Bulls Insider

Lonzo Ball can help Bulls, but roster issues go deeper

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After standout losses, Billy Donovan likes to say everything is on the table. And everything should be following the Chicago Bulls’ second straight largely non-competitive defeat on Wednesday night in New Orleans.

The issue is: Until Lonzo Ball returns, what, exactly, can Donovan and his staff do?

Sure, he could perhaps start veteran Goran Dragić over Ayo Dosunmu because Dragić represents the Bulls’ best pick-and-roll player, lob thrower and pace pusher.

Or maybe Donovan returns to a preseason look with Javonte Green over Patrick Williams, who has lapsed back into stretches where his impact isn’t readily apparent.

But those moves would represent mere band-aids on the larger issue at hand. And that’s a roster that, especially with Ball and Coby White sidelined, lacks 3-point shooting and two-way players. Williams possesses the potential to be one, but he’s a long ways away from being considered as such.

Is any of what’s currently ailing the Bulls truly a surprise? The lack of shooting has been acknowledged since the failed pursuit of Danilo Gallinari during last offseason’s free agency period. For perspective, this dynamic, again, is exacerbated by the absences of Ball and White.

And Ball representing the lone, legitimate two-way player from the main rotational core is an issue dating to last season. The solid signings of Dragić and Andre Drummond didn’t fully address that. While both possess two-way talent, both also are reserves. And neither is playing enough minutes, nor in crunch time, to truly matter.

Most preseason prognostications, including a 44-38 mark from this observer, pegged the Bulls as a team with playoff but not championship aspirations. So it's not as if external expectations were high, although executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas upped the ante on the eve of training camp when he said he expected improvement over last season's first-round playoff exit.

The Bulls currently aren't playing like a playoff team.

As of Thursday morning, the Bulls rank 27th and 28th with their averages of 10.4 3-pointers on 29 attempts per game. While today’s NBA isn’t solely about 3-point shooting, the Bulls’ lack of it, combined with their current struggles finishing at the rim, are why their offensive rating sits 24th.

Seemingly everything is from the midrange. The Bulls rank middle of the pack — 16th — in free-throw attempts and their turnover rate has dropped to 20th, thwarting plenty of transition opportunities.

Little is coming easy.

That includes the schedule. Must-win games don’t exist in November. But Friday night at home against the Orlando Magic is shaping up to be fairly large.

Why? All that follows is a brutal stretch beginning next Monday with a home matchup against the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics, a road game against the potent Milwaukee Bucks and then a five-game swing against Western Conference teams — two of which would currently be playoff teams (Jazz, Suns), one of which sits in the play-in bracket (Kings), and two of which, including the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, sit just outside that postseason picture.

That this stretch begins against the Magic will raise anew the debate on Karnišovas’ bold move to acquire Nikola Vučević at the 2021 trade deadline. Largely praised at the time as an aggressive indication of management’s desire to push the Bulls back into relevancy, its long-term ramifications remain in question.

Particularly since Vučević, as an unrestricted free agent in 2023, could walk for nothing. Vučević has said he’s happy here. But the Bulls may have to extend a higher-than-market-value offer merely to make sure they don’t lose an asset that cost so much.

That price tag — Wendell Carter Jr. and two first-round picks, the second of which likely will convey in 2023 — opened a win-now window followed by the sign-and-trade acquisition of DeMar DeRozan and max contract retention of Zach LaVine. Neither Vučević nor LaVine owns a playoff series victory on their resumes.

As for future big moves, Karnišovas has cited the need for continuity — and his desire to see the vision of his fully formed roster with a healthy Ball — consistently since the 2022 trade deadline. The Bulls also aren't overflowing with trade assets.

And as for disgruntled fans seeking a coaching change, Karnišovas has just as much respect for and confidence in Donovan as when they first formed their partnership.

Back-to-back non-competitive losses are a bad look, recalling the way this Ball-less team limped to the finish line last season. Internally, the Bulls have to try to take solace that six of the nine losses have been competitive and that Ball has yet to suffer any setbacks in his quest to play this season, possibly beginning in January.

Ball long has been known as the ultimate connecting piece. But his value to this roster seems to be growing by the day.

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