Definitely not OK: Bulls drop a dud in home opener, lose to Caruso, Oklahoma City
A new season means the start of a new era for Bulls basketball, sort of.
Josh Giddey is in, Alex Caruso is out, but Caruso was back in town Saturday with Oklahoma City. Other than that, it's tough to tell if the Bulls are still in the rebuild that began in 2017 or if this is a different rebuild or what exactly.
The NBA was nice enough to give the Bulls a schedule loss for their home opener. They had to play the second leg of back-to-back games against a rested Thunder squad. And the Bulls obliged, bringing fans a familiar mix of poor shooting and sloppy decision-making in a 114-95 loss at the United Center that was never competitive in the second half.
“I think it's an easy excuse to sit there and say you had a bad shooting night, you can't win,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Because we didn't shoot the ball well, you can't turn it over 26 times. You're not going to give yourself a chance.”
Fans booed as the Bulls left the court with a 15-turnover first half. To start the third quarter, the Bulls missed a shot then let Chet Holmgren dribble coast -to-coast for an easy dunk, and that's the way it went.
Maybe the best way to put it is the Bulls reside in a rezoning district. They're not tanking, not expecting to make a notable playoff run. They're not doing a full rebuild, but also don't have enough pieces to contend. Block 23, maybe, rehab in progress, to use a Chicago phrase.
Zach LaVine scored 22 points but also finished with 7 turnovers for the second time in three games, which is alarming. If rehabbing LaVine's trade value is a priority, this isn't helping.
Coby White played maybe the best game of his pro career Friday in Milwaukee, then went 0-for-9 from 3-point range against OKC. As encouraging as White has been since early last season, frequency of excellent play is what sets NBA superstars apart from the rest. After a strong preseason, Ayo Dosunmu has gone 1-for-16 from 3-point range in the regular season.
“We want to play fast, we're playing too fast,” White said. “It's just going to be an adjustment period. A lot of us, the last three, four years, we haven't played at this pace. You saw what it looked like (Friday) night, then you saw what it looked like tonight. Once we get used to playing at a pace that's good for us, it will start smoothing out.”
At least the Thunder provides a reminder of the variety of ways NBA teams can collect talent. OKC's best player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, arrived in a trade with the Clippers. The Thunder tanked to get another front-line player, landing Holmgren with the No. 2 overall draft pick. Jalen Williams was a smart selection at No. 12.
The Bulls need to explore all three options and then some to move forward. Most of the current NBA leaders didn't tank to get to the top. Some did, but there are a variety of methods.
In the final analysis, these Bulls are what should have been expected. Choosing to rely heavily on 3-point shooting means the Bulls will have some night when they look surprisingly good and other nights horrendous, depending on whether or not the shots are falling.
They weren't falling Saturday, with the Bulls going 15 for 53 from long range. Center Nikola Vucevic was a bright spot with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Giddey (14 points) did fine against his former team.
The Bulls played a Caruso tribute video during the first time out. His usage with Oklahoma City has been similar to what it was in Chicago — come off the bench and play a reasonable amount of minutes to prevent injuries. He scored 3 points in this game.
“I gave everything I had to try to win games and make the city proud and make the organization proud.,” Caruso told reporters at the morning shootaround. “That's kind of my motto, how I play basketball, my schtick.”
Maybe that's the correct slogan for the 2024-25 Bulls: “Be patient, we'll find our schtick.”