At least for a moment, Zach Collins is the only hope for the Chicago Bulls in the post.
There’s no way to overstate the frontcourt problems facing the Bulls for the rest of the season. Starting center Nikola Vučević has been sidelined for two games to “proactively” rest a nagging calf injury. Backup center Jalen Smith is stuck in concussion protocol after suffering symptoms from a nasty elbow to the jaw during last week’s game against the New York Knicks.
And that takes the Bulls to the end of their depth chart, where Collins — a 6-foot-11 center who just joined the team three weeks ago at the trade deadline — is the only option remaining. The result has been a brutal onslaught of minutes as he tries to get his bearings in Chicago.
“I’m tired,” Collins joked after playing 38 minutes Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers. “I guess I’m getting all the minutes I want.”
With forward Patrick Williams also sidelined due to injury, the Bulls are getting creative to fill out their frontcourt. After Collins, the next-tallest player available is rookie Matas Buzelis, who provides a reedy 6-10 option as the current starting point guard. The Bulls called up two-way forward E.J. Liddell — who is only 6-6 but still offers a little muscle — from the G League for Wednesday’s game if Collins got into foul trouble early.
Even when Vučević and Smith are available, the Bulls are one of the more undersized teams in the league. They thrive on a fast pace of play that spaces the floor and forces opponents to make hard decisions in transition.
While the coaching staff has worked to ease the transition for Collins, coach Billy Donovan noted that this aspect of the Bulls playbook has been the hardest adjustment for the team’s three deadline additions. It is particularly difficult at center, where players are the least accustomed to pushing the pace in the open court.
While Collins is still getting used to the upbeat tempo, Donovan praised him for bringing something different to the Bulls — a stronger tone of physicality on both ends of the court.
“Zach’s not got a lot of regard for his body,” Donovan said. “He throws his body around in there.”
This has always been a strength for Collins. He’s not always the biggest guy on the court, but he’s also not a pick-and-pop guy. Collins likes to scrap. That means diving on the court for balls, crushing his shoulder into the chest of an opponent in the paint and earning a whistle here and there along the way.
That physicality is a relief to the rest of the undersized Bulls roster. Collins recorded a career-high 17 rebounds in Wednesday’s loss to the Clippers — accounting for almost half the team’s total in the game. Without his presence in the paint, the Bulls would have been entirely overpowered by bigs such as Ivica Zubac in the matchup.
“I like to use my body,” Collins said. “Sometimes they call the fouls and sometimes they don’t, but I’m always going to try to be physical.”
It’s unclear when Vučević or Smith will be available again, but their return won’t necessarily push Collins back to the bottom of the depth chart. Donovan had hinted at the possibility of using Collins in two-big rotations, an option that could become useful if the Bulls remain thin at power forward.
In the process, Collins might just play himself into a larger role with the Bulls, who are still weighing options at center as they plan to field offers for Vučević once again this offseason. But Collins isn’t letting himself fixate on his statistics in his early weeks in Chicago.
“You want to help put your team in a position to win,” Collins said. “Great individual games don’t really mean much if you can’t get the win.”