Bulls have been better, but there are problems to address
Bulls coach Billy Donovan gave fans some words to live by earlier this week:
"Unfortunately, before you win there's generally a lot of suffering," he said. "I wish I could snap my finger or pour something on it to make it just happen, but it doesn't work like that."
After a promising start to this season, lopsided losses to the Lakers and Celtics gave reason to wonder if the Bulls have made any significant progress in Year 4 of the rebuild.
All Donovan and the Bulls can do is take advantage of this week's extra practice time and try to get back on track Saturday against Portland. The Bulls' best win of the season was probably the 20-point comeback against the Blazers Jan. 5.
In the meantime, here's a look at three significant statistics for the early part of the season:
Otto Porter reaches milestone in Monday's game
With 13 points against Boston, Porter has now officially surpassed his scoring total for all of last season, with 176 points. He needs to log 3 minutes on Saturday to exceed his playing time from last year.
It's been easy to make the Bulls' early success all about the coaching change, but a bigger difference has been getting contributions from Porter, Thad Young and newcomer Garrett Temple. It was painfully obvious during the early rebuilding years that the Bulls needed to surround their young players with some veterans.
His contract is a burden, but when Porter plays well, he does give the Bulls exactly what they need. He has a nice court sense and can fill the box score with his versatile skills. Staying healthy has been the biggest drawback since the trade with Washington, obviously.
The challenge for new basketball operations boss Arturas Karnisovas is what to do beyond this season. Porter's expensive contract will expire and the Bulls surely have other plans for that cap space. Temple is working on a one-year deal and Young is partially-guaranteed for next season, which means the Bulls could release him and increase their cap room.
Which young players to keep and what veteran players to pursue is a puzzle with no clear answers at the moment.
Zach LaVine has 13 turnovers the last two games
As of Thursday morning, the Bulls still led the league in turnovers (18.1 per game). But it's LaVine, not first-time point guard Coby White who paces the team in giveaways.
"It's too much," Donovan said. "And I also understand when you've got an elite offensive player who's got the ball in his hands, he's always going to be a little more susceptible to turnovers. I think there's good turnovers when the ball is in your hands that much, and there's bad turnovers.
"I think Zach would be probably the first one to admit that some of them are just unacceptable. Some of them are very, very careless. We've got to value possessions."
LaVine has produced all-star caliber offensive numbers so far, averaging 27 points on 50-percent shooting. He's still working on the smaller details that lead to winning, though, and Donovan has admitted it might be time to work some of the veterans into the starting lineup to help the younger players.
"We're trying to work on it and put them in situations to be maybe more fundamentally sound and to make better decisions," Donovan said. "The ones we've got to eliminate are the careless live-ball turnovers. They know it. We all know it."
Lauri Markkanen last in plus-minus and net rating
Those stats don't always tell the whole story, but the Bulls would obviously like to see Markkanen fare better.
As a quick refresher, both stats are based on the score while a player is on the court, and net rating is per 100 possessions. In general, the Bulls' bench has outperformed the starters this season, a function of having more veterans and playing against weaker competition.
"I haven't looked that deeply into it, so I don't want to misspeak," Donovan said. "The one thing I've been really pleased with Lauri this year is he's been very aggressive. He's tried to play closer to the basket. He's taking his open shots. He's driving the ball. He's really been engaged.
"I think a lot of times on the plus-minus, sometimes it can be very, very accurate and sometimes it can be a little bit misleading. There are four other guys out there with you too."
Markkanen's production is much closer to his sophomore season of 2018-2019. Playing in just 10 games due to heath and safety protocols, he's averaging 18.5 points and 6.5 rebounds, while shooting 38 percent from 3-point range.
The best explanation for the poor plus-minus is defense. Markkanen, Wendell Carter and rookie Patrick Williams aren't the most physical frontcourt in the league and they've dropped in that category since Carter's quad injury.
That's a reason why sending Young to join the starters could make sense. And it's another indication of the tough decisions ahead as Karnisovas tries to build a true playoff contender.
• Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls