The Chicago Bulls walked out on the court wearing shirts that said “See Red” — the theme/brand platform for the franchise this season.
By the time the game was over — a 124-104 loss to the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder that had some of the United Center crowd booing — the Bulls’ players were seeing red and told coach Billy Donovan to stay out of the locker room so they could have a players-only meeting.
Billy Donovan says when he walked into the Bulls locker room tonight, players were already in heated conversations.
— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) October 26, 2023
He asked if they wanted him to leave to handle conflict. Players said yes, so he did.
Donovan emphasized that embracing conflict is key for this year’s roster.
A players-only meeting after one game? Well, that escalated quickly.
The positive spin is at least the Bulls are talking. Here’s coach Billy Donovan’s quote, via K.C. Johnson at NBC Sports Chicago.
“That would’ve never happened last year. It would’ve been a quiet group,” Donovan said. “So the confrontation piece is a sign that it’s important to them. And they know we’ve got to be better.”
Donovan also called the Bulls offense “stagnant.” There was clear frustration between center Nikola Vucevic and the other Bulls players about how the offense should flow.
Chicago went into training camp this season trying to install a new offense, one designed to have more motion and ball movement and fewer isolation sets, with Vucevic as the hub. On opening night that transition didn’t go smoothly, with players being frustrated — at points with center Vucevic specifically — and then Donovan and Vucevic had sharp words on the bench during the game. The Bulls finished the night with an anemic 106.3 offensive rating (via Cleaning the Glass). Here was Vucevic’s spin on the post-game discussion:
“I think it was really good for us that we had those. I think it was needed. It was just regular discussions of what needs to be done. A lot of guys said a lot of good things, things that needed to be said. I think we can really use this to learn and change some things that we need to change. It wasn’t anything crazy, no fighting or none of that. It was really constructive. It was maybe one of the first times since I’ve been here that this was like this. And it was really needed....
“I’ve been on teams in the past where we’ve had those, and it worked almost every time where we were able to really fix some things and move on.”
We’ll see if it worked and the Bulls can move on come Friday night when they face the Raptors. After that, the Bulls head out for the road for three games.
Here are some other stories from around the NBA on Wednesday:
