As the Chicago Bulls have pushed their way back into the Play-In Tournament picture this season, they’ve relied heavily on some of their top stars. Zach LaVine has been out for weeks, and guys like Nikola Vucevic and Torrey Craig have also missed significant time, leaving others to pick up the slack.
Coby White and DeMar DeRozan have played a ton of minutes this year. White leads the league in total minutes, and DeRozan is fourth. At 34 years old, DeRozan is entering the latter portion of his career, yet he’s playing the third-most minutes per game of his career thus far.
DeRozan recently spoke about minutes but when head coach Billy Donovan was asked about it, he admitted that he’s a bit concerned.
“I’m concerned about that,” Donovan said via NBC Sports Chicago. “I mean, he’s great. I talk to him all the time. But it’s kind of the situation we’ve been in with Torrey out, Vooch out and Zach out. I want to be mindful of that and always talk and communicate with him. He has played a lot of minutes and I probably need to look at that.”
In addition, DeRozan detailed some ways he’s learned to steal rest during games.
“Me just knowing when a TV timeout is coming,” DeRozan said. “Me knowing a foul is going to happen at some point. Me understanding if you need to tie your shoe, it’s a lot of little things that go into it. If you’re not in the penalty, you can take a foul. Playing so long, you kind of understand when a stoppage is going to come and take advantage of those moments. When a timeout comes, sit there until that 2 minutes, 30 seconds is up. Just take advantage of the little gaps when you can because you know you want to be out there.”
It seems as though DeRozan is content playing a ton of minutes right now, but one has to wonder how long he can keep that up.
