Romero Norwood: Who's the starting point guard in your eyes, and where do you see the bulls after the first 25 games W/L
Sam: Jevon Carter and 17-8? I’m not projecting a long playoff run, but I do believe the Bulls have a chance to get off quickly with a good record like two years ago when Lonzo Ball was last healthy. The Bulls that season — like they do this season — had a front-loaded schedule with sub-.500 teams the first month. They started then with four straight wins against non-playoff teams, and then got some momentum and won in Boston and swept a road series with the Lakers and Clippers and won in Denver as some good teams also work their way into the season and pace themselves until the end. So a team which plays hard can steal some early wins, which I can see this Bulls team doing with its emphasis on these defensive, physical, defensive types like they added with Carter and Torrey Craig to complement Alex Caruso. They lose a little edge without Patrick Beverley, but decided it’s not that much with Carter and Craig and both shoot better. The Bulls also head into the new in-season tournament around 20 games and aren’t in a tough draw with Brooklyn, Toronto and Orlando, who are not considered sure playoff teams. Boston is the leader in their five-team group. At 25 games, the schedule turns as bit tougher as the Bulls go to Miami for two straight games and then Philadelphia and come home to face the Lakers. I feel like Carter has the edge as the new guy with coach Billy Donovan’s penchant to have a scorer coming off the bench in a more traditional sixth man offensive role for Coby White. The Bulls started 17-8 in 2021-22.
Pete Zievers: You wrote about maybe a two-platoon Bulls offense/defense. In recent memory, the closest I recall to a two-platoon team was Thibodeau’s team. 2nd unit scrambled the other guys with Brewer and Gibson with Omer as the rim protector. They got offense from CJ and Korver and frequently turned games around.
Sam: That team just wasn’t ready to win in 2011 in what was the way the NBA used to be: You get close one year and then break through and win the next year, like the Celtics did with Bird, the Pistons with Isiah and what the Trail Blazers were poised to do in 1991 when the Lakers upset them and then they lost to the Bulls in the Finals. That 2011 Bulls team swept the Heat in the regular season to the point Heat players were in tears in the locker room after that last loss in Miami. But Miami stole a couple of playoff games late against mostly inexperienced Bulls. Miami couldn’t deal with that second unit’s defense and size. But then Game 1, 2012 against the 76ers and it still makes me sick. I remain convinced that team wins multiple titles and Thibs maybe still is here. Just because teams win a championship doesn’t mean they were meant to. I’ve mused this preseason about a Billy Ball second unit heavily predicated on defense with Caruso, Carter, Craig and mixing in Patrick Williams, and maybe Ayo or one of the scorers. Maybe even some Andre Drummond despite the seeming desire for smaller ball. This is the deepest team the Bulls have had under Billy Donovan and it will be interesting to see if he expands his roster as he usually prefers to play nine or at most 10. There is enough NBA talent to have alternating five-player units, though Donovan likes to merge a starter with the bench like he usually does with DeRozan. That will be something to watch this season.
Peter Lund: Could the Bulls get Malcolm Brogdon? He's a real point guard with size.
Sam: It seems like they are committed to this Coby White, Jevon Carter, Ayo Dosunmu competition, and Brogdon makes a lot of money, about $22 million each season for the next two years. That likely would cost too much on a player trade match, and the Bulls really can’t afford to be giving up more firsts for a team to take on Ball’s salary. The larger issue to me with Brogdon is you have to wonder if there is a Brandon Roy possibility, the former Blazers All-Star whose career was shortened by injuries that were known in college and had him red flagged by some teams. Injury questions were what dropped Brogdon into the second round, and while he’s had a stellar career, injuries came frequently again last season and have remained a question as he pursued a rehab this summer instead of surgery. You wonder if that’s why Boston was trying to move him in multiple deals. Probably too risky.
Adam Groner: I’m a little disconsolate about the upcoming season. I started writing you a question but I’m sorry half way through there was no question, just lugubriousness. We all like DeMar, but his style of play, which is ball dominant, slow and mid-range heavy, is while great for certain situations, DeMar is not MJ or Kevin Durant. This type of play has held back the development of Vooch, Zach and especially PAW. The management seems to acknowledge this and has tried to talk around it every year saying the team is updating their style to be faster and better, but unless you get the ball out of DeMar’s hands most of the time, outside last second scenarios, like we had with Lonzo controlling the game, it’s hard not to assume the Bulls will have a hard time being better than last year. And they didn’t get a point guard. And even if Coach Billy agreed with me and took the ball out of DeMar's hands, didn’t let him initiate the offense a large amount of the game, what would DeMar do? I wasn’t thrilled with the Vooch trade, but he’s turned out to be as good as advertised, though much underused. DeMar is who we thought he was, which is not an insult. DeMar has played well, it's just taken the team in the wrong direction.
