NEWSLETTER
Actions speak louder than words … but words are pretty cool too.
Winning four of their last five games, the Chicago Bulls look to be on a much more positive path than in years past. The team’s offense continues to click while the defense slowly improves, and while the stats and film will best show this progress made, all it really takes is a listen to the player’s postgame media availability to see that things have changed inside the Bulls locker room.
“Guys are locked in, and we’re playing for each other,” Thaddeus Young told reporters after the Bulls dominant 120-100 victory over the Rockets. “We understand who our main guys are, but we also understand that there are four other guys that’s around the guy with the basketball, so we all try to move, cut, and make reads for each other. And try to make the game as easy as possible.”
The Bulls are 7-5 this month and now 8th in the Eastern Conference. They have ridden their highly efficient shooting numbers (7th in EFG%) and 8th-highest assists per game to some better-than-expected first-half success. What Young shared above, though, should make us even more excited about what is yet to come.
Often, chemistry can be a forgotten art. Teams that don’t have a true superstar are only as good as the sum of their parts. I think sometimes it can hard to get everyone to buy into that mindset, but the Bulls seemed to have reached that mark, right Coby?
“Everybody just has one common goal, and that’s to win. That’s all we really care about as a team … it’s fun playing with everybody. We all have a good relationship on and off the court. We all get along really well on and off the court, so it’s all love.”
And what do you think, coach?
“These guys I think have done a good job coming into the end of this first half. From where we were on the first game to where we are now, the credit goes to those guys. They put the work in, and they’ve worked really really hard I think to try to get better and improve in a lot of different areas.”
Look, I could add more to this post, but I honestly don’t feel like it’s necessary. The recent comments speak for themselves. We all hoped head coach Billy Donovan and the front office revamp could flip the mentality inside this organization. The work is nowhere near done, don’t get me wrong, but it’s nice to see such a stark contrast from one season ago.
Again, don’t take my word for it, though.
“Light years from where we were last year,” Young said. “Same team pretty much but different mentality, different mindset, different understanding of the game. Everybody is being utilized slightly different than they were last year. Overall, this team is in a great space. We believe we can win every game.”
