Bulls 'depth' has been explored, and exposed
losing to the league's worst as unable to mitigate injuries
In case you missed it (and judging anecdotally, you likely did), the Bulls continued their downward spiral with 2 road losses to the Hornets and Pacers.
How bad has this been? From John Schuhmann of NBA.com:
So the Bulls had a 4-game stretch against teams that had, prior to last Saturday, combined for a record of 9-53.
They beat the Wizards by 1, and then they lost to the Pelicans, Hornets and Pacers.
Dating back to the start of their road trip in Utah 8 games ago, the Bulls have played in 6 ‘clutch’ games and have gone 3-3. We’ve seen buzzer-beating winners for them and for their opponent.
That’s typically how the randomness will apply itself in these close contests, the existential question facing the Bulls is how come they are in close games with the dregs of the league in the first place?
We are still not quite at 20 games into the season, which is an arbitrary cutoff for determining what is real or not. So I don’t want to be unfairly negative when I wouldn’t do the same when they got off to the 5-0 (and 6-1) start.
But just as those wins still count and will put the Bulls in the East play-in tournament regardless of their actual quality, these recent losses will also put them in the play-in1. So we can try and derive some meaning from them even if not ultimate declarations.
I think it has at least shown us that the back end of the roster is not quality ‘depth’, and shows how terrible the Bulls have been at the ‘building’ part of their bullshit ‘competitive while building’ mission statement that they liken to a college hoops program.
After the Bulls went 3-0, I pointed out that one of the attributes of this roster was their ability to withstand absence or poor performance from a star, because they didn’t have any all-NBA level players but a lot of 4th or 5th option role players up and down the roster2. And there was even the thought (::hand raised:: I had it too) that behind those guys were the best 3rd stringers in the league, in the grand scheme of things a useless achievement but for a team trying to grind out 38-43 wins every season by using a gimmicky high-effort playing style, it can come in handy.
But while the Bulls have run into many injuries lately3, they’ve run into other squads that are either built to tank and/or have suffered several injuries themselves and look comparable or worse.
The lead bust is Patrick Williams, who is massively overpaid to be on this list but perhaps could’ve found an acceptable-if-still-overpaid slot on this team, where having giving up any notion of him being an on-ball threat or athletic/healthy enough to be on the wing much, at least he could play some small ball center? But with many Bulls actual centers being out4 and minutes desperately needed, Williams has played even worse than his typical. There is a difference between bust to overpaid to shouldn’t even be in the league anymore.
Dalen Terry has not improved enough to be relied upon, and it appears the front office knew that when they traded for the duplicative Isaac Okoro to play over Terry in his (finally) contract year. Terry was out of the rotation to begin the season, then had one good game in Portland, but that counter was re-set to zero versus Miami (13 minutes, 0 points, 5 fouls) then he hurt his calf.
Julian Phillips is perpetually forgettable, shooting 28% from three this year, and when minutes opened up suffered an illness.
It’s of course far too early to declare Noa Essengue a bust, but it’s certainly not a good sign that he can’t even get minutes. He would of course be getting some minutes lately but he also got hurt, in a GLeague game.
The two-way guys? Two of them actually played versus the Pacers5. I think Lachlan Olbrich only serves to further help the Bulls reach in Australia. Emanuel Miller is older than Okoro.
Again, for emphasis: not a big deal if the Bulls were trying to win anything of significance and shown any creativity or extra effort in roster construction. But for a team with their stated ambitions, plus actions like having an average of 1 draft pick every offseason and firing the head of player development, that’s an indictment that they can’t get replacement-level production, let alone the spasm of positive contribution like the Pistons employed when beating the Bulls with their B-squad, from recent draft picks and fringe free agency.
forever in the play-in…
with Giddey joining Coby White as a top-100 player, maybe even top-75 and it deserves more consideration on a separate post
always amusing that with injury designations such a relatively large story around the league, with the Bulls - since nobody cares - they can list everyone day-to-day even with soft tissue ailments that can take weeks
perhaps Jalen Smith is a counter here, he’s looked solid and has been missed when he’s not playing or having bad shooting night. He’s also on his 2nd contract like Williams, and will turn 26 this year, so it doesn’t really apply.
not really convinced it was necessary to go 10 deep in that game, Billy?
Billy gets a pass, rightly or wrongly, and 'rotations' is the laziest kind of coach criticism, but if he ever does get a fully healthy squad he should actually coach and tighten things up more. They cannot play to "their style" with these issues in defensive rebounding and generating turnovers. So adjust. If you lose games then because you're not getting enough easy offense, well you were losing before so who cares.
Giddey / White / Ayo / Buzelis / Vuc
bench: Jones, Collins, Smith, light sprinkling of Okoro
that's it. No more Patrick Williams. No more going 12 deep in the first quarter anymore. Play Giddey a ton of minutes to test if he fatigues, instead of preemptively saving him.
and then ultimately job of the front office is to trade Vuc. If he cannot even defensive rebound as well anymore, the whole thing falls apart
Bulls lose at Magic thoughts:
- this was a recipe for an improbable win because the Magic were playing terribly. Against a Bulls defense that is horrid at forcing turnovers, Orlando had a TO% of 16.8%. And shot 9/33 from three.
- but the Bulls TO% was 19.6%. Giddey had eight TOs himself, spoiling what was an otherwise good offensive game. Pat had 2 turnovers (really bad for 18 minutes and low usage) including fucking stepping out of bounds again.
- of the turds I highlighted in this post, Julian Phillips was actually alright. Had several dunks, anyway. Went 1/4 from three and is just too light to play in the frontcourt.
- I thought Buzelis was really good, his best game in a while, but he also kind of played them out of the game in the 4th quarter. That would typically be fine, even 'good', but the Bulls are not realistic in their expectations
- Kevin Huerter left with an adductor injury 6 minutes into the game. Tre Jones had a bad ankle sprain and couldn't finish the game. yikes.
- Offensive Rebound percentage for the Magic in 1st half: 21.7%. 2nd half: 40% 4th quarter: 60%.
I don't know what the Bulls can do to save this season by having a competent defense. I think the effort was mostly there in this game but it's tough to sustain when you're undersized and running so much. And there's no "try harder" switch with Vuc, he cannot jump or move. I don't think that's an effort thing, but it has to wear on others to hear Vuc try to motivate to do something he literally cannot.