Bulls coach Billy Donovan said he has no plans to walk away from a rebuild

TORONTO — The narrative surrounding Billy Donovan’s mutual departure from Oklahoma City was that the coach didn’t want to go through a rebuild following the 2019-20 season.

That wasn’t entirely true.

If he was going to go through a rebuild, he just wanted to be in the communication loop a bit more.

So of course it was brought up again on Thursday, as the Bulls are in full rebuild mode after making a flurry of trades. That’s why Donovan was asked about the idea of riding this out.

“Yeah, the part about the OKC thing, even when I kind of came [to the Bulls] it was a rebuild in terms of we had a lot of young guys, there were some decisions that were going to be made,” Donovan said. “To be honest with you, most of my time in college was to rebuild teams and rosters. We have to sit down as an organization quite honestly, myself, ownership and front office, and find the direction, the clarity, of, again, the roster is kind of flipped, right?

“I’ve talked to you guys about what’s important to me is the mentality, the competitiveness, that kind of stuff, and things can happen quickly too. Look at what Detroit was able to do. They were really bad for a while and they took off and have done really well.

“You look at a team like Boston, where they shed a bunch of salary cap and people thought they weren’t going to be any good and now they’re second in the East, so things can happen pretty quickly.”

Maybe, but this latest Bulls rebuild doesn’t feel quick.

Some of the new pieces were in the mix for the 123-107 loss to the Raptors on Thursday, as Anfernee Simons, Jaden Ivey and Guerschon Yabusele each made their Bulls debut. Rob Dillingham and Collin Sexton are expected to make their debuts Saturday.

Yabusele finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, Simons had 22 points on six threes, and Ivey had 13 points.

What the trio also had in common was being suprised by how fast the Bulls play, and it wasn’t even full speed in Donovan’s eyes.

“Oh yeah, super tough,” Simons said of the adjustment. “I was pretty tired and [Donovan] was telling us to play even faster. Got a few ways to go to get in shape and play that way but everyone is bought into playing that way. All the new guys that aren’t used to it just got to continue to take each and every game to get in condition.”

Money man

The initial outside feeling was Simons and Sexton — both unrestricted free agents at the end of the season — would be allowed to walk come July 1, but executive Arturas Karnisovas said that wasn’t necessarily the case.

If one or both impress during the final few months of the season, Karnisovas has no problem re-upping them to stay put.

“That [financial flexibility] gives us real options whether that’s free agency, trades, the draft or continue an investment in development,” Karnisovas said. “Flexibility that allows us to be patient but decisive when the right opportunity presents itself.”

Training room

Josh Giddey missed his fifth game since the hamstring tightness resurfaced, but don’t expect a quick return for the point guard, especially if he’s not 100%.

Not only do the Bulls view winning as a lower priority, but they also want to see as much as they can of all the new guards who were added. The best way to do that is with playing time.