There was a lot Billy Donovan had no problem doubling down on Sunday afternoon.
After all, while the Bulls coach had time to sit back and reflect on the Flagrant 2 foul by Milwaukee’s Grayson Allen that has now sidelined the heart and soul of his defense in Alex Caruso (fractured right wrist) for the next six-to-eight weeks, Donovan also found out the punishment handed down by the league.
The NBA announced that Allen would be suspended one game because of the injury to come out of what was deemed an excessive non-basketball play.
“I still stand by what I said, it was a really dangerous play,’’ Donovan said of what took place in the Friday night loss to Milwaukee. “Obviously it proved to be that with [Caruso] having to have surgery, so it is what it is. I was worried about that after the game, just based on talking to [Caruso]. There was some talk on the bench about him not playing the rest of the game by the medical guys, and Alex was pretty adamant that he could play … we put him back in there and he finished the game, but talking to him after the game and then speaking to him the next morning, I could tell that there was something wrong. That’s when we found out he had a break and would need surgery.’’
Surgery that would take place on Monday, as the Bulls have to move on without their best defensive player in Caruso.
And that’s what Donovan was stressing to his players – moving on.
Whether they agreed that Allen’s third-quarter mid-air tackle of Caruso was worth one game or should have been much more, he didn’t want to dwell on something they no longer had a say in.
Donovan spoke to the league and said his peace leading up to the punishment being handed out, and so did his front office.
“Maybe people think, ‘You know what he should be out for as long as Alex is out.’ All those things they’re out of my control, they’re not my decisions,’’ Donovan said. “Nothing is changing from what happened the other night to where we are now, and the best thing we can do is move on.’’
Donovan was aware that Milwaukee players had rallied around Allen the 24 hours after the incident, with Jrue Holiday the latest, saying, “Grayson, we know Grayson. He’s not that type of player … Grayson didn’t do it purpose.’’
The team did issue a statement also supporting Allen, saying, “We disagree with the suspension. We support Grayson and look forward to him rejoining our team for Friday’s game vs. New York.’’
Donovan expected nothing less from the Bucks.
“I totally get and understand teammates supporting another player,’’ Donovan said. “I mean that’s the right thing to do and they should do that. But my question would be if the roles were reversed and it was Alex Caruso that took down Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or took down [Khris] Middleton or took down Jrue Holiday in the same way, it sounds like those comments would be that they would basically be saying that’s OK, it wasn’t really a malicious act. So I think you have to look at it if it happened to those guys would that actually be the same response or would there be a different response?’’
The one stance Donovan did back down on a bit was his Friday comments about Allen’s history of dirty plays, going back to his college days at Duke.
“When I made the comment that there’s been a history there, I don’t think anybody should necessarily be evaluated on their past,’’ Donovan said. “I was just making a point that it was not a first time that something like that happened. Certainly his time college, and every incident, everything that happens is totally different, so I don’t want to just totally say that he should be evaluated on what took place in college.’’
