(670 The Score) The Bulls are in a delicate spot entering the new season, as they took a competitive step backward with their offseason moves but aren’t in a full-scale rebuild.
With the start of training camp looming next week, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and head coach Billy Donovan on Wednesday stressed that the Bulls’ goal is to win at the highest level they can.
“We’re going to try to win every game,” Karnisovas said in an appearance on the Mully & Haugh Show. “Because going back to development – what goes into winning? And that’s the only way you can teach those guys how to win games, is going through that. With a lot of things to be determined, I think training camp will show a lot of things.”
Looming over the Bulls’ approach is the top-10 protected first-round pick they owe the Spurs in 2025 in a draft class that’s projected to be really strong. The Bulls are coming off a 39-43 season in which they lost in the play-in tournament. They then traded defensive wizard Alex Caruso to the Thunder for guard Josh Giddey in June and sent star forward DeMar DeRozan to the Kings in a sign-and-trade deal in July. All the while, they've looked to trade guard Zach LaVine but haven't yet found a deal to their liking.
The Bulls selected forward Matas Buzelis at No. 11 overall in the NBA Draft as well. His role will be one of many questions the Bulls need to sort out when practice begins Tuesday, and his playing time – or lack thereof – will be a hint about how the Bulls are approaching a season that start with a focus on balancing competing and developing younger players.
“When people look at the development piece of a player, they only look at it through the lens of playing time,” Donovan said. “They think, ‘OK, the only way to develop a player is just throw him on the court, play him 35 minutes, let him make mistakes and figure it out from there.’ You’ve got to be able to help a young player in particular the things that really go into winning and the things that go into being a successful player. Is playing time part of it? Sure. Adversity is also a huge part of that. How are they going to respond to tough games, being exposed, not having the experience? I think for a young player, (it’s about) developing a routine, what do they do, how do they recover? This idea of, ‘Hey listen, we’re just going to take a bunch of young players, throw them out there and just give them playing time,’ I think there’s also things with development, you’ve got to earn things too.
“Our mentality and focus is we’re going into every game trying to win. So when you look at a guy like Matas, yes, part of his development is being on the court, no question. But he also needs to develop a routine. He also needs to understand the league. He needs to understand who he’s playing against. There may be a situation that Arturas and I sit down and maybe with the amount of minute he’s getting (with the Bulls) and say, ‘Hey listen, he needs to go down to the G League and get more minutes.’ The development part is such a bigger process than just, ‘Hey, go on the court and work on the shooting and ball-handling.’
“What are the things that really go into winning? Because at the end of the day, you’re trying to compete and win. You want to help a player develop winning habits.”