CLEVELAND — The NBA is never short on storylines.
The Bulls’ Isaac Okoro was in the latest casting.
Traded in late June from the only NBA franchise he knew, guess where Okoro would find himself for Tuesday’s preseason opener? Of course it was back in Cleveland, the place he called his home for five seasons after being selected No. 5 overall in the 2020 draft.
“A little bit of mixed feelings,” Okoro said after the 118-117 Bulls win. “Like coming into the away locker room, I’ve never been there before. Stepping on the court with the away team, so it was definitely different.”
But Okoro wasn’t the only player in this hardcourt melodrama.
In acquiring Okoro, the Bulls had to part ways with Lonzo Ball. Not as easy as it would seem considering Ball was seldom available in his Bulls tenure, suffering a horrific knee injury that almost cost him his career and sidelined him for two-and-a-half seasons.
Even now, the Cavs are operating with a strict plan in maintaining Ball’s health. He did play in the opener, putting in just under 12 minutes of work, but he will not play in back-to-back games to start the season and will operate with a minutes restriction.
A very similar sounding plan.
Then again, the Cavs are operating in a much different space than the Bulls (1-0) are. Cleveland was the top seed in the Eastern Conference last season, before flaming out below expectations in the second round.
They want to keep Ball up and running for the regular season but be able to unleash him come playoffs. Coach Kenny Atkinson made that very clear.
“Really with (Ball), more than anyone, our goal with him is to have him ready for the playoffs,” Atkinson said. “There’s a reason this guy was a second overall pick in our league. He’s one of those guys that makes other players better, which is a coach’s dream, right?”
Donovan wouldn’t argue that.
And while it would seem that an underlying reason for moving Ball for the more available Okoro was because the Bulls and Cavs are in such a different place of expectations, Donovan said that wasn’t necessarily the case.
“When I spoke to the front office about (the trade), it was, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity and what do you think about Issac?’ “ Donovan recalled. “I think the trade in my opinion was good (for both teams). We needed a physical defender and some physicality and Isaac brings that to the table. Where (Cleveland is) as an organization now in terms of trying to make a deep playoff run, they had some (backcourt) injuries last year and this shores up their backcourt a little bit more.”
Okoro and all that expected physicality or not, what Donovan witnessed the first five minutes of Tuesday’s opening quarter did not exactly leave him pleased in being forced to call a timeout.
Turnovers, bad fouls, an unwillingness to defend, and free passes to the rim put the Bulls in an 18-6 hole and forced the coach to gather the troops for a little heart to heart.
“There was definitely more opportunities to be physical at the basket,” Donovan said. “I just felt we were constantly shooting ourselves in the foot.”
It would get cleaned up late in the game in pulling out the win, and now the same two teams will do it again on Thursday, this time at the United Center.
“It’s a funny way in the business,” Okoro, who finished with 11 points, said of the schedule out of the gate. “But at the end of the day I’m on the Chicago Bulls and I’m trying to bust Cleveland’s ass any day.”
The Coby White-Josh Giddey relationship is a strong one that continues to grow on and off the court, but if the Bulls are expecting to take a step forward in the Eastern Conference it would be a big help if one of the two can prove to be an All-Star.
The team took huge strides offensively last season, but that came with a price on the defensive end. That’s where the focus has been through one week of training camp.
