With less than 9% of the NBA’s regular season in the books, it’s too early to call sample sizes full-grown trends.
Especially when it comes to a Bulls team that counted on “continuity’’ to be the standard in which they close the gap in the Eastern Conference when offseason roster decisions were made, but instead have been dealt a cruel hand of inconsistency in that department.
Starting point guard Lonzo Ball? A late-September knee surgery with an ongoing wait-and-see for a re-evaluation.
Max contract Zach LaVine? A knee management program that has the two-time All-Star a part-time regular both in games and practices.
The defense? Great in quarters two and three, while very suspect when it comes to starting and finishing games.
As DeMar DeRozan pointed out, it’s only that third one that his locker room has control over.
“It just hasn’t been good enough, especially at the start of games,’’ DeRozan said of the defense. “We’ve got to come out more aggressive, and not let teams get comfortable. We have too much indecision. We’ve got to take out the indecision once they hit a couple shots. We’ve got to make them do something else.’’
DeRozan was very right about one thing: Opposing teams are operating way too comfortably against the Bulls.
While DeRozan & Co. are only giving up 113.1 points per game [15th in the NBA], they are allowing 24th in field goal percentage at 47.8% and 28th in three-point percentage at 43.2%.
A healthy Ball will help that when — and if — he returns at some point this season, but the LaVine situation is proving to be much trickier. Defense is about communicating and repetition, especially when the focus of that defense is on a backcourt playing a disruptive style like coach Billy Donovan expects.
That’s hard to do when LaVine is operating under restrictions.
The LaVine the Bulls saw play a tenacious brand of defense with Team USA in the 2021 summer and into the first six weeks of last season is gone. Or at least on sabbatical for a time.
LaVine’s defensive rating in the 2019-20 season was a career-best 110.4. He was well on his way to breaking that early last season, and then the left knee started to betray him. By the end of the 2021-22 campaign, he finished with a career-worst rating of 116.1.
Through the four games he’s played in this season, he sits at 114.6, which is still over his career average of 113.7.
Brass tacks? The Bulls maxed LaVine at five years, $215 million with the hope that he would stay an elite scorer, as well as continue inching his way to being more of a two-way player. At least in Year 1 of the deal, that’s very unlikely.
That doesn’t mean that executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas shouldn’t sleep well at night.
His bench additions of Goran Dragic and Andre Drummond have resulted in a bigger impact than expected.
Dragic has proven to be the tip of the spear for the “Bench Mob II,’’ leading the team in plus/minus with a plus-31. Considering he’s done that in just 17.4 minutes per game is what’s been remarkable.
Drummond, who was still dealing with a shoulder issue as of Monday, hasn’t been far off, tied for second in plus/minus with Alex Caruso at plus-29, while averaging 16.8 minutes per game.
But the most important stat that Karnisovas can embrace? Two of the three wins his team currently has.
In beating Miami and Boston — both expected to be playoff teams — the Bulls at least showed some life against the East’s elite.
Last season, it was a combined 1-14 record against Miami, Boston, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. It’s 2-1 so far this season, and the Bulls had the 76ers on the ropes Saturday night.
Just a meaningless sample size? The Bulls hope not.
