 games into the season. Sometimes you’ve got to soak in that hurt and kind of generate that to being competitors, and that’s where I think we are now.’’ The team is hoping to stack up some wins on the remaining four games of its road trip, but will have to do so against several postseason-contending Western Conference clubs in the Jazz, Suns, Warriors, and Kings.
- In case you missed it, All-Star Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine was initially upset at being benched late in the fourth quarter last week, during an eventual 108-107 loss to the Magic. LaVine later clarified that he holds no ill will toward Donovan for the benching.
It has been hard to know what to expect from the Bulls on a night-to-night basis so far this season.
After capping a four-game losing streak with a home loss to Orlando last Friday, the team had its two best wins of the season on Monday in Boston and Wednesday in Milwaukee. The win over the Bucks was Chicago’s best defensive outing of the year, as Darnell Mayberry wrote for The Athletic.
However, the Bulls followed up those two statement games with a letdown performance on Friday, falling in overtime to Oklahoma City.
According to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, head coach Billy Donovan had braced for some up and downs in the early part of this season as the club tried to move away from leaning so heavily on DeMar DeRozan‘s isolation-heavy offense and late-game heroics.
“DeMar took us as far as he can take us (last season), and we really have to look at, OK, how can we make another step or jump?” Donovan said. “If we get back to that, where it’s all (isolations) all the time, it just gets too easy to defend. This is going to take some time offensively for us to play the way we need to play, which is a little bit different.”
Here’s more on the Bulls:
- The 2021 deadline trade that sent Nikola Vucevic to Chicago has netted the Magic a pair of potential building blocks (Franz Wagner and Wendell Carter Jr.), with another lightly protected first-round pick still to come. Still, Vucevic isn’t worried about the critics who wish the Bulls hadn’t made the deal. “I know some people want to bring back the trade, the picks that were given, but it happened,” Vucevic told Cowley of The Sun-Times. “If it didn’t, it’s not for sure the Bulls would have picked Wagner or hit on the pick. Who knows what would have happened?” As Cowley observes, without the Vucevic trade, it’s also not clear whether free agents DeRozan and Lonzo Ball would’ve chosen Chicago later in 2021.
- It has taken some time for former No. 4 overall pick Patrick Williams to get comfortable at the NBA level, but the third-year forward finally seems to be finding a rhythm, according to Cowley, who writes for The Sun-Times that Williams hasn’t looked as passive recently as he did during the first few weeks of the season.
- Although two-time All-Star Andre Drummond is averaging a career-low 15.4 minutes per game this season, he has no intention of pushing for more playing time as long as the Bulls believe his limited role gives them the best chance to win games. “I’m at a point now where I’m just focusing on winning,” Drummond said this week, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “I told Billy and the guys when I came here from the beginning: ‘Whatever you guys need me to do to help win, that’s what I’m willing to do.’ If that’s to play eight minutes, 12 minutes, 30 minutes, I’m able to do that. I’m cool with the role that I have. I just have to maintain it.”