Bulls getting used to new voices in building
The Bulls have been toiling along with socially distanced individual workouts this week. The first full team practice is scheduled for Sunday.
While the roster is generally the same, most of the offices at the Advocate Center have new occupants. Veteran forward Thad Young has seen plenty of executives come and go during his 13 yeas in the league. He shared his early impressions of the Bulls' new management team of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley.
"I think what I like about them is they're fully in it with us as an organization," Young said on a Zoom call with reporters Saturday. "In it with us as far as coming to practice, hanging out with us in the training room, talking to us. Sometimes Marc and Arturas are in there lifting sometimes.
"They're very different most of the guys in the front office. They actually are around the team and they kind of hang out with us and we have conversations all the time. We're able to sit there and talk with them and joke with them a lot and build that relationship. That's what I like about it."
During the summer, second-year center Daniel Gafford got some unwanted attention by making critical comments about former coach Jim Boylen during a video game livestream on Twitch.
"I don't like him a lot, but he OK," was one thing Gafford said during his brief assessment of Boylen.
Gafford didn't mean it to be a big deal and said he spoke to Boylen about it to clear the air. No one was happy about winning just 22 games before the season was suspended.
"Everybody was saying, 'Oh, I'm bashing him. I'm being mean. I'm just talking down on him,'" Gafford said. "That was just basically constructive criticism in my opinion. I mean, everybody has their own opinion about what I said. But what I was meaning was constructive. Jim was a great coach when he was here. He did what he could. And he worked his tail off for the team."
Gafford then talked about his early impressions of new coach Billy Donovan. He's drawn rave reviews from Bulls players so far this week, but that's to be expected with a mostly new coaching staff.
"Billy has come in and made a lot of changes," Gafford said. "He came in and basically put his foot down and made sure that everything was laid out on the table on what he wanted to do with the team.
"I like that (in) a coach. It's a big job. Jim did his thing, now Billy is coming in and doing his thing. We have been working really hard with him. We're trying to get to know him. He's trying to get to know us."
Young was in Philadelphia when the 76ers began the process of bottoming out to get high draft picks. He also spent time with the 2014-15 Minnesota team that went 16-66 in Zach LaVine's rookie season. So he has some experience with what the Bulls have gone though.
"When you're not winning or you don't have a good track record of winning, you have to make changes," Young said. "I think they did everything they were supposed to do as far as making those changes and just bringing in fresh faces and giving us a fresh start.
"I think a lot of guys within this franchise just needed a fresh start with a fresh face, and just a new voice. Something different that they can look forward to each and every day."
They got the new voices, but the real work has yet to begin.
Twitter: @McGrawDHBull