Happy Halloween, Bulls fans! As I sit writing this on Halloween morning, snow is falling in Chicago. At least some things are consistently reliable around here. Makes me think of my childhood in the suburbs, trick-or-treating with my friends as a “___ in a winter coat.” But when it comes to this 1-4 start to the season, it’s not just snow that’s falling outside the United Center on the final day of October. The sky is falling with it.
Some of the more optimistic fans must be shook by this dreadful start. It’s hard to believe this team can make the playoff leap this season when you lose games to supposed bottom feeders like Charlotte, New York and Cleveland. Even as someone who didn’t see the playoffs as a reality this season, I can’t help but think of a popular meme: “Our expectations for you were low, but holy ****.”
So, for a Halloween edition of this weekly column, I thought I’d rattle off a few things that scared me more than ghouls and goblins and snow in October. It’s The Pecking Order.
1. Jim Boylen isn’t going anywhere.
When asked about Boylen’s job security in his most recent “Ask K.C.” mailbag column, our Bulls Insider K.C. Johnson answered with the following:
“Not only did the Bulls extend Boylen’s contract during the offseason, but ownership and management are also fully convinced he’s the right man for the job. In fact, I’ve rarely seen a coach as organizationally aligned as Boylen is. And I’ve covered a few Bulls coaches. Boylen isn’t going anywhere.”
Yikes. And K.C. is being modest there. It’s more than a few coaches he’s covered in his time on this beat dating back to the second three-peat in the 1990s. To hear that ownership and management are so convinced Boylen is their guy is truly terrifying.
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Look, I like Boylen. He’s a very nice guy. And I do believe he cares deeply for his players and wants to help them succeed. But it’s possible for that to be true, AND for it to be true that this guy is in way over his head. He can’t manage his timeouts. He can’t construct proper rotations. His calling card – the defense – is a disaster, currently 25th in the NBA despite playing a bunch of bad offensive teams. And his inability to make in-game adjustments is the biggest reason the Bulls have coughed up THREE double digit leads and lost THREE winnable games to subpar opponents. He’s routinely getting outcoached as the games progress. The only people who appear to be unaware of (or apathetic about) that are his bosses. Did Jim actually let Kris Dunn take a jump ball against 6’9 Larry Nance Jr. when 7-foot Lauri Markkanen was on the court? Would love to hear John Paxson spin Jim out of that one. I assume it would have something to do with grit and toughness and believing in yourself. Maybe they’re still trying to come up with different ways to raise Dunn’s trade value. I give up.
BRB, going to a haunted house to calm my nerves before I can continue…
2. The LaVine-Lauri duo is really struggling.
Through five games, we have seen only one dominant performance each from Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine. This is the pair the front office sold us as the future. They’re banking this rebuild and their jobs (haha, jk about the jobs) on one or both guys turning into star caliber players. The offseason moves they made focused on bringing in complimentary players who could help them shine. Thus far, the returns are scary.
We knew coming into this season that Lauri and Zach are both defensively challenged. Zach even took offense, saying recently that he was tired of “people talking sh*t” about his defense. Well, he got cooked on a Collin Sexton back cut last night as the Cavaliers made a run to steal the game. Other than his 17-rebound game against Charlotte, Lauri has looked lost in help defense and soft defending the paint. Together, they’re regularly getting exposed by mediocre opponents running pick-and-roll action. At one point last night, Zach even ran over Lauri as the Cavs picked apart their blitzing double of the pick-and-roll. Spookfest, indeed.
I still think both guys can turn around their poor starts. It seems almost impossible that Lauri will continue to shoot just 21.2% from downtown. But will he assert himself inside the arc? We haven’t seen much of that since the first game of the season. And can Zach become the closer this team desperately needs? In the games that have slipped away, the Bulls offense has completely faltered down the stretch. Zach going iso and playing hero ball in crunch time didn’t work out all that well last season, and it’s not looking great thus far this season.
The biggest concern – one that makes me wonder if Jim should start staggering Zach and Lauri a lot more – is their ratings when they share the floor. Per stats.nba.com, LaVine and Markkanen have an offensive rating of 102.2 and a defensive rating of 115.8. That adds up to a -13.6 rating when they’re on the floor together. Talk about goosebumps. And not the good kind. The R.L. Stine kind.
3. The rebounds, man! Where are the rebounds?!
In their past two losses to New York and Cleveland, the Bulls have been outrebounded by 40. FORTY. “F. O. R. T. WHY? Because they GOTTA!” (Shout-out to those of you who got that reference from The Mask.) Jim Boylen has been preaching all offseason and into the season about physical and mental toughness. About playing harder than your opponent to give yourself an edge regardless of talent. You know where that kind of talk should be backed up? On the boards. So far, it’s not there.
This team isn’t good enough to give their opponents the advantage in second chance points every night. And yes, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson are a handful on the glass. But it wasn’t just the loss in Cleveland. Through five games, their defensive rebounding percentage of 68.6% ranks dead last in the NBA. Boo! …Urns? “I was saying Boo-urns.” Nah, I wasn’t. I was booing their rebounding effort.
