CHICAGO (670 The Score) – The Bulls continued their preseason domination Friday, rolling past the Pelicans in a 121-85 win at the United Center. It marked the second time in four nights the Bulls won by 36 points. Here are the observations of the evening.
Vooch as centerpiece
The Bulls ran most of their half-court offense through big man Nikola Vucevic. It was a conscious effort as the Bulls looked to make slow-footed Pelicans big man Jonas Valanciunas defend.
It also provided a glimpse of how the team will operate in the regular season – Vucevic will be involved in nearly every action in the half-court setting while the lead initiator will rotate between four capable ball-handling options in Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball, DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso.
“It opens up a lot of different areas for us,” Vucevic said. “We got a lot of different ways to score. If I pop, it opens up a lot of space for the guys to drive. If I roll, then guys help from the weak side of the rotation and we got a lot of open looks from the weak side. A lot of the offense will be a two-man game with me and different guys. I think my ability to get be able to roll, to short-roll, make plays out of it or pop, it just gives us different looks that we can use. And we have a lot of great guys in pick-and-roll with Lonzo, DeMar, Alex, Zach and then when Coby (White) comes back as well. It just gives us so many different looks that we can use, and we try to take advantage of it.”
Vucevic’s ability to stretch the floor to the 3-point line and his passing skills serve him well as a centerpiece in the half-court setting. On the left block Friday, Vucevic hit Ball for an easy cutting layup in the first quarter. On another traditional post-up in the third quarter, he sprayed the ball to Caruso for an open 3-pointer after being double-teamed.
Vucevic wasn’t all that efficient with his shot, scoring 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting, but the blueprint for how the Bulls want to operate was evident. Chicago shot 49.0% and recorded 33 assists against 12 turnovers.
“He’s always going to be available because a lot of teams are always going to try to have some kind of basket protection with the five or play pick-and-roll coverage with the five,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “So it kind of gives him some opportunities.”
‘Organize yourselves’
When asked about weighing scripted offense with a free-flowing system, Donovan shared a notable comment about his ideal view.
“I’m trying to help from the bench in dead-ball situations,” Donovan said. “But I’m also wanting to give Zach and Lonzo and DeMar a lot – I wouldn’t say freedom or leeway – but I want to give them a lot of, ‘Call it, you get us organized.’ Because I think if I’m yelling off the bench all the time, what happens is you become slower. Because now they’re looking over, looking over, looking over and I think they’ve got to get accustomed to on makes and misses coming down and flowing. I thought we did a better job actually against Cleveland (on Tuesday) than we did tonight. I thought at times today on made baskets coming down the floor, we were a little bit out of sorts and a little bit stagnant. But I trust those guys. Lonzo is a high-IQ player. So is Zach. So is DeMar. They got to get us organized. They got to communicate, they got to get it in there. There’s some things we have packages wise that’s a little bit more – if not a point A to point B to point C offense – it’s here’s the action and now we can make reads. Here’s the action, we can make reads and play. And I don’t slow them down so to speak on made baskets where we’re walking the ball up the floor.
“If we can play fast and play with some freedom and some randomness and those guys can make plays and organize themselves in those situations, then great.”
LaVine happy to play off ball more
Perhaps the best part of the Bulls adding playmakers this past offseason is that it could free up LaVine to play his optimal role within an offense.
While he was really efficient last season, LaVine also felt the toll of being the primary – and often, sole – playmaker while posting a 31.0 usage rate. The optimal use for LaVine is to scale back a share of the ball-in-his-hands playmaking burden and leverage his superb shooting, cutting ability and athleticism off the ball to finish possessions.
We saw a glimpse of that Friday, when LaVine scored 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting (2-of-7 on 3-pointers) in 28 minutes. While LaVine got his shots and was efficient, it never felt like he was the fulcrum of the offense – because he wasn’t. He got his looks in the flow of the game, which exactly how the Bulls want it.
“He’s a very unselfish player,” Donovan said of LaVine. “He really tries to play the right way. He’s very efficient. That’s the thing with him – he’s an efficient offensive player. He shoots a high percentage from the field and from three
“Probably for at least all of last year, a lot of it was the ball was in his hands creating shots. Now shots are being somewhat generated for him, which is good. And I think he’ll get more accustomed to taking more catch-and-shoot jump shots.”
For his part, LaVine is embracing his adjusted role in the half-court setting.
“You don’t want to have to try to do everything,” LaVine said. “It’s not fun. I’m getting easy shots.
“I can adjust to everything, man, to make it happen.”
Substitution pattern on Donovan’s mind
Donovan mentioned Tuesday that he’d like to have at least two of his main four players – LaVine, Ball, DeRozan and Vucevic – on the floor together as much as possible, if not at all times. With that in mind, here’s a look at the substitution pattern for those four in the first half.
On Friday, the Bulls had at least two of their main four on the floor for the entire first half except for the final 3:42 of the first quarter, when (primarily) DeRozan led the second unit.
The Bulls’ main four played around 12 minutes of the 24-minute first half all together. Donovan plans to continue to toy with the best way to stagger minutes.
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.