Set to take the court at the United Center against Milwaukee on Oct. 7, the Bulls will give us our first look at several – if not all – of their new toys.
And with Jim Boylen’s emphasis on having multiple ball-handlers in the game at once, we can already expect to see some pretty interesting lineups take shape. During Day 1 of Training Camp, for example, we got wind of a lineup that featured Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine, Tomas Satoransky, Thaddeus Young, and Lauri Markkanen. While the lineup may have been jump-started by injuries to Wendell Carter Jr. and Chandler Hutchison, it still symbolized what Boylen’s looking to do with his versatile roster.
We’re still not quite sure what other lineups are taking place behind closed doors, but it won’t be long before we get a look. In a recent Sun-Times article, Boylen discussed the team’s intent to shuffle the starting lineups throughout the preseason.
“We’ll move people around, we’ll change lineups,” Boylen said. “Again, as it progresses, you might see us narrow even the preseason rotation, some of this has to do with injury and how guys are feeling. So it’s something we’re going to meet on [Saturday]. I’m also going to meet with [vice president of basketball operations] John [Paxson] and [head trainer] Chip [Schaefer] and lay out kind of a map of the next 10 days, what it’s going to look like.’’
In many ways, this is expected for preseason basketball, especially when you take into account the normal low-usage for key contributors like Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. But either way, it sure does sound like the Bulls will get creative.
Indeed, everything Boylen has been discussing over this past week feels like it’s alluding to large off-the-ball roles for players like Coby White, Tomas Satoransky, and Ryan Arcidiacono. The front-court will be its own interesting rotation to watch too, as Wendell Carter Jr. has struggled to maintain full health and new pieces like Daniel Gafford, Thaddeus Young and Luke Kornet are all battling to prove their worth.
I don’t know about you, but this all sounds like it’ll make for a fun set of preseason games. Three more days!