It was a sound plan at the time.
Billy Donovan had seen enough from the starting group he was using after an embarrassing showing in Phoenix two weeks ago, so the Bulls coach wanted a new look, a different energy.
As has been the case far too often the last few seasons, however, this has been a roster where sound plans go to die.
Right after he inserted Alex Caruso and Javonte Green in the starting lineup for Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams, respectively, Green went down with a sore knee, and a few games later Caruso’s tailbone issue reared its ugly head once again.
As for that new-look lineup?
Donovan got to see it in action a whopping one game — a 119-111 loss at Golden State.
Hardly a good enough sample size to judge its effectiveness. That could change on Wednesday night, as the Bulls host Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks, and do so with a real possibility of that grouping being healthy again.
Well, maybe.
Green did return in Atlanta on Sunday, but did so with some minutes restrictions, being used off the bench for 14 minutes because of it. Caruso went through the Tuesday practice, giving the thumbs up on his return, but there was still uncertainty if Donovan would start either because of the injury concerns.
What Donovan has working on his side with this group? Besides the “Big Three’’ of Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan, the rest of the roster is very much ego-free. Green made that very clear.
“Starting, coming off the bench, no difference for me, man,’’ Green said. “I’m just trying to get better, but more importantly, make my teammates better. That’s the ultimate goal. Just win games, and that will take you to the end of where you want to go. That’s my mentality, just do whatever it takes to win games.’’
That’s good, because what Donovan made very clear was that just because Green and Caruso were inserted in the starting lineup in late November, doesn’t mean this grouping will see January, or even late December.
“To be honest with you, we may put Javonte out there and then say, ‘You know what? We need to go back with Patrick.’ ‘’ Donovan said. “It’s more about the combination of guys.’’
Williams did get the start against the Hawks, scoring eight points in 25 minutes of work, and the former No. 4 overall draft pick has played better the last five games, scoring in double digits in three of those contests.
So what can Williams do to get back in starting good graces?
As long as the starting group of Green, Caruso, Vucevic, DeRozan and LaVine play well – once they actually get a few games under their belts – it might not matter what Williams does with the bench unit.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily anything Patrick has or hasn’t done as much as how do you kind of get combinations of players out there that are functioning really, really well?’’ Donovan said. “Clearly I think there’s been some inconsistencies on both units. The starters sometimes and obviously the second unit, so we’re just trying to switch things up and get more consistency from the first six minutes of the game to the last six minutes of the quarter, going to that second unit. We may end up getting to a situation where quite honestly it’s the best thing for our team to keep Patrick there. It’s not like, ‘Hey, he hasn’t played well, he doesn’t function well with that group.’ It’s just we were struggling with consistency at that time.
“When we put Javonte in there I wanted to see what it looked like.’’
Maybe soon Donovan actually will.
