The Bulls needed a practice day like Saturday’s.
Some tough love delivered from their coach, but not a single pushup handed out or a suicide sprint ordered.
Real NBA coaching by Billy Donovan.
As Sunday showed, his message had some staying power.
“A lot of film, a lot of bad plays that we had,’’ Bulls point guard Coby White said of that workout in Dallas. “But it was more of just a teaching day and getting everybody on the same page of like what we need to do to take that next step. As a team, I think we are really frustrated and getting tired of saying, ‘We’re right there, we’re right there.’ We want to say, ‘We’re finally getting over that hump.’ ‘’
After Friday’s second-half meltdown in Oklahoma City, a hump that seemed to be growing daily.
That’s why Donovan simply put on the final four-plus minutes of regulation in the eventual overtime loss to the Thunder, and let the film tell the story.
“I feel like we took a step without actually doing stuff physically,’’ White continued. “I feel like [Friday] night hurt us all as a team. I’m pretty sure none of us want that feeling again. I’m pretty sure we’re going to learn from it. Well, I’m definitely sure we’re going to learn from it and take that next step that we need to take.’’
A step taken in the win over the Mavericks, yes, but Donovan has made it very clear that this group still has a long way to go.
Understanding mistakes and how to fix them is one thing, but Donovan now wants to see this group get to the point in which they work on improving the aspects of their game that necessarily aren’t glaring errors on film.
“I do sense from the group that there’s a willingness [to win], but there’s so much more they have to do outside of what takes place in between the lines,’’ Donovan said. “They’ve got to invest in each other, they’ve got to spend time after practice with each other in terms of like, ‘Hey Zach [LaVine] and Lauri [Markkanen], let’s work on some pick-and-rolls, hey Coby, you had some turnovers in pick-and-roll with OP [Otto Porter Friday] night, let’s get out there and do that, work together.’
“There’s a lot of things they have to invest in that’s probably a little bit different than maybe they’ve had to experience in the past, but that’s what I’m trying to work them towards, is getting them to see some of those things, and sometimes you have to go through some painful lessons before you can take another step forward.’’
Putting in extra work wasn’t necessarily asked by the old regime. It was almost as if the Derrick Rose knee issues completely changed the mindset of former general manager Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson to the point where the Advocate Center became a country club in the workload department.
The hope is those days are ending.
Health club
Donovan hopes to have some clarity on the returns of Chandler Hutchison and Tomas Satoransky this week, with the good news being that both are doing individual workouts at the Advocate Center, as they return from testing positive for the coronavirus.
“So they’ve got some good work in, they’ve gone through some of the cardiovascular testing programs,’’ Donovan said. “We’ll probably be able to find out a lot more at the end of this upcoming week to see where they’re at. But things have progressed well and they are back working out.’’
