Coach and front office can’t always be philosophically aligned.
Thursday was the latest reminder of that.
In the green corner was executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and sidekick/general manager Marc Eversley, knowing all too well that Trail Blazers success means Bulls success. The Bulls hold the lottery-protected first-round pick from Portland, but only if their visitors from the Western Conference make the playoffs. Otherwise, it carries over for another year through 2028.
In the red corner was the coach from Rockville Centre, New York, who continues spending long nights in the office trying to figure out how he can help will this mishmash of a roster to a win. Billy Donovan doesn’t know any other way.
Something had to give.
For the 11 straight time it was Donovan and the roster he’s been given.
Thanks to another high turnover game – 20 in this one – the Bulls (24-36) stumbled to the worst month in franchise history with an 0-11 February, losing 121-112.
The Bulls did get 20 points from Matas Buzelis, but even he wasn’t great on a 6-of-16 shooting night.
Not that Karnisovas & Co. should have minded much. Portland’s win kept the Blazers in the No. 9 spot for the play-in, still trying to close in on No. 8 Golden State.
And while Donovan wasn’t looking to offer a helping hand in that, he also wasn’t oblivious to the entire situation. Especially with the concept of adding a second first-round pick in a loaded class.
“The discussions I had with them when the trade deadline was finalized was, ‘Nothing has changed, try and get these guys to play to the best of their ability, we know it’s going to be somewhat challenging with seven new players,’ “ Donovan said of the situation. “Even talking to ownership it’s been, ‘Hey, go out there and do your very best.’ There has been no indication from ownership or the front office of, ‘Hey listen, if we finish here, here or here …’ or ‘Listen, don’t worry about playing these guys, just play these guys.’ There’s been none of that at all.
“Philosophically, I get the dynamics once June, whatever date that draft date is, I get how that today and forwards impacts all of that. It’s not like I’m sitting over there saying, ‘Well, it’s a close game right now, let’s sit Josh (Giddey) and Tre (Jones) and Jalen (Smith).’ There has not been that. And I think if I did do that they would say, ‘Listen, you need to put the best guys out there.’ “
A nice idea for Donovan to hold on to, but with the building pressure the front office is starting to feel it’s not in their best interest to playing the “best guys” at this point. They made sure of that by trading some of their better guys.
If Donovan needed a reminder of that it came in the final minutes against Portland after a Leonard Miller dunk cut the deficit to just three with 3:37 left. Rather than build off that and continue the rally, however, the Bulls defense fell apart, outscored 13-7 to close the game out.
It also made it a historic loss, with the Bulls having the third-longest losing streak in franchise history.
“We’re not making excuses. We don’t think we’re 11-game-losing-streak bad?” forward Isaac Okoro said of the latest loss. “At this point we just have to come to the game focused, and do the little things right. Blocking out, not turning the ball over, not letting them get second-chance points. Just doing the little things and we can win games.”
