It’s only been a few weeks, but Bulls players have already seen the many facets of the Billy Donovan Experience.
Following a comeback win in Friday’s preseason finale, they witnessed a coach that was glad to see his backup players overcome a lethargic night by his starters, but also a coach that let those same starters know that defensive nights off like the one they took against the Thunder would not be tolerated.
No pushups, no suicide sprints, but definitely a tone that let them know who the boss is, and why that boss warrants respect.
“What I like is he commands your presence,’’ guard Zach LaVine said of Donovan. “He’s very straight forward. You can tell if we’re doing good or bad, obviously. He wants us to fight. He brings that out of us. He’s encouraging us being competitive and bringing it every night. I’m trying to take it upon myself to get the group going in the beginning. He’s good for us. He knows what he’s doing.’’
Asked if he was a screamer like a Jim Boylen, LaVine smirked.
“I wouldn’t say that,’’ LaVine responded. “But when he talks, everybody listens. He definitely commands the room.’’
And now he’ll command a room where way more is at stake.
With four preseason games in the books, now the games start to matter this week, as the Bulls tip-off the regular season Wednesday night against Atlanta.
There’s been a lot Donovan has been trying to stress to this roster, but atop that list is understanding what it takes to play winning basketball throughout a season and having the mental toughness to accept that.
It sounds simple, but for a roster made up of a majority of players that have never even sniffed the postseason, it could be a monumental task.
“I think a lot of times because we have really good guys that want to do well and do the right thing, that I think sometimes that they can get deflated,’’ Donovan said of his players. “And we’ve got to understand that there’s going to be a hundred possessions on offense and a hundred possessions on defense and not every possession is going to go well. We have to have a level of resiliency, mental toughness, mental fortitude to fight through difficulties.
“I think that’s not the case for our team – it’s the case for any team playing in the most competitive basketball league in the world. You’re going to have to deal with those things. So I think it’s an area in having a younger team, we’ve got to get better at those things and we’ve got to improve collectively as a group.’’
Roster clean-up
The Bulls got their roster down to 15 guaranteed contracts, waiving Zach Norvell Jr. and Friday’s second-half hero Simi Shittu on Saturday morning. Devon Dotson and Adam Mokoka are two-way contract players, although Mokoka was having trouble joining the Bulls because of travel restrictions.
