Basketball is DeMar DeRozan’s main hustle, but not his only passion.
The Bulls veteran not only uses boxing as an offseason training tool, but a sport that provides important lessons — both on the court and in life.
So the idea of “styles make the fight’’ brings some excitement to DeRozan’s face, even with all the disappointment so far this season.
As he recently pointed out, a 2-2 record against top-seeded Boston, a 2-0 record against Milwaukee, and talented enough to beat play-in teams like New York, Atlanta, Washington or Indiana.
Then factor in that DeRozan’s Bulls have the 19th easiest remaining schedule, and that’s the path the five-time All-Star sees for this team to actually make some noise in a season filled with far too many thuds.
A long shot?
That’s an understatement, but DeRozan is hoping for a puncher’s chance. If the roster stays the same leading into next week’s NBA trade deadline, an unforeseen lucky punch to the opponent’s chin might just be the only chance this team has.
Two major problems with building a strategy around luck:
The Boston the Bulls beat in the regular season is not “playoff Celtics.” That’s a different animal. The Milwaukee team the Bulls beat wasn’t “playoff Bucks,” and was short-handed. And as far as the possible opponents for the play-in portion of the postseason? Yes, the Bulls have beaten all of them, but have also lost games to each.
The other issue is in the details, and this is where the coaching staff has to take some of the blame.
The media isn’t allowed in practices or shootarounds. There’s no eyes on the team when they are prepping in a hotel ballroom on a road game day.
But the eye test has shown that this team is either ignoring the details or not getting enough of them.
Two games in the last week have come down to executing inbound plays in crucial moments. And in both instances the Bulls have failed.
The latest came in Tuesday’s 108-103 loss to the Clippers, when Alex Caruso watched his inbound pass for Zach LaVine get stripped away by Kawhi Leonard with 5.2 seconds left.
“We ran the play I was supposed to run,” Caruso said. “We maybe just didn’t execute the screening aspect on how they were guarding it because they were switching everything. … But for the most part, it was pretty much what we drew up.”
Pretty much?
Bulls players have been talking about the “details” most of the season, but Caruso knows exactly what championship details look like.
The defensive-minded guard learned that in his Laker days, and revealed over the weekend a key component in his game prep that has been missing with the Bulls.
Caruso keeps mental flashcards on opponents and how he can turn them over, or at least disrupt the possession, and was discussing that.
“Give credit to [former Lakers coach] Frank Vogel, and Rajon Rondo, Jason Kidd, LeBron, all these great basketball minds that I’ve been around,” Caruso said. “Frank was so detailed in his scouts, personnel. He had an IPad every game that had an 8-minute, 10-minute clip of a guy’s moves, what they like to do depending on where they get the ball based on how valuable that player was to his team. So as my routine I would go out, warm-up, get my shots in, shower, and watch the IPad. For two years that’s how I learned and watched.
“The more knowledge you have in this game, the easier it is.”
At this point for the Bulls, tightening up the details sounds like a much better strategy than relying on a puncher’s chance.