Sam: Being my first question that requires me to try to remedy lugubriousness, I’ll try to be gentle. This DeMar situation is something of the Catch-22 that’s been hovering over these Bulls and leading to the melancholy of some, others elegiac and certainly saturnine in some cases. DeMar, certainly from the outside, is the best player on the team, the lead scorer and only all-NBA player the last two seasons. So how anyone asks is that the problem? Heck, it’s not like Durant shoots nothing but threes. He’s mostly in the mid range. But there is that element some, like you, note about the ball control and how is the team going to pressure and play faster if one (or two? Hello, Zach?) often control the ball? It’s why there was some sense in the offseason that the Bulls might trade one to replace him with more speed and defense. There were rumors regarding LaVine, and DeRozan is entering the final year of his Bulls contract. So he heard speculation. Everyone is back. So I suspect this probably is, as Nikola Vučević told media this summer during the World Cup, probably the last full run for this group. DeRozan’s free agent signing two years ago and addition probably was the biggest coup for the new management team. It helped bring the Bulls back to relevancy and relieve much community basketball anguish. Even if a doleful cloud sometimes still hangs over the franchise. So now the question becomes once you are back toward the middle with this group, can they take it to where they can relieve the lugubriosity infecting so many fans. That last agonizing sentence probably doesn’t work. Let’s see if the Bulls can this season with the help they’ve brought DeMar, Zach and Vooch.
Wayne Warner: DeRozan as 6th man…any discussion of this? Comes off bench to be the lead scorer for second unit plus of course the “scoring closer” for end of half and end of game. My preference for starters is White, LaVine, Caruso (start game with excellent on-ball defense of opposing team's first unit), Williams & Vučević. Also gives Williams more touches and responsibility for offense.
Reduced minutes for DeRozan so fit for postseason and longer career with Bulls.
Sam: It makes some sense, but it’s not the way the NBA works. And no, there has been no such discussion. Nor will there be. The suggestion many make is to break up the DeMar/Zach wing to play Patrick Williams at three where he says he fits more naturally and where he’s less likely to defer to the scorers and might become more aggressive. Benching DeMar may have been whispered about, but never out loud because in the NBA not starting is viewed as a demotion, and it’s just not done to an all-star. Plus everyone in the NBA would think the Bulls are nuts because DeRozan is the only all-NBA player on the roster and reigning All-Star. Management said at Media Day it is in discussions about a contract extension for DeRozan, though nothing seems imminent. Moving out of the starting lineup would hardly be an incentive. But starting isn’t always all it suggests. Billy Donovan likes to talk about staggering, which he does most with DeRozan, taking him out among the starters first and playing him the most with the reserves until late in the game when some matchup decisions are made with others. So in a sense Donovan sees that and puts DeRozan with that group to conceivably give more opportunities to others like Williams. It’s up to them to take them. Meanwhile, credit to DeRozan that he doesn’t like to miss games, and unlike a lot of players in the NBA he’s not welcoming less playing time. You have to embrace players like that as they are no longer the norm. And just imagine what Norm (Van Lier) would say seeing that.
Neil Limper: Improved three-point shooting and a point guard, this is a playoff team. And that’s what they have now. If you can improve the roster, why blow up a team that is close to being in the playoffs. I know, I know, not a championship contender. As a 55-year-old lifelong fan, I guess I’ve learned patience. I watch every game and I sure enjoy watching when they “have a chance”! Like you said about Miami, anything can happen with some talent and a little “luck”!
Sam: Don’t worry. I think this organization has had its share of “let’s bow it up” and we’ll never see that again. I know it’s a popular refrain of some media and fans, who then can go watch another team and sport. While we found out with the Bulls after they traded Jimmy Butler and LaVine was still a year or more away from his ACL recovery that those blow it up seasons are very long. Championship or bust sounds good for a t-shirt, but it’s not the way sports really works. There’s a lot of season, fun and life between title and tank. I hated to see Fred Hoiberg get the blame for having to balance why aren’t they playing better more with why aren’t you losing more. The truth is most rebuildings don’t work. Because you’re investing in kids, prospects, draft choices, and then the luck to get the right ones. The Bulls lost enough to be in position to draft Luka, Ja, Zion or Trae. They never moved up in the lottery and often down and got none. And then these kids have to break through when you are drafting them as teenagers. As Miami showed, you figure out how to win every year. You won’t, but if you get lucky you get there or very close. If you blow it up and get lucky and get a future star, you’re still three to four years away from the playoffs. Even LeBron didn’t get there until this third year. Maybe the Bulls are not championship contenders, but I agree you should enjoy the season because they should compete at a high level. And maybe they get lucky. Hey, they’re overdue.
Bob Rustad: Will Patrick and Coby become frontline players this year?
Sam: I guess they are since they are in the regular rotation, but maybe you mean all-stars. Probably not. I wrote about both this week as far as breaking out, and I can see a lot more from Coby if he gets the playing time and is put in the proper role of a scorer. I believe Williams will continue to improve, but I don’t see as high a ceiling for him because his nature is more to fit in and be supportive. Like Coby reminded everyone on Media Day, he’s the high scorer in North Carolina high school history. He’s got that in him. You still are who you are no matter what others want or need you to be.
Parker Lerdal: Did the NBA coaches bring back suits this season ever since the pre-COVID? Sometimes in 2020 NBA Bubble they stopped wearing suits and they wear casual attires.
Sam: The coaches voted to retain their gym teacher look during games, and while I don’t believe it’s a professional look for going to work, at least it’s the one place now I go I can say I’m much better dressed than the rich guys.
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