Rightfully so, as the Bulls coach knew that what’s been rolled out the last few weeks just wasn’t good enough.
That’s why Donovan and his staff have been in the lab experimenting with new-look lineups and rotations, trying to hold down the fort until players like Lonzo Ball (knee), Alex Caruso (wrist) and Patrick Williams (wrist) are given the green light to return.
For all three it’s not if, but when, but it’s the when that remained a mystery.
According to Donovan, Caruso and Williams are waiting to be scanned again – possibly in the next week or so – so that they can be cleared for contact as long as everything healed up. Once they start practicing, it becomes days not weeks for a return.
Ball was still a work in progress, running both forward and laterally, but also having to be backed off of both whenever there’s been soreness. According to Donovan, Ball is not ahead of schedule, but he’s not behind. That means the point guard was still a mid-to-late March return, with the hope of getting him in a rhythm the last eight-to-10 games of the regular season.
Until then, Donovan continued preaching embracing the adversity, as well as looking for personnel answers with the players that aren’t in street clothes.
That’s why the “Bruise Brothers’’ has been a topic of discussion, as Donovan continues to try and see if the pairing of Nikola Vucevic and Tristan Thompson on the court at the same time has staying power.
There were a few good moments for the two in Atlanta, but not so much against the Bucks on Friday, as the two bigs – who actually started that game – seemed to clog up the driving lanes on offense, didn’t help with spacing, and then on the defensive end had matchup issues.
That’s why Donovan went away from it pretty quickly, as Vucevic finished the game a plus-11 in the plus/minus category, while Thompson was a minus-25.
“It’s not fair to those guys because they haven’t really been able to be together a lot on the floor working on it,’’ Donovan said of those two playing together. “I’m kind of going on the fly here a little bit. I liked the idea of having Tristan start the game. It could be something we’re going to have to build out because I do think some of our spacing challenges offensively have needed to be better. It’s the lack of time that we’ve had together.’’
Not that Donovan should scrap that look all together because styles do make the fight, and there are some teams – like a Cleveland – where the “Bruise Brothers’’ might have more success against a frontcourt that starts three seven-footers.
Monday against Philadelphia?
Vucevic and Thompson starting might not be the best idea, especially with the pick-and-roll machine that is James Harden and Joel Embiid. The coach would be better served to have Javonte Green starting, just so he has physical/athletic wings to throw at Harden.
Either way, after the game in Philadelphia, the Bulls should have a chance to catch their breath, playing winnable games against Detroit, Cleveland and Sacramento.
After those three it’s at Utah, at Phoenix, home to Toronto and then at Milwaukee, so losing streaks need to come to an end as playoff momentum builds.
“The biggest thing for me is when we get into this point of the season, I think you want to be playing really good basketball,’’ Donovan said. “If you’re not playing well and you have a great seed, to me it really doesn’t make a difference.’’
