Bulls open preseason with Cavs home-and-home
anything worth watching? eh...it starts RIGHT NOW
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.
Buzelis is looking great. Not forcing shots, and making them at a good clip.
Took one for the team and watched the whole game late last night (on DVR since I was still full of adrenaline from Cubs win). Also watched the first one in Cleveland. I shared my thoughts on Jevon Carter separately, but a few other notes:
1. The Cavs' starters were trying pretty hard (too hard?)
2. Tre Jones is actually really good...like he could give solid minutes to a much better team than ours. One of our few guys who seems like he could excel in playoff basketball
3. Zach Collins is gonna have moments of semi-brilliance but also moments where he looks overmatched.
4. Okoro similarly looks like a stud one minute, but then a scrub the next (I think Cleveland fans know this)
5. Yuki is super fun, even more so now than in the spastic chaos of summer league.
6. Patrick Williams...what is he? Still looks like a project out there, even though he flashed "competence" several times last night. I am so sick of watching that guy
7. Noa Essengue is going to get minutes this year. He is definitely not going to be buried in the G League all season. He needs to work on defensive awareness and get stronger, but he's actually not that "raw" in the way we usually talk about young prospects. Really good sense for where the ball is (and is going to be) on offense in a way that PWill has never shown, ever.
8. Julian Phillips and Dalen Terry. Why? They're sub-replacement level athletes with very little upside at this point. Every team needs one guy like that, but why two? I kind of feel about them the same way that the band Pavement felt about the Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots.
9. Matas is getting good. He may not evolve into a true star this year, but he is going to do a lot of great things, and may look REALLY good against bad/apathetic teams.