“We’re going to have to put in great effort to dig ourselves out”
Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovanknows how deep the hole the team has dug themselves in to start the season. With the calendar turning to December, Donovan says it’s going to take a high level of basketball to turn the Bulls’ fortunes around this season—something he believes his team is still capable of.
“We’re going to have to put in great effort to dig ourselves out,” Donovan said. “Every possession, offensively and defensively you want the effort to be at a high level.”
The Bulls haven’t shown much fight of late, as they ended their recent road trip with a humiliating 124-97 loss to the Boston Celtics. In fact, the Bulls lost all four road games by an average of over 15 points. More concerning are the Bulls’ slow starts, which have become a habit over the past few weeks.
Donovan believes that the Bulls’ lack of effort is to blame for their struggles. He said that his team needs to ramp up their intensity if they want to turn things around.
“As a professional player, there should be effort out there,” Donovan shared.
“There were definitely some I saw, and those were addressed in timeouts about the effort we were giving on a couple of the (closeouts on threes). I tried to address it the best we could. I’m not a big threatening guy. I generally don’t do that. I try to confront whatever is there; if something is an issue I try to address it.”
As troubling as it is to constantly hear about the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Bulls’ “Big 3” of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic, Donovan says the team’s main men still have to come out and play with intensity each night.
“I also know Vooch, DeMar, and Zach, all these guys are important to the success of the team, and we need them to play at a level effort-wise and skill-wise like they are capable of,” Donovan added.
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