NEWSLETTER
Contrary to popular belief, the most shocking news of the day wasn’t the Damian Lillard trade. Instead – in an absolutely baffling turn of events – the Chicago Bulls front office made a public appearance!
*the crowd gasps and someone faints*
That’s right, with five days to go until Media Day, Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley joined 670 The Score’s Bernstein & Holmes Show to talk about the upcoming season. The front office duo mentioned several areas in which they hope to improve this season, including one that opened a whole new can of worms.
I’ll just let you read it for yourself:
“Another thing for our group next year will be caring about each other and playing for each other,” Karnisovas said. “So its relationships. This is what we’re going to try to improve because in order to challenge each other, you have got to know each other well. And you have to have relationships.”
Marc Eversley continued (emphasis mine) …
“What we learned from our team – when we had our exit interviews – they were a team, but they really didn’t feel like a team. And that was one of the takeaways we kind of put it on the board and said we’ve got to do things next year
…
It’s almost just like you show up, you go to work, you go home, you show up the next day and you come to work again. They love to play, and our coaches love to coach, and we were a team, but they didn’t feel like they were really really really a team. And that is something that was important for us in the offseason to address. And we’re addressing it from Day 1 in Nashville.”
Ok … wow.
I may be overreacting, but I found this to be a pretty concerning comment, particularly for an organization that has doubled down on the whole “continuity” thing. Isn’t the whole point of sticking with a core group to build a superior bond on and off the court? Instead, what we’re now hearing from the Bulls is they spent almost the entirety of last season feeling as if they weren’t all on the same page. In other words, the strengthening of bonds wasn’t necessarily taking place.
Is it good that the organization is clearly making an effort to fix this? Sure. The trip to Nashville for the first week of training camp makes even more sense now, as does the recent team softball game we saw the team play at Guaranteed Rate Field. Still, the fact this was a big enough problem to begin with only makes the front office’s decision to avoid greater roster changes all the more confusing.
I should probably also mention that these comments came after both Karnisovas and Eversley spent several minutes praising head coach Billy Donovan. And, look, I’ve been a Donovan supporter for the most part. I think he’s a serviceable head coach, which can be underscored by his ability to turn last year’s Bulls team into a top-5 defense. But praising his communication skills and leadership falls flat when you follow that up by saying the players “didn’t feel like a team.” Um, that’s a very big part of what a head coach is supposed to do!
Again, I’m at least glad to hear that some action is being taken to bring this group closer together, but I’d be lying if I said I expect it to work wonders. This group had plenty to play for last season after being completely embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks. Why there was a lack of motivation to band together is beyond me. But it may simply be another piece of evidence that indicates this roster – as currently constructed – isn’t going to work long-term.
I guess all we can do now, however, is wait and see what happens. If the Chicago Bulls slip back into their hero-ball ways and struggle to form a more cohesive offensive identity, that could tell us what we need to know about their relationship behind the scenes.
