The new-look Bulls starting lineup has earned a bit of staying power.
For now.
Yet another reminder that Billy Donovan’s strength as a coach to this roster is to remain perfectly imperfect.
“I think my intention with the group has always been to try help them, put them in the best position to win,’’ Donovan said, when discussing how he’s handled personnel combinations this season. “Am I perfect? No. Am I going to make mistakes? Absolutely. Have I made plenty of mistakes already? Yes, absolutely. But I want them to know that my intention is to help them. I think in looking at film and looking at some of the numbers, I think you have to be prepared as a coach to help the group as best you can.’’
A group that’s needs help.
Where the old regime and coaching staff failed was an awareness to the importance of flexibility to a flawed collection of talent. Pride got in the way of benching young players far too often, but the biggest sin was not understanding how to build the philosophy of playing on both ends of the floor around individual strengths.
Sure, the finger points at former coach Jim Boylen on that front, but Boylen was a puppet to what the analytics department came up with and the front office blessed.
They were married to be a switching/blitzing defense and a three-point shooting team on the offensive end, and that inevitably led to the divorce.
Donovan is only married to evolving, and that means trial and error.
Coby White and Wendell Carter Jr. were two pieces in a starting group that was at the bottom of plus/minus in the league, so they were pulled out before Sunday’s win against Toronto, and replaced with veterans Tomas Satoransky and Thad Young.
Not ideal for two 21 year olds that were each No. 7 overall picks to now be working with the second unit, but necessary in Donovan’s eyes.
“I didn’t ask anybody their opinion on it,’’ Donovan said of the latest lineup decision process. “I gave everybody an opportunity to talk. But I do feel like maybe the group felt like something needed to happen. I don’t know if they were expecting it or not. But I just feel I’ve got to try to help the group. And some of the decisions, like I didn’t know if this was going to work [against the Raptors]. We could’ve lost by 30 and it would’ve been like really, really bad, right? So I’m going to try to make decisions to help the group.’’
What it also does is put the onus on both Carter and White to understand urgency, and maybe, just maybe light a fire under them that’s previously burned far too inconsistently.
“I mean, man, you know me, I’m a competitor, so I take everything as a challenge,’’ White said of the demotion. “But I know I’ve got to continue to get better as a player overall. I’m in year two. I’ve just got to continue to take the steps forward and continue to be who I am and take everything in stride.’’
And if he does take steps forward, there’s a good chance that lineups and combination could change again. Donovan will only commit to remaining flexible.
“This is not set in stone for the rest of the year,’’ Donovan said. “We’ll see how it works and what this looks like. “Obviously, with the condensed schedule and a lot of games in a short period of time and limited practice time, you just don’t have time to say, ‘OK, let’s take a look at this in practice. Let’s put this group out here and scrimmage.’ We just don’t have this luxury. I just didn’t want time to keep going by without trying to do everything I could do to try to help the team.’’
