Bulls win fourth straight and continue defending their culture

CLEVELAND — Jimmy Butler would’ve liked nothing more than to welcome newly acquired point guard Cameron Payne onto the court Saturday with a bro hug and a quick reminder of what the culture in his new surroundings is all about.

The hug would have to suffice.

The Bulls’ 117-99 victory against the LeBron James-less Cavaliers was a nice one. This time of year, any win is a nice one, especially with Butler getting a triple-double — 18 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds — and Dwyane Wade falling a rebound short of one.

But with 23 games left in the regular season, when Bulls players are asked about the culture of the organization, the most frequent answer is a non-answer.

“The culture we want to be or bring is just a winning culture,’’ Butler said. “It doesn’t matter the style of basketball you play, how many threes you shoot, how many times you get to the line.

“Just win because then it doesn’t matter what culture. I’m telling you if you win, if we win, ain’t nobody talking about what went down [at Thursday’s trade deadline]. Win and then, ‘Oh, maybe it was a good move.’ That’s just how this league goes.’’

Not exactly accurate, but considering the Bulls fine players who speak out about front-office decisions, it was the best Butler could come up with.

Opposing teams knew exactly what they were going to get for 48 minutes in the Tom Thibodeau era: a grind-it-out, defensive-minded team that would fight for everything.

Said one NBA insider of the 2016-17 Bulls: “I have no idea what they are, but the bigger indictment is they don’t even know who they are.’’

That’s an accusation that general manager Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson take great offense to.

Meeting with reporters for the first time since media day Thursday, Forman and Paxson went out of their way to defend the culture and the plan.

“What I say is that there is a plan in place,’’ Forman said. “We need to get the young guys and continue to get younger, we need to add to this roster and we need to continue to put ourselves in a position where we can take advantage of opportunities when they come.’’

Paxson insisted there was a plan but also said, “Make the playoffs, don’t make the playoffs, we’ll determine what our next step is. [Now is] not the day to talk to [the media] about that or to decide anything.’’

It was the day to start rolling out some of the new faces from the trade. Payne played 12 minutes in his Bulls debut, making two three-pointers, and Joffrey Lauvergne got in for two minutes.

But the key since the deal has been more minutes for Nikola Mirotic, Bobby Portis and Denzel Valentine, and they have responded.

“You want players to step up when they get an opportunity,’’ Wade said.

Not all was joyful for Wade, however. He all but had his 10th rebound in his hands late, but Cristiano Felicio grabbed it away and knocked it out of bounds to negate what would’ve been the fifth triple-double of his career.

“I told him I’m not even going to act like I’m not mad at him,’’ Wade said. “He said he didn’t see me down there, so he took a shot at my height. No, it’s cool. Jimmy got [a triple-double]. Two would’ve been nice.’’

Follow me on Twitter @suntimes_hoops.

Email: jcowley@suntimes.com