4. The three-guard lineup with Kris Dunn, Coby White and Ryan Arcidiacono.
That’s it. It’s a thing that scares me. Maybe also nauseates me? It needs to end. Will Chandler Hutchison’s return to availability from a hamstring injury mark the end of Boylen using this lineup for way too many minutes every game? We’ll find out Friday night. Am I convinced that putting Hutch in there instead will be a marked improvement? No. Am I still terrified of his inability to shoot? Yes. Trading one scary thing for another, I suppose. As Lil Wayne says, “What’s a goon to a goblin?”
5. Jim Boylen closed with Thad Young over Lauri in the 4th quarter.
After Lauri got a midrange bucket and two free throws in the first minutes of the final quarter, Jim subbed him out for Thad Young. Markkanen didn’t return. I understand that Lauri wasn’t having a dynamite game (just 4-for-12 shooting) but he looked like he might be getting in an aggressive groove right as Boylen took him out. I also understand that Young is one of this teams more reliable defenders, and Lauri was getting cooked and outmuscled by Love and Thompson. But what does it say about one of your supposed franchise cornerstones – or his coach – that the coach would rather play him bridging the third and fourth quarters than have him close the game? Scary.
6. Otto Porter Jr. doesn’t look like himself.
In unquestionably his best game of the season, Otto contributed 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists against the Cavs. He shot 50% from the field, including going 1-for-2 behind the three-point line. That, at the very least, is what we were expecting from the Bulls starting wing based on what we saw in his short stint after the trade last season.
But something about Otto still doesn’t look right. He’s not moving as swiftly and smoothly as he did last year. His shot isn’t falling regularly. Could it be that his oftentimes problematic hip is giving him issues? Is there a different injury we don’t know about? As the season began, I repeated myself several times when expressing my belief that Otto staying healthy and playing well would be vital to this team’s success. I’m scared.
7. Here are some Jim Boylen quotes from his postgame press conferences following the loss to Cleveland:
“I’m seeing a lot of growth. Hell yeah, I have.” Where?
“The ball’s moving.” Not enough.
“Guys are playing with confidence.” Really? Who?
“I think we won the first two quarters.” They did. “I think we lost the third and lost the fourth. The other night, we won the first two quarters and lost the third and lost the fourth.”
All true. In the second halves of losses to New York and Cleveland, the Bulls were outscored 130-104. What’s even scarier is that most of that disparity came in the fourth quarters, where the Bulls were outscored 70-47.
And here’s Boylen’s final thought on that: “That’s where we gotta grow. We got to get more mentally prepared to play the second half.”
Do the players need to be more mentally prepared to play the second half, or does Boylen need to do a much better job coaching in the second half? I’m too scared to answer my own question.
8. Have you looked at the Bulls’ November schedule?
Don’t. It’s frightening. If the Bulls can only manage one win between the Hornets, Grizzlies, Raptors, Knicks and Cavs…Yeah. Don’t look at their upcoming schedule. Woof.
9. Wendell Carter Jr.’s thumb isn’t fully healed.
After a slow start, Wendell has looked much better in his last two games. He had his first career 20 and 10 game against the Knicks and played well Wednesday night, despite starting the day with inflammation in both eyes. (Maybe Felicio should lend him his goggles? He’s definitely not using them.) On a night when the rest of Boylen’s “grit and toughness” group appeared to lack any semblance of grit or toughness, Wendell kept battling. Not only that, his postgame comments rang truest of any. This 20-year-old kid appears to have the most poise and awareness of anybody in that locker room. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
Unfortunately, we also got a scary update on Wendell’s thumb injury. In his column breaking down the Bulls’ 1-4 start, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic mentioned that Wendell doesn’t expect his thumb to fully heal for another six weeks. Wendell is wearing a brace on that left hand and has appeared to struggle handling the ball and cleanly receiving passes. If he’s trying to show Boylen his grit and toughness by playing with a still-injured thumb, and injures it further? Hoooo boy…
10. Derrick Rose returns to the United Center on Friday.
Why is this scary, you ask? Because if Rose has a good game – which is possible, if not likely, based on his play so far this season – we’ll have to listen to Kendall Gill and so many others on Bulls Twitter talk about how they should have brought him back this offseason. Hell hath no fury like a Rose Stan scorned. Cue me rolling my eyes out of my head. It’s over. Let it go.
Hope ya’ll enjoyed a fun and safe Halloween. You and your trick-or-treaters might have been scared to go out in this classic Chicago fall weather, but that's nothing compared to the fear Bulls fans should be feeling after five games. That was truly the stuff of nightmares. Let’s hope they turn it around, and fast. Otherwise, we’ll be left with nothing to give thanks for in a few weeks.
Thanks for reading. See red, be good. - Peck