The only real question left in the regular season for the Chicago Bulls concerns playoff seeding, and it’s not exactly a topic on anyone’s mind.
The non-stop Bears intrigue at Halas Hall has put the Bulls on the backburner, which is still ahead of the Blackhawks, but not where you’d hope the NBA team would be heading into the stretch run.
With 17 games remaining, a probable best-case scenario has the Bulls getting into the playoffs as a No. 8 seed in the East, where they would likely face annihilation at the hands of the Boston Celtics. But at least it would qualify as a playoff series, and getting past the play-in round would be seen by management as a step forward.
Billy Donovan also needs something to cling to in his fourth season as head coach, and third with the same, basic core, so he is highly motivated to finish on a positive note.
But to get to a Celtics matchup, the Bulls have to go all-out the rest of the way, even as they looked like they were running on fumes Monday in the 127-92 blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks, a game they trailed by 28 points after one quarter.
The only good part of getting behind 44-16 after 12 minutes was Donovan had an opportunity to rest his starters in the second half. The Bulls were coming off a long road trip in late time zones with three nail-biting wins and his five starters ranged from 35 ½ minutes (Alex Caruso) to 42 minutes (DeMar DeRozan) in Saturday’s 112-102 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in the finale.
The Bulls had only one day of rest before starting a stretch of three games in four days, so they had a handy excuse to use after the loss. Naturally, DeRozan declined to use it, though he admitted the Bulls were a “step slow” the last two games.
“I feel like every team is due for a butt-kicking of some sort,” DeRozan said. “We’ve got to let (the Mavs) be our last and only one the rest of the season.”
The Bulls have a chance to rebound Wednesday at Indiana, which was five games ahead in the No. 7 spot in the play-in race before Tuesday night’s game at Oklahoma City. The Pacers are hoping to get into the top six and avoid a play-in matchup, trailing the New York Knicks for the No. 4 seed by only 1 ½ games.
“The new play-in format gives everybody (seeded) seven, eight, nine, 10 a chance to get in and that’s where we are right now,” Caruso said Monday. “We’ve got (17) games to go and we’ll see where we stand at the end of that. But just making sure guys that haven’t played in it before or maybe have one or two years of experience playing in the postseason, making sure they’re ready.”
The Pacers recently lost guard Bennedict Mathurin for the season following shoulder surgery, but still has the highest-scoring team in the NBA and can run teams to exhaustion. Donovan is playing four of his five Bulls starters with the pedal to the metal, knowing what’s at stake.
Over the last 15 games since erasing a 22-point deficit in a thrilling overtime win over Minnesota on Feb. 7, Coby White ranks second in the league in minutes played, followed by DeRozan (3rd), Ayo Dosunmu (8th) and Nikola Vučević (13th). Only two other teams — the Knicks and Phoenix Suns — have as many as two players among the top 14 in minutes during that span.
Monday’s embarrassing loss provided a brief reprieve for Bulls starters. Rookies Onuralp Bitim and Julian Phillips received career-high minutes, with Bitim leading the Bulls in scoring with 17 points in 25 minutes. Injuries, close games and DeRozan’s ability to turn it up in the fourth quarter are all factors in the accumulation of his minutes. DeRozan leads the league in average minutes in his 15th season, which Donovan recently lauded as an “old school mentality.”
But there’s also a lack of depth on the roster that has forced Donovan to rely so much on his regulars — and that can be directly pinned on Bulls management, both present and former.
Departed general manager Gar Forman’s gamble on Patrick Williams with the No. 4 pick in 2020 has yet to pay off, partly due to injuries. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas counted on Williams to become a force, and then didn’t find it necessary to get help at the trade deadline despite losing Zach LaVine and Williams for the rest of the season.
Dalen Terry, drafted out of Arizona with the No. 18 pick in 2023, also has yet to develop in his second year and doesn’t even seem to be in the right area code. Torrey Craig provides defense, but a right ankle sprain is among the nagging injuries that prevent him from contributing much.
If every game is considered a “must-win,” it makes sense for Donovan to rely so heavily on his starters down the stretch. But at what point should he bite the bullet and see what they have in Phillips, and perhaps even Bitim, instead of running the starters to exhaustion in pursuit of better play-in seeding?
Asked specifically about Phillips, Donovan said “you try to get him out there as much as you can,” before suggesting the rookie wasn’t ready defensively to guard more experienced star-caliber players.
“Julian will get better at those things and learn those things,” Donovan said. “He’s very bright, he picks things up, he’s a good worker. But a lot of times when they’re staggering Kyrie (Irving) and Luka (Dončić) you’re trying to utilize a guy like Torrey. You can’t expect to match every minute for Alex with those guys.”
An NBA season takes its toll and you have to admire veterans DeRozan and Vučević for never complaining about the workload, especially in the age of load management. Old school is cool.
But if the Bulls really believe they can make the playoffs, Donovan has to make sure they still have some gas left in the tank.
