Everything about this NBA season is written in pencil, not pen.
That includes the tentatively scheduled trade deadline, which is currently set for March 25.
Will the Bulls be active before the deadline window closes? Considering how fluid this season has already been for the new regime and coaching staff, flip a coin.
According to a league source, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has been taking and making phone calls from other teams, but nothing out of the ordinary at this point. Call it the due diligence that the job entails.
So the idea that a Lonzo Ball or even a Ben Simmons — as the rumor mill has been churning out lately — is Chicago bound to take over the inconsistent point guard duties from Coby White is more fiction than fact as of Wednesday.
Especially when this Bulls organization has been very deliberate in letting it be known that they are operating in the today first, which means doing all they can from a developmental standpoint to make sure a proper evaluation on their own players is taking place.
That philosophy isn’t going to be thrown out the window a quarter of the way into the regular season, on a second-year guy in White who has made just 18 starts.
“I think for Arturas, I think his main thing right now, I think he’s evaluating,’’ coach Billy Donovan said of trade deadline talk. “We’re communicating, and the biggest thing right now is the investment we can make in these guys that are here now, and we want to continue to help them grow and get better.’’
Enough so that even with White playing less than stellar basketball the last five games, Donovan wasn’t even contemplating sitting him for veteran Tomas Satoransky, and letting White get a chance to work with a veteran-laden second unit in hopes of rebooting his confidence.
“I think my responsibility is to do what I can for this group to put them in the best position to win,’’ Donovan said, when asked about that scenario heading into Saturday’s game against Portland. “You have to look at the give and take of doing something like that may be. Does it disrupt that group? Is it not good for Coby?’’
The way it sets up now, Satoransky and that bench unit remain the most consistent aspect of this team when they are all healthy.
The “old guys’’ just keep getting it done.
As for that first unit, they remain Jekyll and Hyde right now, and in the last two losses it’s been way more Hyde. Slow starts against the Lakers and the Celtics doomed the home team in the end, and unfortunately it’s been the same culprits.
That begins with White, as his education as an NBA starting point guard continues to be a series of peaks and valleys, or in some cases, sink holes as the last five games have shown.
Since the Dallas game, White is 17-for-51 (33%) from the field and has 21 assists to 10 turnovers. The concerning number, however, is his minus-23 in the plus/minus category in that time, and that included a plus-nine in the win over Charlotte.
The starters aren’t functioning consistently, and White is the quarterback of that group.
Meanwhile, since returning from testing positive for the coronavirus, despite still searching for his rhythm, Satoransky the last three games is 13 assists to four turnovers in limited minutes, and was posting a plus-18 in plus/minus.
Donovan makes a good argument about disrupting the units by switching point guards, but maybe White working with the likes of veterans Otto Porter Jr., Garrett Temple and Thad Young for a bit would do the second-year player some good.
Vice versa, maybe Satoransky brings a calming influence to a starting unit that would allow for more focus at the tip off.
According to Donovan, there is no edict by Karnisovas demanding that White be given x-amount of time to show he can handle starting point guard duties. There has been improvement overall in what they’ve been asking of White, but is it enough?
The problem with pulling the plug on White and adding a Ball is how does that make the Bulls better? Both are struggling in player efficiency rating — White was 10.68 and Ball was 9.93 — and it isn’t like Ball has been operating the Pelicans’ starting unit at a high level or fixing an outside shot [currently 29.1% from three] that’s been broken since his rookie year.
Then there’s the finances. New Orleans and Ball couldn’t come to an agreement on a contract extension before this season, so he’s a restricted free agent that could demand $16 million-$18 million per year on the open market.
If the Bulls are interested then they could always put in a bid, allowing the organization to continue seeing where White is, as well as giving themselves an idea of where they fall in the lottery. Draft prospects Jalen Suggs and Cade Cunningham each have higher ceilings than White or Ball at the point guard position, so patience would be the smarter route.
From the way Donovan was talking, it’s also the route this regime is taking.
“[Karnisovas] probably wants to watch us continue to evolve as a team before maybe passing any judgment, and I think honestly it’s smart,’’ Donovan said. “We’ve got some young players, we’ve got to see how they’re progressing, how they’re developing, how they’re growing, and at some point and time we’ll probably talk about how to continue to improve the team and help the team.’’
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January 28, 2021 at 04:16AM
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A Bull market on Lonzo Ball? Not with so many questions unanswered - Chicago Sun-Times
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