Bulls coach Donovan begins to experiment with new combinations
As promised, Bulls coach Billy Donovan got some new faces on the floor Saturday against Indiana, playing three guys in the first half who did not see action in the opener.
The first subs of the night were Tomas Satoransky and Otto Porter, checking in for Coby White and Lauri Markkanen. Then Donovan sent in veteran guard Garrett Temple for rookie Patrick Williams.
How much it helped is tough to tell with the small sample size, but both Satoransky and Temple had impressive assists in the second quarter.
"It's something that we're going to have to feel out," Donovan said before the game. "Ideally you'd like to have a consistent group that's reliable, but I haven't had enough time to see a lot of lineups and guys together. I've got to try to find the right combinations both starting and off the bench."
A little later, White and Markkanen came back in for Zach LaVine and Wendell Carter Jr., giving Markkanen a few minutes at the center spot, with Porter at power forward.
Denzel Valentine also made his season debut in the second quarter. Satoransky (quarantine), Temple (COVID-19) and Valentine (hamstring) all missed significant practice time, which is why they didn't play Wednesday. Forward Thad Young remains out with a leg infection.
"We have not had a full complement of players, so I don't know what Sato and Coby potentially look like out there together?" Donovan said. "What does it look like to play Otto consistently at the four? Or Patrick at the four? What does it really look like to have Lauri at a center spot?
"Where does Thad come in? How does Thad and Lauri work together? We really haven't seen much of that. There are just a lot of combinations, you look at our roster that we haven't had a chance to explore, so some of those things can happen as the season unfolds."