There was a time when the Bulls didn’t try and justify all their misfortune.
Unfortunately, it’s been awhile.
Former coach Tom Thibodeau – still a bad word for some to mutter at the Advocate Center – didn’t dwell in the land of excuses. It was “next man up,’’ “just do your job,’’ and “the magic is in the work’’ when it came to “Thibs.’’
And while Thibodeau won a lot of games for Bulls ownership, maybe his most impressive showing in that coaching seat came in the 2012-13 season in which he willed the Derrick Rose-less Bulls to 45 wins, and then upset Brooklyn in the first round of the playoffs with Luo Deng and Kirk Hinrich sidelined for Game 7.
That meant the likes of Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli pulling their weight with the starters, and a bench that included Daequan Cook and Marquis Teague contributing key minutes.
The relationship between Thibodeau and the front office eventually spiraled to the point of no return, as the Bulls pulled off a smear campaign to paint the picture of Thibodeau’s supposed high-intensity minutes causing injury and a missed championship window.
Purposely glossed over, however, is the fact that since Thibodeau’s departure and with the front office going out of its way to monitor minutes for its players, the Bulls have seen even more injuries post-Thibs. Rather than pointing a finger at a coach, they have taken the approach of bad luck suiting up in a jersey and following this organization.
Hypocrisy? Some. Flipping the narrative? Definitely.
Bulls coach Jim Boylen is hoping to get the franchise out of that habit.
That’s what this offseason was about. Building a roster in which the parts are more “interchangeable.’’
Wendell Carter Jr. (core surgery) isn’t able to be at full go come the start of training camp on Sept. 30? Veteran Thaddeus Young steps in for the time being. Zach LaVine needs to take over the point and play-make late in games? Tomas Satoransky or rookie Coby White can slide over to that other guard spot and be an outside scoring threat.
That wasn’t the case the last few seasons, where Boylen felt the parts were so different that when one player went down to an injury, his replacement had such a different skillset that the entire offensive and defensive sets had to change.
Swiss Army Knife-type players wanted and acquired.
“So we go from not having enough guys like that to adding three guys like that in six months,’’ Boylen told the Sun-Times recently. “The pieces now fit. The best teams run the same [bleep] with the first group that they do with the second. We haven’t been able to do that all time. I wanted a team that could be redundant with interchangeable parts.’’
And while the starters are all but set – minus the point-guard position – there are still some intriguing training camp battles to keep an eye on.
Chandler Hutchison vs. Denzel Valentine – Both are dealing with offseason injuries, and both could likely be sidelined at the start of camp, and while Valentine is considered more of a two than a three like Hutchison, this is a battle of gaining valuable minutes off the bench. It’s make or break time for Valentine this season.
Kris Dunn vs. Coby White – Satoransky is the leader at the starting point guard spot, but the Bulls drafted White to be the point guard of the future. Don’t expect Dunn to cooperate with that as long as he’s in a Bulls uniform.
Luke Kornet vs. Daniel Gafford vs. Cristiano Felicio – This is about backing up Carter for the time being. But if Markkanen can successfully play minutes at the five, with Young at the four, minutes for all three could be limited. Felicio will likely be the odd-man out either way.
