There was definitely a certain amount of defiance in Jim Boylen’s response following the latest embarrassment for the Bulls.
“Hell yeah,’’ the coach said, when asked if he’s seeing growth from game-to-game after the 117-111 loss in Cleveland on Wednesday. “I’ve seen a lot of growth. Ball is moving, guys are playing with confidence, I think we’re getting good looks. I think we’re getting a lot of good shots that will go down.’’
A solid list in Boylen’s mind.
Less than a minute later, however, the coach was also able to list everything gone wrong in a season that is off to a disappointing 1-4 start.
“[The Cavaliers] drove it at us, they rebounded around us, they brought the physicality that you need to have in the fourth quarter,’’ Boylen said. “That’s kind of the growth plate of this group, I think. Physical toughness, mental toughness, but again a lot of good things.’’
Hard to see those “good things’’ right about now.
Second-year center Wendell Carter Jr. can’t stay out of foul trouble, Zach LaVine is getting caught up in trying to do too much because of the losses piling up, Otto Porter Jr. is still trying to find his way in the offense, Tomas Satoransky has too many inconsistent moments on both ends of the floor, the bench is up and down, and then there’s the strange case of Lauri Markkanen.
Since bursting out with a 35-point, 17-rebound regular-season debut in Charlotte, Markkanen has basically gone into a witness protection program.
He followed up 35 with back-to-back nine-point performances, a pedestrian 18 in New York, and then had 16 against the Cavaliers, but that came on 4-for-12 shooting, and some really poor moments on defense. All of that led to Boylen moving away from Markkanen down the stretch, benching him for Thaddeus Young.
Boylen explained it as just that. The coach wanted to ride out his hot player, and deemed Young that guy.
The glaring problem that can’t be understated, however, is the organization built this entire roster around LaVine and Markkanen carrying the day, and the rest of the roster filling in the missing pieces and doing the dirty work.
So as confident as Boylen is that there will be a turnaround, Markkanen and LaVine have to find a way to pull the rope at the same time.
Even the players see that.
“Everything we’re doing hasn’t translated to wins, but we’re just going through the process and guys are getting better each and every day,’’ Young said. “And we are yet to have a game where we have our two best players both play well. It’s either Zach is playing well and Lauri’s not, or Lauri’s playing well and Zach’s not. So we have to figure out how to get those two playing well, get them going early, and keep them going through the course of the game.
“And then if we all fill in the gaps and holes, we can be a very good team. We just have to go out there and believe it each and every night, and make sure we go out there and finish executing in games.’’
The October schedule was set up to get out of the gate quickly, build some confidence, and start running. To completely stumble on that, and walk into November with heads down? Not good. Especially not good with Detroit on the schedule twice, Indiana, the Lakers, Atlanta, Houston, Milwaukee and Miami all looming.
“We haven’t played as well in key moments as I’ve hoped, and they’ve hoped,’’ Boylen said. “That’s part of the learning process.’’
A process the Bulls better learn fast.
