It’s not proving to be a quick fix.
Bulls coach Billy Donovan saw the defensive breakdowns way too often last season, and with basically the same cast of characters returning for the 2022-23 campaign, it reared its ugly head once again in Tuesday’s preseason opener.
Just a bad night at the office? Maybe, if there weren’t so many dismal nights last season.
That has to change, and it starts with an attitude on that end of the floor.
If there was one bothersome takeaway for Donovan in the 129-125 loss to New Orleans at the United Center, it was the lack of competitiveness, especially at the point of attack on screens.
“Our competitive spirit needs to be a lot better than it was in my opinion,’’ Donovan said, after getting a look of the performance on film. “That was the part for me where you walk away from that and you’re disappointed because that’s not who we’ve been in training camp, that’s not the team I’ve seen out there every day for the first six days of training camp.
“I’m not saying our guys have this mentality, but there could be a point of, ‘Hey, it’s preseason, let me ease my way into this, kind of get a rhythm … ‘ We can’t have that. You’ve got to establish an identity or one is going to be established for you.’’
Few know that better than Donovan, who saw two very different identities with his squad last year.
In the first half of the season, the Bulls were relatively healthy and the identity was a defense that caused havoc in the opposing team’s backcourt. In the second half they did a complete 180, and it was a team that was simply in havoc both defensively and offensively on too many nights.
That’s why the Bulls finished 22nd in defensive rating, 16th in points allowed (112 per game), and 26th in opponents’ field goal percentage.
No biggie?
Not when the two best defensive teams in the league last season just so happened to be the last two teams standing when Golden State beat Boston in the Finals. And not when the top end of the Eastern Conference are loaded with teams that thrive on locking offenses down.
But there’s another layer to the Bulls’ defense, and that’s equally concerning.
Donovan’s crew is best offensively when they are pushing the action and in transition. The easiest way to do that is with steals or causing the opposition to miss shots. Made shots means inbounding the basketball, and allowing opposing defenses time to set up.
New Orleans scored 40 points in that opening quarter and shot 70% from the field. That’s not going to get it done.
It didn’t last season, and it won’t now.
And while Lonzo Ball — unquestionably the best defender in that starting unit — was back in Chicago after undergoing left knee surgery last week, he was still weeks away from even getting an evaluation, forget playing anytime soon.
So what does that mean short-term? Veterans like Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic have to take some more pride on the defensive end.
Like last season, the Pelicans exploited the Bulls’ pick-and-roll defense, which means it starts there.
“We’re going to have to help each other a little bit more than we did,’’ Donovan said. “I didn’t think there was any presence on the ball, I didn’t think there was any presence at the rim … there’s just some things that competitively we’ve just got to be better at.’’
NOTE: Guard Coby White was a full participant in the Thursday practice, after an MRI on his knee came back clean. He was expected to play in the preseason game against Denver on Friday.
