CLEVELAND — The NBA is never short on storylines. Bulls guard Isaac Okoro was the subject of one of the latest.
Traded in late June from the only NBA franchise he knew, guess where Okoro found himself for the Bulls’ preseason opener Tuesday? Back in Cleveland, of course, the place he called home for five seasons after being selected No. 5 overall in the 2020 draft.
‘‘A little bit of mixed feelings,’’ Okoro said after the Bulls’ 118-117 victory against the Cavaliers. ‘‘Like coming into the away locker room, I’ve never been there before. Stepping on the court with the away team, it was definitely different.’’
But Okoro wasn’t the only player in this hardcourt melodrama.
In acquiring Okoro, the Bulls had to part ways with guard Lonzo Ball. That’s not as easy as it would seem, considering Ball was seldom available during his tenure with the Bulls, suffering a horrific knee injury that almost cost him his career and sidelined him for 2½ seasons.
Even now, the Cavs are operating with a strict plan of maintaining Ball’s health. He played just less than 12 minutes in the preseason opener, but he won’t play in back-to-back games to start the season and will operate with a minutes restriction.
Sound familiar?
Then again, the Cavs are operating in a much different space than the Bulls are. They were the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs last season before flaming out below expectations in the second round.
They want to keep Ball up and running for the regular season, then be able to unleash him in the playoffs. Coach Kenny Atkinson made that clear.
‘‘Really, with [Ball] more than anyone, our goal with him is to have him ready for the playoffs,’’ Atkinson said. ‘‘There’s a reason this guy was a second overall pick in our league. He’s one of those guys that makes other players better, which is a coach’s dream, right?’’
Bulls coach Billy Donovan wouldn’t argue with that.
And while it would seem that an underlying reason for trading Ball for a healthier and more available Okoro was because the Bulls and Cavs are in such different places, Donovan said that wasn’t necessarily the case.
‘‘When I spoke to the front office about [the trade], it was, ‘Hey, this is an opportunity, and what do you think about Isaac?’ ’’ Donovan recalled. ‘‘I think the trade, in my opinion, was good [for both teams].
‘‘We needed some physicality, and Isaac brings that to the table. Where [the Cavaliers are] as an organization now in terms of trying to make a deep playoff run, they had some [backcourt] injuries last year, and this shores up their backcourt a little bit more.’’
Okoro or not, however, what Donovan witnessed in the first five minutes of the first quarter forced him to call a timeout and didn’t exactly leave him pleased.
Turnovers, bad fouls, an unwillingness to defend and free passes to the rim put the Bulls in an 18-6 hole and forced Donovan to gather the troops for a heart-to-heart.
‘‘There was definitely more opportunities to be physical at the basket,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I just felt we were constantly shooting ourselves in the foot.’’
The Bulls cleaned things up late in the game and pulled out the victory, but the teams will square off again Thursday, this time at the United Center.
‘‘It’s a funny way in the business,’’ Okoro, who scored 11 points, said of the schedule. ‘‘But I’m on the Chicago Bulls, and I’m trying to bust Cleveland’s ass any day.’’
