Chicago Bulls are showing sustainability as they find new ways to win

The Chicago Bulls are proving that they’re more than just a feel-good story.

Holding a 10-point lead with just under nine minutes remaining in the third quarter of their game against the LA Clippers a few nights ago, the Chicago Bulls knew a counterpunch was coming.

After jumping out to a double-digit advantage only minutes into the contest, Billy Donovan and the Bulls had maintained their lead for much of the night by denying Paul George and Reggie Jackson at the point of attack; preventing the duo from gaining a first step that would allow them the choice of driving towards the rim or passing out to the perimeter and forcing a rotation.

Operating against a team in the Clippers that feasts off such catch-and-shoot jumpers, ranking third in the league on unguarded spot-ups according to tracking data from Synergy Sports, the combined effort of both Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso to stay in front of LA’s ball-handlers had effectively neutered the Clips’ most dangerous attack.

Left with little room to work with in front of them, both George and Jackson repeatedly settled for contested 3-point attempts, ultimately ending the evening a measly 5-of-21 from deep.

It was no surprise then when the Clippers decided to force the action.

Sprinting ahead into the open court, following an errant jump shot from Zach LaVine, Eric Bledsoe attempted to take Lonzo off the dribble, hoping to take advantage of the elder Ball brother before he could set his feet. Despite his initial attack stalling out thanks to the quick recovery from the Bulls point guard, Bledsoe eventually muscled his way into the paint off a hard screen from center Ivica Zubac near the elbow.

Yet, instead of the open real estate under the basket he was hoping for, Bledsoe was greeted by a dropping Tony Bradley, who stood with his arms extended, ready to swat away any shot attempt. Making matters worse for Bledsoe, Lonzo had fought his way through Zubac’s screen to reattach himself onto the ball-handler’s back hip.

Just as quickly as a crack had emerged in the Bulls’ suddenly stout defense, Chicago had just as fast recalibrated and trapped Bledsoe between two defenders down low.

Left with few options, Bledsoe fired an emergency lob pass towards Zubac near the rim, who, despite quarreling the wild pass, was, in turn, swarmed by the same two defenders as Lonzo finally swiped the ball from his clutches and sparked a fast break.

The result: a half-court alley-oop pass from Alex Caruso to Zach LaVine that not only sucked the air out of the Staples Center crowd but would turn out to be the top highlight in an eventual Chicago victory.

In many ways, the sequence was the perfect encapsulation of what has made the Bulls so deadly through the first month of the regular season: an ability to adjust on the fly and counter an opposing team’s counter.

For a veteran-laden squad that entered the season with high expectations, the surprise isn’t that the Bulls have so quickly established an identity, but rather how pliable that identity has turned out to be.

Flexibility is the watchword for the Chicago Bulls

Billed as a 42-to-45-win team entering the year, the blueprint for the Bulls’ success was built around maximizing the squad’s offensive efficiency – particularly at the rim and in the mid-range – well enough that their shortcomings behind the arc and on defense wouldn’t torpedo a season that held as much promise as any over the past decade for the Midwest club.

While Chicago had stolen headlines with a trio of free-agent signings in Ball, Caruso, and DeMar DeRozan, the perceived inability of each to consistently stretch the floor, meant that Billy Donovan would have to rely on LaVine and Nikola Vucevic to drift behind the line frequently enough to create driving lanes for their compatriots to exploit.

On its face then, the fact that LaVine has struggled to replicate his success from last season from distance, combined with the complete disaster Vucevic has been from deep – his 26% (!) mark from three during the regular season a massive improvement over the 6% (!!) he shot in the preseason – would seem to indicate that the Bulls offense was mired in the mud.

Thankfully for Chicago, that hasn’t been the case.

Not only has LaVine significantly improved his ability to move off the ball, ranking in the 90th percentile on cuts towards the basket per Synergy, but the capability of the Bulls to mix-and-match lineups with their five above-average passers – Ball, Caruso, DeRozan, LaVine, and Vucevic – means that the team can exploit smaller openings more frequently.

Yet Chicago hasn’t completely abandoned the need for a 3-point shot now and then, either.

Despite being jettisoned from both LA and New Orleans partly because of his perceived lack of shooting and overall scoring ability, Lonzo has turned himself into a dependable shot maker from anywhere on the court. Though his 44% mark from deep through 14 games might be on the higher end of the spectrum of what he’s capable of over an entire season, his career-high 56% true shooting mark is proof that he’s doing more than just getting lucky.

Even by the eye-test, his shortened shooting motion no longer allows defenders to duck under picks and closeout before he can get a shot away, meaning that defenses are now forced to react to his presence in ways they weren’t required to in the past.

While he may not be the type of franchise-altering point guard that the Lakers had hoped he would become when drafting him second overall, there’s little doubt Lonzo is going to be a difference-maker for years to come, lifting the Bulls to a plus-eight mark when he’s on the court, according to Cleaning the Glass.

It’s been the performance of DeMar DeRozan, however, that has been the most impactful.

While the former Raptor and Spur has carved out a career for himself largely predicated on his shot-making ability in the midrange  – one that often brings back memories of prime Kobe -DeRozan has this season displayed far more of a willingness to attack from behind the arc.

Not only is the 13th-year pro taking more 3-point shots than he has in five years, but his 37% mark is easily the highest of his career and is more than a 12% improvement from last season.

"“People make it seem like I can’t shoot it,” DeRozan said to reporters following the Bulls victory against the Brooklyn Nets last week in Chicago when asked about his evolving shot selection. “[But] I just didn’t choose to shoot it. I just shoot them now. I don’t think about it…I wish I had a good story about [why I’m shooting more], but I just go out and shoot”."

Whatever the reason for the veteran’s more diverse shot selection, the reality is that DeRozan’s multi-faceted repertoire has made him the Bulls’ most valuable offensive player through the first month of the season.

Because of his newfound range, defenses are no longer able to drop towards the midrange on possessions in which the forward is the ball handler, lifting DeRozan to the 75th percentile of all ball-handlers, according to Synergy. Combined with his still prodigious ability in isolation plays, DeRozan is a bonkers +21.1 for Chicago, per CTG.

Though it may not be what he envisioned at the start of the season, Donovan hasn’t displayed any hesitation in adjusting the roles and shot selection he previously mapped out for his key contributors.

Case in point: a late-game situation against the Philadelphia 76ers on November 6th.

Trailing by five points with just over a minute remaining in regulation, the former NCAA championship coach designed a play that stationed Vucevic at the top of the arc to exploit the (in)famous dropping defense of Joel Embiid and the Sixers.

While the play would on its face appear designed to get the Chicago big man an open look at a three-point attempt – a shot he’s regularly made in the past – Donovan harnessed Caruso’s screen setting ability with DeRozan’s newfound range to simultaneously spring LaVine loose off a weakside cut, while drawing defenders away thanks to DeRozan’s drift towards the corner.

With the Sixers daring Vucevic to beat them from deep in tribute to his recent struggles, Donovan correctly realized that space isn’t only valuable because of the potential for a wide-open shot but because it allows a passer to view the floor unimpeded. The result was a perfectly executed drop-pass to LaVine off a screen that largely came unchallenged.

Even though the play resulted in an errant wide-open shot attempt by LaVine that clanged off the front of the rim, the process for the Bulls was sound even if the results were less than ideal, a reality that hasn’t always been true in Chicago.

All in all, Chicago finds itself near the top of the conference standings – behind only Washington, just as everyone predicted – thanks to a confluence of factors that seemed impossible at the start of the season.

In place of their two most consistent floor spacers, their least efficient shooters have taken the lead. Dependent on their offensive efficiency, it’s been their defense that shows up night after night. Built around stubborn veterans who know who they are, it’s been their willingness to change that’s propelled them to success.

Which, of course, isn’t to say that the Bulls don’t have their challenges.

Their lack of interior size is bound to be exploited in a seven-game matchup, and Vucevic will have to make some outside shots at some point.

Yet, for a franchise whose entire historical relevancy begins and ends with “The Last Dance,” the 2021-22 Chicago Bulls have a chance to write some new history.