Chicago Bulls starting power forward: DeMar DeRozan
Depending on how the coaching staff feels about playing Williams at the three and DeRozan at the four, these two positions could be pretty switchable in the starting unit. The four-time All-Star DeRozan did play most of his minutes for the San Antonio Spurs last season, though. And he had a nice bounce-back campaign where he adapted his game nicely to fit the rest of the personnel around him in San Antonio.
If the Bulls are able to get Vucevic out in space beyond the arc, and DeRozan is able to get his game going inside the arc to kick it out to the outside to open shooters, then this offense could work well together. The Bulls have four solid outside shooters playing around DeRozan this season.
It makes a lot of sense for the Bulls to let DeRozan and LaVine do most of the initiating and ball-handling duties this season. DeRozan and LaVine were both high-usage players last season. The same is likely to be said this season.
Where Donovan will have to get creative is with his defensive matchups. DeRozan was never a plus defender, and that likely isn’t going to change anytime soon. But DeRozan actually had more success as a defender playing at the four last season than all but one campaign in his lengthy NBA career.
The good news is that the Bulls looked really good on defense during the preseason, even with DeRozan on the floor. The Bulls have a lot of length in the starting unit, and that can be very disruptive and allow the team to generate turnovers in bunches.