CEO Haize highlights the many issues we Bulls fans have had with our incumbent coach Billy Donovan. This man was one game away from reaching the finals with the Thunder back in 2016, but they blew a 3-1 lead. Ever since he’s been here in Chicago, we’ve experienced great disappoontment.
We missed the playoffs by one game in his first year. The following year, after AKME made the trades for DeMar, Lonzo, and Alex, we were rocking and rolling until Lonzo suffered his potentially career-threatening injury.
Since then, many of us Bulls fans have had many major issues with Billy’s rotations and decision-making. We only won ONE playoff game since his tenure here, and this past season, we didn’t even make the playoffs, choking against the Miami Heat.
Is Billy Donovan getting a bad rap? Is he a better coach than many of us believe he is? Or has he been doing a crappy job and needs to step his game up? Will these new moves that the Bulls juat made in Free Agency help him maximize his coaching ability to take us deep into the playoffs, or will these moves expose him for being nothing more than a mediocre coach?
by theultimaterage
7 Comments
> and this past season, we didn’t even make the playoffs, choking against the Miami Heat.
“choked” is a strong word lol turns out we just weren’t better than a Finals team (imagine!) and were thoroughly outclassed like 80% of that game.
That said I’m not really sure how Billy could do worse than last year and it not be seen as a failure. I’d go as far as to say Jevon Carter is as much a “Billy Donovan” coach’s pick as anyone. He’s like a Great Value Lonzo on clearance in that you don’t really want him to be the playmaker half court, hits 3s and plays good POA defense. Craig is needed big boy with some grit.
4-6 seed here we come 😤😤😤 I choose optimism since Billy is not getting fired anyway and tanking probably isn’t happening
I think it’s foolish to blame the Bulls’ troubles on Donovan. I think it’s a miracle that the Bulls were a top five defensive team last year, and I credit Billy Donovan for that.
The Bulls’ offense has suffered since Lonzo Ball got injured, and it suffered even more when Zach LaVine was hobbled. That’s not Donovan’s fault.
The Bulls lack three point shooting. That’s not Donovan’s fault.
Is it frustrating to see the Bulls rely so much on DeMar DeRozan in isolation in the fourth quarter? Yes. But one big difference between DeRozan and Jimmy Butler is that Butler has reliable three point shooters around him and DeRozan does not. Well, Miami’s shooters were reliable in the playoffs, anyway, which had a lot to do with their surprising success. If the Bulls had more offensive options then trapping DeRozan wouldn’t work so well.
LaVine played much better the last couple of months of last season. If he’s healthy he can and probably should take more of the offensive load. But the Bulls also went out and got two more three point shooters this summer — well, one for sure.
Jevon Carter is a .397 three point shooter over his career, and shot .421 from three last year. That’s great, and they got him without sacrificing defense. Torrey Craig is a less stellar .347 for his career, but was .395 last year. So there’s hope he’s improved. And every Bulls player — except Drummond, I guess — knows he needs to work on three point shooting this summer.
Jerry keeps his guys. Billy’s seat is nice and cool.
Donovan is a league average coach y‘all can’t seriously look at a team starting DeMar, Zach, and Vuc with a top 5 defense and think he doesn‘t know what he’s doing on that end haha
Offensively this team is bad and Billy should bear some of that responsibility, but certainly not all of it. Our top end guys just aren’t creating positive opportunities for each other. Pop had the same issue with the DeRozan Spurs – they were bottom 10 when he left and a few spots better without him. Maybe a transcendent coach could do better, and Billy isn’t one. But I think most coaches wouldn’t be able to elevate us significantly
Carter is really good and should add value on both ends but the rotating band of bench vets isn’t going to make a huge difference imo – the team’s construction is the core issue and remains more or less unchanged
Not the biggest Billy fan but I recognize he’s done a lot with limited defensive personnel.
He’s going to ride the vets and is more likely to play Craig, Caruso, and Carter than Pat and Coby to close out games.
This season should be a test of what he does differently now that he’s got the pieces he needs. Hopefully the younger guys play more
Not trying to be some annoying complainer but why is this same youtube account being posted over and over again.
people fighting over Billy’s rotations always amuse me – yeah he should have played that bad player instead of that bad player. Wait, maybe our team was full of bad players? A mistake that is slowly being fixed.
Billy also gets no credit for anything. We were the 6th ranked defense last season, maybe, just maybe the coach had something to do with that.