Happy Friday! While Eli probably isn’t quite in Arizona just yet, hopefully, he’s a plane cocktail in by now!
Little shoutout to Eli also here, the guy has done a fantastic job on Bulls coverage over the last month or so post-Olympics when there has been just about nothing to work with. We’re almost in the clear, a month from now we’ll be in the preseason and have actual Bulls basketball to talk about.
Alright, for now, let’s get to today’s bullets.
Bulls Bullets
- In yesterday’s bullets, Eli had a quote from Paul George’s podcast from DeMar DeRozan praising Billy Donovan. I had another one that stuck out to me about Alex Caruso. Don’t get me wrong, moving on from Caruso and DeMar was 100% the correct move, but those two were so fun to watch, so easy to root for, and so great to have on our team. Anyway, DeMar mentioned how Caruso was one of his top 3 favorite teammates of all time:
- “One thing I really appreciate about my time in Chicago was definitely my teammates. All of them. From Coby White to Pat Williams, Vuc, Zach, Lonzo, all those guys that I played with. It was a special time. I gained a different type of bond with most of those guys that was there for sure. My dog AC. That’s my favorite… Listen, my bad AC [for not naming earlier]. Caruso… I gotta put this out here. Caruso is probably my top 3 favorite teammates of all time. I love that dude man. I love… I love AC man. He knows. He knows how I greet him every time. That’s my dog.”
- It was nice to see DeMar praise his teammates in Chicago. It’s a shame that group failed so miserably, but for a time there prior to Lonzo’s injury it really did feel like they had something going. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
- While I love DeMar, he was also on ESPN’s First Take earlier this week where he had a bit of an eyebrow-raising quote. He told Stephen A. Smith that the year Kawhi Leonard led the Raptors to a title, he has no doubts he would have been able to do the same:
- “Yeah, never to discredit those guys–they won it, they deserve it. I finally had gotten to a point where I was happy for them. But for sure, I definitely feel like that. The only person we couldn’t beat was LeBron, that’s just what it was. And I felt, off the year we had before, we just needed one more piece to kind of push over the top, and that piece came to be LeBron going to the West. I didn’t get an opportunity to see what would’ve happened, but the utmost confidence within myself, I have no doubt in my mind the same outcome would have happened.”
- I totally understand where he’s coming from, and it’s not like there’s much else to say. Also, I’ve learned for DeMar’s time here never to doubt him. But at the same time…yea I’m not so sure. Kawhi Leonard was the best player on the planet for a few weeks there, I’m not sure anyone else was going to lead Toronto to that title. And even so, he got some help with the Klay Thompson injury.
- Ok, enough DeMar. Eli wrote earlier this week about how it’s Coby White’s time to be the Bulls’ go-to scorer in the clutch. Nothing new from me on that really other than I’m just excited to see him get those chances. DeMar rightfully got most of those late-game chances last year. But now that Coby White has had his breakout year and the team has gotten younger, I’m excited to see him take a little bit more of a leadership role. He should be the late-game go-to option the majority of the time now, and I’m excited to see if he sinks or swims in that spotlight.
- Dwyane Wade’s statue reveal has a date! The Miami Heat will reveal Wade’s statue on October 27, and then they will host a Dwyane Wade Statue night on October 28 when they host the Detroit Pistons.
- Tab filled us in with an update from the new Chicago Sports Network, and while it could be worse news it’s not necessarily the most inspiring update with the Bulls season just a month away.
- Let’s let the Bulls starting lineup from the 1996 NBA Finals take you into the weekend: