Billy Donovan is running out of warnings.
They started in the preseason. The Chicago Bulls coach was blunt with this roster from the beginning. Scoring would be hard. Defense, even harder. There would be no room to showboat or slack off. The Bulls don’t have enough scoring starpower to bail them out of tight games. This team would have to beat their opponents on the glass and in the open court, and on a pure strength of will.
As the 9-8 Bulls struggle to keep themselves above. 500, Donovan’s cautionary messages have transformed into everyday reality.
To guard Ayo Dosunmu, recent losses don’t reflect poor shooting, lackluster defense or an off-kilter team chemistry. The biggest issue for the Bulls is a lack of common sense — a central theme of Donovan’s messaging.
“Coach has been telling us a thousand times to box out,” Dosunmu said after Monday’s blowout loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. “But on film, we’re going to the glass, not boxing out, just standing around. Coach is telling us to get into the ball. Coach is telling us what we have to do physically.
“We keep saying the stove is hot, and we keep touching the stove.”
This is a pivotal point in the schedule for any NBA team. In the first 20 games, coaches and players figure out exactly what works and what doesn’t, which of their offseason dreams were too lofty, who on their team still needs to take another step forward. The adjustments made in December can define the season’s success.
But for the Bulls, there isn’t a magic lever to pull. This team doesn’t need a new scheme or a new system. They aren’t searching for answers — they have them already. And the difference between the right and the wrong side of .500 will be decided by how quickly a young group of role players can grow up into competitors.
“People can talk about how they want to win, they want to win,” Donovan said. “I don’t know. I’d like to go to the moon. I have no interest in doing what it takes to become an astronaut. Right? If you want to win, there’s things you have to do on a consistent basis.”
Even when their season-opening winning streak was active, the Bulls seemed to know it wasn’t entirely for real, reveling in each new victory with the excitability of a kid sneaking to stay up past bedtime. Now that they’re back in the middle again, the Bulls can’t even celebrate their wins.
It’s understandable. The Bulls don’t play like a team with zero margin for error. They bleed second-chance points. They let teams run them over at the perimeter and the rim and even in transition. Their paint defense is only getting worse.
Perhaps the most concerning trend is this team’s propensity to slack off in the game’s opening minutes. The Bulls have the fifth-worst net rating in first quarters (-8.5) as they continue to dig themselves into early deficits.
“Sometimes we’re going to play well and be in close games,” center Nikola Vučević said. “But more often than not, if you continue to play this way, it’s gonna be bad loss after bad loss.”
This most recent dip back to .500 was defined by losses on the injury report. The Bulls are currently juggling a second-string offense as Vučević (knee), Kevin Huerter (pelvis), Dalen Terry (calf) and Isaac Okoro (back) attempt to expedite their returns.
But the Bulls haven’t been whole this entire season.
They started the year without star scorer Coby White and bruising backup center Zach Collins. By the time White returned, the rest of the roster was falling apart. November is typically one of the most brutal months for injuries, a truth reflected across the league by the absences of stars including Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
This team often cites its depth as a strength of the roster. In some ways, that is true. The Bulls’ secondary unit has been a buoying force this season, ranking second overall in bench scoring with 47.3 points per game. But in reality, the Bulls are desperately reliant on a handful of players — particularly Okoro on the defensive end — a fact that has been reflected in the volatility of the past two weeks.
The Bulls are not built to weather a maelstrom of injuries. And when they lose even a single starter, they’re left to fall back on a supporting cast of young players who can’t contribute any consistency.
“The sustainability — that’s not there,” Donovan said. “It’s hard. It’s really, really hard.”
After a fairly grueling opening 10-game run, the Bulls now face a fortuitous streak of games against lower-ranked opponents.
The Bulls will play only one team with a winning record in their next five games. A pair of games against the 2-15 Indiana Pacers should offer the Bulls an opportunity to drag their heads back above water.
But with this team, nothing is guaranteed — and common sense is hard to learn on the fly.
