Preseason is meaningless, and it’s unfortunate to assume “true, but the decisionmakers leading the Bulls believe in it” because they have shown steadfast belief in the meaningless throughout their tenure.
But it still could be interesting and fun to watch? While the results have no predictive value, we can perhaps learn something about how the team - under Billy Donovan’s direction - sees themselves.
Because we know from their offseason non-doings that they have a couple main tenets:
this is a ‘FULL ROSTER’
Isaac Okoro is going to change everything
So the top of the rotation, and the very back-end, are all locked in. I’m assuming based off of their oddly-high emphasis of Okoro that he will be the starting small forward (more accurately: defend point guards and on offense stand in the corner).
And indeed that’s how it is in this first preseason game , alongside the locked-in Josh Giddey, Nikola Vucevic, and Matas Buzelis and with Kevin Huerter a likely temporary replacement for the injured Coby White.
I suppose it’s somewhat interesting that Ayo isn’t the Coby replacement, but Okoro’s inclusion means you need the shooting. So then the other interesting rotation decisions is, uh…Zach Collins over Jalen Smith? Patrick Williams vs Dalen Terry vs. Julian Phillips disappointing draft pick triple-threat cage match?
Here’s the Cavs roster:
Bizarrely, this is a pseudo-NationalTV game as it’ll be streamed on Peacock. So no need to pay for CHSN, at least for one game. And really, as it’s preseason, you’re better off just trolling for highlights and not watching a full broadcast at all.