In the eyes of many, the NBA season doesn’t really begin until Christmas Day.
Try telling that to DeMar DeRozan’s knees on Saturday night.
The Bulls veteran sat at his locker draped in ice postgame, fresh off a 40-plus minute work night in the loss to the Cavaliers.
“I don’t even want to get up,” DeRozan joked with the media.
There will be no rest for the weary, however. And while DeRozan was well aware of how many on the outside view the regular-season schedule and the benchmark Christmas plays in it, he knows what he and his teammates have already been through.
A destination training camp in Nashville to try and bond, only to have that bond quickly tested by a poor start and two-time All-Star Zach LaVine letting it be made public that he would be all in on moving elsewhere in a trade.
Just when it felt like rock bottom in a 124-97 blowout loss in Boston on Nov. 28, however, LaVine was shut down with a right foot injury and the Bulls took off. They’ve gone 8-4 since then and done so with improvements in both their offensive and defensive efficiency.
The ball is moving, the scoring is balanced, and the defensive is more like it was last season when the Bulls finished fifth in that department.
“We’ve been resilient,” DeRozan said. “The first part of the season, there was a lot of emotion, a lot of frustration. We dug ourselves out of that hole and found the positivity to lean on, kind of thrust ourselves toward the right direction.”
That’s where DeRozan wants this thing to pick up when the Bulls (13-18) reconvene from their two-day Christmas break, hosting Atlanta on Tuesday.
“We have to continue to do that, understanding that the last few weeks we’ve been playing together, playing amazing, positivity, energy, everything has been there,” DeRozan said. “Just come back (after Christmas) and feed from that. Understand that we can go into the new year with a whole different type of outlook for this team.”
And very likely a new-look team.
While the trade market for LaVine has been a very quiet one, business could pick up after Jan. 15, when the rest of the players that signed contract extensions last summer become eligible to be traded. There is a scenario in which LaVine reacclimates himself back into the mix, and the front office opts to wait until the offseason to try and move him, but if both sides get their way LaVine will be moved sooner than later.
What he can do until the right deal comes along is ball out on both ends of the floor.
Offense has never been an issue for LaVine, but this isn’t the same offense he left a few weeks ago. The days of isolation are all but over, saved for the final minutes of close games with DeRozan the central figure in that.
And then on the defensive end, if LaVine shows that he can be part of a top five defense like he did last season, that only improves his standing in the eyes of potential suitors.
Coach Billy Donovan sees no reason why LaVine won’t do that.
“I think it’s really hard to have a top five defense and play five against four,” Donovan said, referring to what LaVine accomplished last year. “He’s always been a good defender on the ball. I think he takes personal pride in guarding the ball and doing those things. I think he’s gotten better with his help, I think he’s gotten better off the ball.
“For us, we need him to do what he does well, and if he can do that it only makes us better and helps us.”
