It was a quick conversation and one Bulls coach Billy Donovan<\/b> fully supported.<\/p>\n
A lot was made of center Nikola Vucevic<\/b> addressing his teammates about their struggles after the Bulls\u2019 loss Wednesday to the undermanned Hawks, and Donovan revealed Friday that Vucevic approached him and asked whether he would mind if Vucevic made his feelings known.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I think it was \u2018Vooch\u2019 kind of came to me and said, \u2018Listen, I want to talk.\u2019 I\u2019m always fine with that,\u2019\u2019 Donovan said before the Bulls\u2019 125-123 loss Friday to the Hornets. \u2018\u2018I think they need to have those conversations. What \u2018Vooch\u2019 said after the game was dead on the money and extremely accurate.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
It was the same message Donovan relayed to the media afterward: The Bulls didn\u2019t put in enough effort on the boards and didn\u2019t take care of the ball well enough. In other words, controllables the players chose not to control.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the first time this was addressed, either. Guard Coby White<\/b> had a similar heart-to-heart with the team earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
Donovan said he is all for having a group of leaders, rather than the players hearing it only from him or one other player.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Yeah, we\u2019re all in there together, right?\u2019\u2019 Donovan said. \u2018\u2018So we\u2019ve got to be pulling the boat, leveling the boat in the same direction. That\u2019s really what it comes down to. I don\u2019t think all the messaging needs to come from me all the time. Sometimes coming from the players is a good thing, too.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I wouldn\u2019t say \u2018Vooch\u2019 in any way was going after anybody or anything like that. It was more as a collective, things we need to get better at: the rebounding, turnovers, things that need to be corrected.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Vucevic pointed out those things several times in the meeting, then did so publicly.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018We focus on the wrong things, and we have to understand that it\u2019s the details that make a difference at this level,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Donovan had a couple of days to break down the film and see whether the Bulls\u2019 effort was as bad as he and Vucevic first thought. The conclusion? It was.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018The things I mentioned to you, we did not do a good job of [those], and the film showed that,\u2019\u2019 Donovan said.<\/p>\n
Forward Patrick Williams<\/b> hasn\u2019t been the only Bulls player who has seen his minutes dwindle a bit lately.<\/p>\n
Swingman Dalen Terry<\/b> averaged 15.2 minutes in December, but that number has dropped to 10.3 minutes in January after he played only six minutes each Tuesday and Wednesday against the Pelicans and Hawks.<\/p>\n
Donovan\u2019s explanation was straightforward.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Two things: He\u2019s got to take care of the ball. I think the other thing, too, is the fouling,\u2019\u2019 Donovan said when he was asked what Terry had to do to get his minutes back. \u2018\u2018The fouling has been a big thing. He\u2019s got to do a good job in some of the switches when it\u2019s guard-to-guard. He\u2019s got to do a good job of containing the basketball. When there are drives on him, he\u2019s got to learn and be better at showing his hands and not giving up three-point plays or free throws in those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
When backup forward Talen Horton-Tucker<\/b> went down late in the loss to the Hawks with an injury to his left knee, the initial thought was that it was serious. Imaging, however, showed it was just a sprain.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018They were a little more concerned going into the MRI of what it may show,\u2019\u2019 Donovan said. \u2018\u2018We got lucky there.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vucevic wanted to address the team after its loss Wednesday to the Hawks, and Donovan was all for him stepping up to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"\n