Start with Zach LaVine going out of his way on Wednesday to not deny that he and the Bulls could be headed for a breakup sooner than later, add in some social media drama on did he or didn’t he remove the words “Bulls Nation’’ from his Twitter account, and let the speculation firestorm continue burning.
That’s the space the Bulls occupy right now, and it will only heighten as the LaVine storyline drags on.
Good thing Billy Donovan feels like he has a locker room that is fairly insulated from that outside noise.
“As a coach you get a feel on some of those things when there’s talk or when there’s chatter, what have you,’’ Donovan said on Friday. “I have not sensed any of that stuff at all. I just have a hard time believing that our guys are going to get wrapped up in someone’s social media account.
“It’s kind of a personal thing. I’m not a social media guy, so I don’t know so much about it, but I think if someone has a social media account, whatever they’re doing on it, it’s kind of like that’s what they do. I don’t see it impacting our group, I don’t.’’
From the sound of it, Donovan was right, it hasn’t.
The mindset of most of the Bulls players is LaVine and trade rumors are just the “business of basketball,’’ and the part of the business they don’t take offense to.
It helps when the locker room has a core of experienced veteran players like the Bulls do. Alex Caruso saw drama first-hand playing four years in Los Angeles, DeMar DeRozan has been in the league forever, and Andre Drummond is no stranger to the NBA rumor mill.
So while they unfortunately will be asked whenever there’s a new development or even a petty gesture on social media, Donovan was fairly certain that it’s a group that was well equipped to handle it.
“I think the other thing too, one of the things I try and preach to our guys, even to our staff and myself personally, ‘What is it you can really control?’ ‘What do you have to do every single day that you’re responsible for?’ ‘’ Donovan said. “To get distracted by something that is over here, something you don’t have control over is to me a waste of time and energy. I think you can get caught up on wasting time on something you really don’t have control over. I get that our guys are going to be asked about Zach, and that’s fine, but it’s not like I’m dwelling on that.’’
The bad news for the Bulls locker room is don’t expect anything to happen soon with LaVine and a new destination.
This has all the makings of a deal that will take a while to show itself, especially with potential candidates locked up with their current teams until mid-December and mid-January, and the trade deadline not until Feb. 8.
Faked out
DeRozan was back with the club after missing Wednesday’s game with the Magic for personal reasons.
With his return, Donovan described it as a “calming force’’ that DeRozan brings to the team. Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley wasn’t as thrilled, knowing that his players would be tested by DeRozan’s infamous pump fake that has very few answers to it.
“Well, he’s been doing it for this many years, so obviously we’re not doing a good job of it,’’ Mosley said of how the league had countered it. “He knows when you’re reaching in, he knows when to swipe it through, he knows how to get the pump fakes, and he just does such a great job of that.’’