It's evolve or die, so Bulls are raining threes
This is not the style of NBA basketball that Bulls guard Zach LaVine grew up watching.
It’s not even the style he was playing last season.
LaVine is averaging 7.7 three-point attempts per game this season, which is his most since he was basically a one-man show in the 2020-21 season (8.2 attempts per game). But that’s not the major story of this offense.
As a team, the Bulls will enter their game Friday against the Hornets second in the league with 43.5 three-point attempts per game, trailing only the Celtics.
Some perspective on that: The Bulls were 26th in the league last season with 32.1 three-point attempts, but those same 32.1 attempts would’ve ranked fourth in the 2016-17 season.
This isn’t some overnight trend, it’s an evolution. And one the Bulls had to make.
“It’s just the evolution of stuff, and the NBA is a copy-cat league,” LaVine said. “You see who is in contention and doing stuff well, and it’s a numbers game now. Most people are shooting threes, and you’ve got to be able to match that. It’s cool. It’s more possessions, more people are getting opportunities because the ball is being shared more in most scenarios.”
But that doesn’t mean LaVine is embracing the idea of players being more skilled these days because of the outside shooting.
“I think some of it is it’s a little predictable, like come down and shoot,” LaVine said. “It takes a little bit of skill out of the game from what I’ve watched with like Kobe [Bryant], [Michael] Jordan, Melo [Carmelo Anthony] and stuff like that, with them working out of the post, getting to their spots skill-wise. There’s still guys that do that but in a different way.”
That’s where coach Billy Donovan comes in. While he has his critics, he also has coached his personnel to perfection. When he had players such as a healthy Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, it was about causing chaos on defense. When he had to rely more on DeMar DeRozan, it was the midrange game and get to the free-throw line. Now that he doesn’t have the defenders he once had and DeRozan is with the Kings, it has been high pace, shoot threes and try to wear teams down despite a guard-oriented roster.
The results have been mixed with a 10-15 record, but the numbers haven’t. Donovan has the Bulls playing the only way they can to stay competitive.
“I’ve been playing this way my whole life,” Ball said. “The transition, running fast into threes, that’s the way I’m accustomed to playing. Find the open guy and take good shots.
“The game has definitely changed. It’s evolved over time. It’s a lot faster, obviously. Everybody is just trying to get up shots, get up threes now, especially the corner ones and the transition ones.”
It’s not the puzzle that the Bulls are having an issue with. The problem that’s being emphasized this week in practice is how to stop opponents from doing the same.
The games that haven’t gone well for the Bulls are usually when they aren’t shooting well from deep, and they then have to figure out how to counter what other teams are doing.
“One of it has to be [limiting] the turnovers because you want to be able to set your defense,” Donovan said. “The second thing is, teams are going to make and miss shots, that’s just the way it is. We can’t give up second-chance opportunities. We’ve got to be really good in our communication.”