NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bulls roster may look relatively similar to years past, but make no mistake, things are about to look a whole lot different. Billy Donovan is in the midst of his first training camp at the helm of his new team. The experienced head coach brings quite an impressive resume with him to the Windy City, but he sure does have his work cut out for him this season. The front office needs this young, unproven Bulls roster to show some signs of life, and Donovan is the one tasked with trying to make that happen.
One way the new head coach hopes to accomplish this will be with an entirely revamped system on both ends of the floor. While figuring out exactly what that will look like will take weeks, we have started to get a better idea of which direction Donovan wants to take this roster over the first couple of days of training camp, specifically on the offensive end of the court.
Donovan used three words to describe his offensive philosophy when he first spoke with reporters on December 1st: Run, move, and cut. One week later, this already seems to be the message Donovan has gotten across to his players. In Zach LaVine’s conversation with reporters on Sunday, he talked about the offense’s new pace and style:
Really free-flowing. Like I said, it’s not like come down and set up a play. If we have a shot, he is looking to get out and go and get the best shot of the possession. I think that’s the main thing. You don’t have to think about everything, it’s letting athletes and players go play to their strengths, but with some structure as well. A lot of moving, a lot of cutting. I’m all for it. (make the right reads … players will have a lot of freedom which has always been his thing).
Lack of structure naturally sounds concerning, but that’s largely been the key to Donovan’s long-term success. He has not only been one of the most flexible head coaches in the league over his NBA tenure, but he has built a career off simply letting guys play their game their way. Now, at the same time, Donovan has coached some of the most gifted players in the league (let alone, NBA history). From Kevin Durant to Russell Westbrook to Paul George to Chris Paul, it’s easy to let guys play their games when … well … it’s those guys. The Chicago Bulls have no such superstar, and that’s why this will be a unique opportunity for the veteran coach to really test his abilities.
Still, there have been some consistencies in Donovan-led teams that we probably can expect to see inside this Bulls offense. LaVine mentioned the system’s affinity for letting players get their shot fast and use their athleticism. For years now, Donovan’s squads have been one of the more pull-up prone teams in the league. In fact, last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder led the league in pull-up field-goal percentage, and the team took the 6th-most attempts. The team also checked in at 11th in pull-up attempts per game in 2018-19 and 4th in 2017-18. For what it’s worth, the Bulls were 28th in pull-up attempts per game last season.
Donovan-led teams in the NBA have also never really demonstrated much catch-and-shoot prowess. The Oklahoma City Thunder took only 23.1 catch-and-shoot attempts per game last season (26th in the league). The Bulls were 14th in this category in 2019-20. Over the last five seasons, the highest an OKC team finished in the category was 13th in 2018-19. So, what is one thing this further demonstrates? Letting athletes be athletes.
Donovan doesn’t like to see players turned into statues, and that’s exactly why he said this the other week about Lauri Markkanen: “What I do not want him to be, from watching film, is what I would say is one-dimensional – just a catch-and-shoot forward. I think those guys become too easy to guard.”
Donovan is so comfortable with his players on the move that he has never tried to eliminate the mid-range game. I agree that there are plenty of reasons to look for an open 3 before pulling up from the inside the arc, but the Bulls have several players who have referred to the mid-range shot as a key part of their arsenal. The Oklahoma City Thunder scored the 6th-highest percent of their points off the mid-range last season (11.7%), while the Bulls scored the 5th-least. Another important stat: 34.5 percent of OKC’s shots came in the mid-range versus 22.9 percent for the Bulls, per Cleaning the Glass.
We can bicker about pull-up shots and mid-range jumpers all we want, but there are a handful of players that can convert those shots at an efficient rate, especially when a head coach can help ensure those are higher-percentage looks with the appropriate ball movement and spacing. Donovan’s Thunder team finished 10th in true-shooting percentage last season, demonstrating his (and *ahem* Chris Paul’s) ability to make sure his team takes good shots. Where did the Bulls rank despite their open catch-and-shoot 3’s and high-percentage looks at the rim? 26th.
One number we should desperately want to translate over from Donovan’s previous work is the free-throw attempts. Each season Donovan coached the Thunder, the team ranked top-10 in getting to the line. A chunk of that surely stems from having someone like Russell Westbrook at point guard, but it’s also thanks to Donovan’s preferred motion offense that includes plenty of cuts and drives.
The team averaged the 5th-most free-throw attempts per game last season (24.8) and were first in percent of points scored off free-throws (17.9), whereas the Bulls finished 27th in both categories (20.5, 14.5). Why is this so important? Free throws are not only easy buckets, but they can help control the pace of play and stops runs (which the Bulls had plenty of problems doing last season). In other words, there is a reason the Thunder were the 4th-most clutch team in the league in 2019-20.
When push comes to shove, Donovan is not someone who sticks to a singular style of play. Like every coach, he has his opinions, but he has also proven to be one of the more adaptable minds in the league. For example, OKC finished with the 21st fastest PACE in the NBA last season, but they ranked 6th the year prior. Things change, and we shouldn’t expect this Bulls team to look like any specific Donovan team in the past. However, based on what we’ve heard already in training camp and on what we’ve seen from Donovan in the past, those areas we mentioned above might be where we could see the most immediate and substantial change. And considering how this team played last season, that’s a good thing.
