The Chicago Bulls are almost back to full health as guard Zach LaVine and center Nikola Vucevic return to the fold.
The Bulls went 10-7 in the time LaVine missed but are coming off two road losses against New York and Philadelphia. In the time LaVine missed, the Bulls started to move the ball and play with more purpose.
In the 17 games LaVine missed, the Bulls threw the fifth-most passes in the NBA (298.1 per game), had the most secondary assists in the NBA (4.7) and were 13th in potential assists (46.4). Now, it’s about incorporating LaVine back into the fold.
But for guard Coby White — the floppy-haired guard who averaged 22.4 points in LaVine’s absence — coach Billy Donovan said he doesn’t want White to change his game.
“I think that Coby needs to continue doing what he’s doing,” Donovan said. “Certainly the balls in his hands quite a bit, and he needs to continue to be aggressive and do the things that he’s been doing. I wouldn’t want him to change the way he’s playing or feel like he has to.
“There’s been no conversations from me about ‘Hey, you know, we’re getting Zach back or Vuc back, and you have to change and go do this,’” Donovan said.
What will be challenging for Donovan is minutes. He only has a certain allotment of minutes he can dish out, and players such as White, guard Ayo Dosunmu and forward Patrick Williams have played well.
“When you have players that are coming back, the minutes for certain guys could change, but it doesn’t mean while they’re [the younger players] in there that I want them doing anything differently,” Donovan said. “We need to continue to do things, quite honestly, that we’ve been working on to try to get better at since the season started.”
Nikola Vucevic’s return
Vucevic returns to the lineup after missing the Bulls’ past five games with a groin injury.
Forward DeMar DeRozan and White were second and third, respectively, in minutes played for the month of December.
Getting players back to take the load off the starters will help the team.
“Hopefully, we can help the team and play better and just continue to elevate our game as a team.”
The Bulls missed Vucevic’s ability to operate from the elbow and spray passes to cutters or operate in dribble handoffs. They’ve also missed LaVine’s lethal scoring ability. Vucevic said getting LaVine back will open up more in the offense. The Bulls are currently 25th in the NBA in offensive rating.
“When Zach plays decisive, whether he’s getting downhill, shooting or whatever it is, it helps everybody so much,” Vucevic said. “So we just need him to be himself, be aggressive, and it obviously will probably take him a few games to get back into rhythm.”
Donovan said pregame that Vucevic and LaVine would temporarily come off the bench as they returned from their injuries. Donovan said having them come off the bench allows him to play them in short six-minute bursts.
Injury updates
Bulls guard Alex Caruso (neck) was out for Friday’s game. Williams also missed Friday’s game with an ankle injury.
Guard/forward Dalen Terry received the first start of his career.