Billy Donovan may not be Jim Boylen, but he surely isn’t Phil Jackson.

Bulls fans have remained rather neutral on the head coach over his years in Chicago. The majority haven’t called for his head, but this same majority wouldn’t be disappointed if the organization made a change. For the most part, I would consider myself part of that group, especially when we consider where the organization is trending.

If the Bulls are planning to go all-in on a youth movement and emphasize player development, Donovan’s win-now experience and mentality may not be a seamless fit. At the same time, there are surely worse options to have in the locker room than one of the most successful coaches in NCAA history. While he’s spent most of his NBA life vying for the playoffs, we know he can lead young men.

• Likewise, we at least know Billy Donovan is a smart guy! The head coach deserves recognition for his flexibility since coming to Chicago. We’ve consistently seen him tweak his style of play to fit his roster. From Thadgic Johnson to DeMar DeClosin’ to leading the league in PACE, Donovan has been the opposite of stubborn. Does he deserve some blame for the Bulls’ failure to make the previous “Big 3” work? Sure. But I put those struggles far more on the front office, who chose to build around three subpar defenders and refuse to plug roster holes. As CHGO’s Will Gottlieb wisely noted, not many coaches with Donovan’s background would be so willing to overhaul their approach year after year. That’s admirable. I highly recommend you read Will’s article on this here.

• Heck, I feel like Donovan also deserves a lot of credit for the way he’s got this Bulls roster to buy in. Adjusting the play style is one thing, but getting a ragtag group of youngsters and veterans to commit to sprinting their butt off and sharing the basketball isn’t easy. This is particularly true when we consider all the drama behind the scenes. Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic saw a win-now roster blown up and their names floated in an abundance of trade rumors. They could’ve entered this year ready to stir the pot. Instead, they have played some of the best basketball of their careers. While they deserve the bulk of the praise for this, it likely doesn’t happen without Donovan’s leadership.
• Speaking of which, how can you not love watching Vucevic this season? He has been easily one of the best offensive bigs in the NBA, recording a career-high 65.2 effective field goal percentage. We haven’t seen him look this comfortable and confident since his Orlando days, particularly when it comes to pulling up from long range. Whatever he did this offseason to fix his jumper has worked wonders. He is shooting 46.9 percent from three over these first 21 games, and he’s even tied his career-high with six made threes twice already this season. He hasn’t done this in multiple games since the 2020-21 campaign.

“It’s great when I’m hitting the shot like that,” Vucevic told Bulls dot com. “It helped us finish the half strong. I’ve been confident with it, put in a lot of work and hopefully it continues to help the team. Not just the shot but it opens up the floor for more driving the lane for others. Nowadays it’s a three-point shooting league. Boston shoots over 50 a game and we’ve been good this year and hopefully it continues. I came into the season trying to shoot better than last year, which wasn’t too hard  to do.”

• This might have been my favorite Nikola Vucevic sequence of the season …

• I guess Matas Buzelis is a locker-room favorite! The rookie was the most popular pick when players were asked which teammate they would take Black Friday shopping. Zach LaVine was probably the second-most popular thanks to his fat wallet.

@chicagobulls Which teammate are you taking Black Friday shopping? 😂🛍️ #blackfriday #shopping #basketball #nba #funny ♬ original sound – Chicago Bulls

• Alex Caruso, you are missed!

• DJ Steward has been cooking in the G League. While the Windy City Bulls are off to an underwhelming 3-6 start, Steward is averaging 20.0 points, 6.4 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game. His big three with under 4.0 seconds to go forced OT last night against the Mad Ants. Windy City went on to win 102-96.

• By the way, you still have time to take advantage of Bleacher Nation Fantasy’s best promo yet. Code TURKEY will give you up to a $100 deposit match. There are 10 different NBA games today, and we have a lot of fun rival matchups to pick from. If you’ve been interested in trying out the new game, this is a great time to do so. Download here.
• Things were ugly for the Bears in the lead-up to Matt Eberflus’ dramatic and historic firing. You can read a lot more about that here.
• The Wild made a very interesting trade this weekend, and Tab got into how it could indirectly impact the Chicago Blackhawks.

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written by

Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.