Bulls guard Josh Giddey never has been one to point fingers or get caught up in making excuses, so he’s not about to start now.
Giddey would have every right to do so, given he has watched half the nameplates in the locker room change in the last month and given the Bulls’ 11-game losing streak. In his mind, however, this is the NBA, and pros don’t dwell on what has gone wrong. They try to fix it.
‘‘Our job is to go out and perform and win games,’’ Giddey said. ‘‘Obviously, we’re not going to keep using the excuse it’s a new team. We’re past that part now. It is frustrating because you build so much continuity with the team you have, and then it gets torn apart within a couple of days.
‘‘We’ve got to find ways to get out of the hole and figure it out as a group. Nobody is feeling sorry for us. There aren’t asterisks on the stat sheet saying it’s a new team together. It’s on us as players to figure this out.’’
That’s good thinking, but how do the Bulls do that?
If Giddey and the rest of the Bulls don’t do a better job of taking care of the ball, then getting to know one another better, making shots and playing better defense won’t really mean much. It starts there, and the ugly numbers back that up.
In their last five games, the Bulls have committed 99 turnovers (19.8 per game) and have allowed 119 points (23.8 per game) off those turnovers.
‘‘It’s really, in a lot of ways, the decision-making in the moment,’’ coach Billy Donovan said. ‘‘We’ve just got to try getting better at it. It’s hard because a few of them were just careless turnovers, [such as] the ball was handled too much or trying to do too much with the ball and it’s just not there. But more than anything, it’s the decision-making piece that we’ve got to keep working at and keep showing them to try to get better at.’’
If there was a training camp to do that or even a few consecutive days of practice, maybe Donovan and his staff could start chipping away at some of the bad habits. But Donovan is fighting another uphill battle, too.
Not only are several of his key ballhandlers, such as Giddey and Tre Jones, on minutes restrictions, but the Bulls are undermanned in the frontcourt, too. Even if he could get his guards to play with better ball security, they’re playing with teammates such as seldom-used forward Leonard Miller and undersized Guerschon Yabusele.
This isn’t a winning roster when it’s at full strength, let alone playing with a bunch of
G Leaguers and castoffs.
Donovan never will admit it, but it’s unlikely the Bulls will win games consistently for the rest of this season. Still, that doesn’t mean he can’t do everything possible to try to coach some winning habits into his team.
That’s why he’s focused so much on second-year guard Rob Dillingham. Since arriving from the Timberwolves in the trade for Ayo Dosunmu, Dillingham has been trying to re-establish himself as a prospect after being selected No. 8 overall in the 2024 draft.
Donovan remains all-in on helping him in that process.
‘‘I’ve had talks with Rob about getting him to try to change his mentality,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘He viewed himself as a scoring point guard, which is good, but you also have to be efficient [at] his size. How can he change his mentality of how he needs to start looking at the game?
‘‘We’re trying to help these guys, as well as going out and win. Can I use this time to try to help them? It may not always lead to wins, but it may help make them better players.’’
