Chicago Bulls: Takeaway no. 3 – Billy Donovan shortens the rotation
Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan led by example in setting the tone for this game. While the Bulls eventually saw 12 different players take the court in this one, that doesn’t truly represent the rotation we saw.
Three of those players saw under two minutes of playing time, all coming when the game was sealed in the Bulls favor. A fourth saw under four total minutes on the court with barely any playing time coming in the first 45 minutes of play. That was wing Denzel Valentine.
Billy Donovan broke from what we have seen him do most of this season rotation-wise. Most nights he has gone at least ten players deep in his rotation throughout the game, sometimes even getting 11 players involved throughout the game.
In what was as close to a must-win as a team could have at this point in the season, Donovan trimmed the bulk of the playing time to just eight players. It seems the head coach was fully aware of the meaning this game could eventually have on the playoff race and how important it was to pick up a win.
That’s why the rotation was short and the Bulls best players were almost always on the court. Both Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic played over 35 minutes in the win. Additionally, Patrick Williams, Coby White and Tomas Satoransky all saw over 30 minutes of playing time.
It will be interesting to see if Donovan favors this type of rotation moving forward. One would assume the eventual return of Daniel Theis will add a ninth player to the consistent rotation which is much more realistic than a consistent eight-man rotation.
At the end of the day, one key thing should be taken away from the Bulls head coach in this one. He is all in on the front office’s decision to win games right now and will adjust his coaching to give the team the best chance possible on any given night.