Over and out? Bulls coach Billy Donovan wants focus to stay on the now
PHOENIX — April vacations are a rarity for Isaac Okoro.
In his last three seasons in Cleveland, the forward has played a total of 26 playoff games and that was for a Cavaliers roster that actually underachieved in several of those runs.
So the idea of planning a trip to the islands in May, let alone mid-April, just doesn’t sit well with him.
Memo to Okoro: He may want to call the travel agent soon.
While this Bulls team was all smiles and doing some chest beating after Thursday’s upset win over Phoenix, there’s a reality involved here. The idea that they can still make a run for a play-in spot, despite being six games back in the win column from Charlotte and Atlanta as of Saturday afternoon, and doing so with 19 games left? Good luck.
Yes, Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey are set to return against a lowly Sacramento team, and yes, the Bulls do have the 11th easiest remaining schedule, but that’s a lot of winning to make up for a team that still had just three wins since Jan. 26.
Besides players in and out of the lineup with bumps and bruises, this is also a roster that since the trade deadline purge is trying to play to Billy Donovan’s identity, as well as battle a human nature factor along the way.
That’s why the coach has had daily team discussions the last few weeks about staying present.
When Josh Giddey signed a four-year, $100-million contract extension, he couldn’t have seen a complete roster flip coming. When Okoro was traded over from Cleveland and spent the summer and fall getting to know his new teammates, he couldn’t have guessed that most of them would be elsewhere before the All-Star Break.
Donovan knows this all too well.
“My messaging to those guys every single day is whenever the last day of the season is, whenever that happens, we can deal with that then,” Donovan said. “But right now the games are going to keep coming, so what can we address, what can we control?
“I’ve never heard (this isn’t what I signed up for) from Josh, and Josh is a good team guy, but that would be something to deal with at the end of the season and have a conversation. There’s free agency, a draft, but we need to throw everything we can at this now and eliminate any excuses of, ‘Well, what’s going to happen in June? What’s going to happen in July?’ All that stuff will happen when we get there.”
That doesn’t mean it’s not in the back of some minds, especially for a guy like Okoro who will be working on an expiring contract next season.
“It’s definitely a shock factor where I felt we were doing well, not great, but well before the trades, but it’s the nature of the business and things happen,” Okoro said. “Supposedly they want to rebuild but I don’t know. My goal each and every night is to go out there and try and get as many wins as possible, help this team get as many wins as possible. But there’s no doubt it’s not fun losing, especially coming from my past four or five years I’ve been playing at least until May and into May, so of course it’s not fun losing. That’s why I try to attack every game with that mindset to try and win.”
That’s also why he’s trying to stay patient as he hopes is defensive pedigree and physicality can rub off on some of the newer Bulls even with little time left.
“Some of that stuff has to be built throughout an offseason, having a training camp together and a preseason,” Okoro said. “I give them grace for that because I know it all takes time.”