Center Nikola Vucevic, who last week played in his 1,000th career NBA game, is one of the Bulls’ few veterans — a voice of reason who’s often measured in the way he assesses the team’s performance.
At 35, he has seen just about all there is to see in the NBA, experience that’s helping him to mostly stay patient with younger teammates who are still experiencing growing pains as the Bulls (15-15) try to get back over .500 after starting the season 5-0.
“Because of my experience and everything I went through, [there are] some things that seem very simple and easy and I understand right away,” Vucevic said Friday afternoon before the Bulls’ 109-102 win over the visiting 76ers. “Sometimes for younger guys, it’s not as easy, just like it wasn’t for me when I first came [into the league], and I’m sure veterans were upset with me at times. To me, [it’s about] just managing my emotions and my reaction and understanding [on] how to approach guys.”
Vucevic’s reaction was one of annoyance last month when, after a narrow win over the rebuilding Wizards, younger teammates celebrated and jumped around him while he tried to discuss the team’s shortcomings in a postgame interview. The Bulls would go on to lose seven straight games.
Vucevic has had trouble individually as well, including getting benched against the Hornets this month. But he regained his starting spot just before the Bulls began to string some wins together — a streak that reached five games Friday. They’ve also latched onto an NBA trend by exploring playing more double-big lineups with Vucevic and Jalen Smith, which has helped to mask Vucevic’s deficiencies on defense and turn the Bulls’ rebounding from a weakness to a strength.
Entering Friday, the Bulls were a minus-0.7 over 50 possessions with both Vucevic and Smith on the floor. The offense in those lineups has torched teams to the tune of 132 points per 100 possessions, but the defense has allowed 132.7 points per 100 possessions.
“We are undersized at a lot of the positions, and so especially with rebounding, [the lineups] help a lot on both ends offensively and defensively,” Vucevic said. “All three of us bigs [including Zach Collins] have pretty high IQs, and we were able to figure out how to play off each other and play inside-out.
“I’ve been liking it so far. I think it’s showing good results. It helped us with some of those matchup situations, but especially mainly on the glass, and being able to really hurt [opponents] on the offensive glass and really control defensive glass. [Smith] gives us size at the rim as well, which is something we kind of struggle with throughout the year.”
Forcing turnovers
Even with the added rim protection of a double-big lineup, coach Billy Donovan still doesn’t want the Bulls taking chances. Entering Friday, they were 26th in the league in opponent turnover rate.
“We’re not telling our guys, ‘Hey, those two guys are back there — just go for steals,’ ” Donovan said. “We’re not doing that.”
Different sort of rebound
Although he didn’t play, forward Patrick Williams was available against the 76ers after appearing on the injury report with an illness. Over his last four games, he has played no more than 11 minutes.