Chicago Bulls: 4 best surprises from the first 4 games of the season

4) Best Chicago Bulls surprises through first 4 games

Billy Donovan’s progression in the rotations

Entering the 2020-21 regular season, Donovan and the Bulls had a lot of question marks as to how the rotation would be configured moving forward. The Bulls knew what the main pieces of the young core were comprised of, but the usage of those players in this new scheme under Donovan’s direction was largely shrouded in mystery.

The trajectory of improvement that Donovan has in this rotation just four games into the regular season is really impressive. Even though they got off to poor starts through the first two or three games this season, Donovan remained confident in keeping the starting backcourt of shooting guard Zach LaVine and point guard Coby White together.

A big change did emerge for Donovan in the third game of the season, which resulted in that tough last second one-point loss to the Warriors at home back on Dec. 27, where he ran LaVine essentially as the floor general on offense. Donovan is also matching up the likes of rookie forward Patrick Williams, veteran small forward Otto Porter Jr., and veteran shooting guard Garrett Temple against a lot of the better guards the Bulls faced through four games.

The way that Donovan is scheming up and adjusting this rotation on the fly is working pretty well. There’s still a lot of changes that this Bulls fan base is calling for, like more minutes for center Daniel Gafford and less for small forward Chandler Hutchison. But for the most part there’s not much to complain about after the win over the Wizards on Dec. 27.