Billy Donovan is detailed.
Even when answering a simple media question, the Bulls coach could go on for five minutes easily, seldom taking a breath as he makes sure his explanation is clear and as transparent as an NBA coach can make it.
The best of the Donovan-isms so far?
“Winning sets the rules, I don’t,’’ Donovan fired out over the last week, eventually explaining it a day later.
“The game maybe has evolved over 50 years, but winning hasn’t evolved,’’ Donovan said. “The game sets the rules of what you have to do. If you pick and choose, if you’re taking a play off or not executing, inevitably, you may get by because of your talent or you may get by because of poor defense, but inevitably those kind of habits catch up to you. So when I say I don’t set the rules, I’m going off what we have to do to win as a team.’’
It’s that very belief by the coach that makes Zach LaVine a cautionary tale.
The nine three-pointers in Wednesday’s win over New Orleans was artwork. His 46 points, seven rebounds, and plus-20 in the plus/minus category just his latest masterpiece.
And if the Bulls want to build a museum of mediocrity moving forward they will fully invest in LaVine in the next year.
There will be more 46-point nights.
More gravity-defying dunks.
More “hot sauce!’’ and “bang, bang, bangs’’ bellowing from the caricature that used to be just Stacey King.
There won’t be winning, however. Early-round playoff winning? Possibly, but legitimately chasing a championship as this new front office regime has insisted was a goal?
No, because winning sets the rules.
If LaVine is willing to take an extension that pays him $75 million over three years, then done deal, he’s left proper room to build around, and this article stops here. The end.
But it’s easy to forget the 2018 offseason, when the Bulls allowed LaVine to test restricted free agency and receive an offer from the Kings.
“I’m disappointed that I had to get an offer sheet from another team,’’ LaVine told The Undefeated back then.
After the Bulls matched it, LaVine did try and walk it back a bit by saying he was “taken out of context,’’ but he really wasn’t.
LaVine plays with a chip on his shoulder. The great ones do. He felt disrespected by the Bulls, he gets disrespected by being called just a “dunker,’’ and he feels disrespected by a league that won’t make him an All-Star.
The Sun-Times and multiple media outlets have reported that LaVine’s not about to be disrespected financially, and as much as he loves Chicago there’s no hometown discount on the horizon. That means at least a three-year deal that nears the $100 million mark for a one-way player.
Shooting guards that are making in that vicinity that are allergic to the defensive side of the ball far too often? James Harden and Bradley Beal.
Harden entered Thursday 111th out of 113 shooting guards in defensive real plus-minus. This after Houston paid him, surrounded him with future Hall of Famers like Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, and made it to the Western Conference Finals twice, falling short each time.
They eventually moved on from him at the start of the season, trading him to Brooklyn.
And LaVine is no Harden.
Then there’s Beal, who sits 112th in that defensive RPM category, who leads the league in scoring, has $34 million coming next year, and has never made it past the second round of the playoffs, despite future Hall of Famer John Wall once playing next to him.
LaVine is no Beal.
Yes, the same LaVine who is ranked 113th of 113 shooting guards in defensive RPM.
It’s very simple, either LaVine makes an unprecedented defensive jump over the next few months to warrant a top salary or he signs for that $25-million per year range so there’s flexibility to bring in the help a player like him needs.
Otherwise, the Bulls have to move him.
Fair or unfair? It doesn’t matter.
“Winning sets the rules, I don’t.’’
