While I wish I could say the Chicago Bulls pencil dove into a new low on Wednesday night, they frequent those waters. One night after losing to the worst team in the West, they fell to an Atlanta Hawks team missing their top three scorers. No Trae Young. No Jalen Johnson. No DeAndre Hunter. Yet, the Bulls still lost 110-94 and were outscored 22-10 in points off turnovers.
This team has raised a blinking neon sign that reads “REBUILD” in the window of Arturas Karnisovas’ front office. Maybe if he were ever at his desk, he would see it.
“(He said) stop doing the dumb stuff that we’ve been doing. Stop not boxing out, not rebounding, stop with the switch confusion, stop being back cut. Vooch is 100% correct. He spoke up, and he dug into us. Coach didn’t have to say much; Vooch hit on everything. We’ve got to stay together as a team. That was one of the messages after Vooch spoke. With stuff not going your way, going through adversity…the games are going to keep coming. We’re the only ones who can dig ourselves out of this hole. It’s not the coaches, the fans. It’s on us. Like Vooch said, being in the right spot, boxing out, communicating on defense; that’s the stuff you can control and we haven’t been doing that. We have to figure it out as a team. You’re going to have ups and downs during the season; you have to stay the course. Right now we’re going through a storm. So we have to figure out how to get through it and what is blocking us from being great.
Look, I’m glad Vucevic is trying to hold his teammates accountable. Everything about that performance was embarrassing, particularly on defense and the glass. This group looked completely uninterested in doing anything that wasn’t scoring the basketball. They allowed a ragtag group of motivated benchwarmers and two-way players to run them off the floor. Someone had to let that locker room know how unacceptable the performance was. At the same time, the Bulls have played this song and dance for the past three seasons. We are constantly hearing players wax poetic about how it’s on them to be better and how this group is underachieving. They harp on attention to detail and committing to both sides of the ball. Yet, here we are watching a team with a nearly identical record to the past two seasons that ended with Play-In losses. I respect the players for wanting to be better and attemping to send the right message. But the truth is that this is who the Bulls are. Another heart-to-heart in the locker room isn’t going to fix things. © Petre Thomas-Imagn Images This quote from Billy Donovan feels like it could have been copy-and-pasted from either of the past two seasons …“The question of playing down to the level (of an opponent); we don’t have the luxury of doing that against anybody,” Donovan reminded. “If we’re not really good in terms of the detail and how we need to play, it’s very hard for us. It’s the toughness to get lost in the competition. We’re not reacting, we are careless with the basketball. I know we’re better than what we’ve played and at some point you have to have some fight and competitiveness when things don’t go your way,” Donovan told Sam Smith of Bulls dot com.
The Bulls had several cringe-worthy moments like this last night …Sigh. pic.twitter.com/uOH2zRHeKD
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) January 16, 2025 To add insult to … well … insulting performance, Patrick Williams continues to struggle in a big way. While he at least finished with 10 points on 4-8 shooting, he only grabbed 2 rebounds and finished as a -14 on the night. Even the defensive physicality we’ve seen him bring at times has disappeared. There are possessions where the Bulls genuinely feel like they are playing four-on-five, which is why Billy Donovan is pleading for the 23-year-old to make his presence felt. Here is another quote that feels like a copy-and-paste:“We got to feel him on the glass, feel him in transition, feel him on defense, feel him with the activity with his hands, feel him at the rim. Just that,” Donovan said (h/t CHGO’s Will Gottlieb). “I think he’s capable of doing that, [and] that’s really been the message – him getting his body size, athleticism, and physicality into the game.”
Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune wrote more about Williams’ poor start to Year 5, and I highly encourage you to give it a read. She includes plenty of quotes from the young forward, who sounds equally as frustrated with how his 2024-25 campaign has gone thus far.Patrick Williams knows he isn’t living up to expectations.But the former No. 4 pick still can’t tell what’s gone wrong — or how to fix it.Went long with Patrick on the missed dunks, ball handling and shaky confidence that have defined Year 5. t.co/1W4R9eKS2m
— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) January 16, 2025 I also want to shout out Drew Stevens of The Bigs. With Williams in mind, he asked Quin Snyder about De’Andre Hunter’s recent breakout in year six of his career. The former Virginia standout is finally starting to look like the high-impact two-way player many thought he could be. It serves as a good reminder that some players are just late bloomers. The door isn’t shut for Williams, but he undoubtedly has some soul-searching to do.No two players are the same and neither are their journeys, but Patrick Williams and De’Andre Hunter do share some commonalities.Was curious to hear Quin Snyder’s thoughts on what has contributed to Hunter having a breakout season of sorts, so I asked. t.co/CmcinVTkp4 pic.twitter.com/7WPplype1Y
— Drew Stevens (@Drew_H_Stevens) January 16, 2025 Talen Horton-Tucker suffered a knee injury in last night’s game and had to leave early. A jam-packed week continues tomorrow night against the Hornet and Sunday against the Trail Blazers. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him sit out both of those games, especially with Sunday being the front end of a back-to-back.UPDATE: Talen Horton-Tucker will not return to tonight's game (left knee). pic.twitter.com/zY9BnM01nf
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 16, 2025 The Cubs may not have any more big swings up their sleeve this offseason. Brett wrote more about their priorities this morning. Tab walks us through some of the best prospect matchups for Blackhawks fans to watch.ELSEWHERE AT BN: Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
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