Bulls head coach Billy Donovan admitted he doesn’t know what Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey and Coby White are ‘‘going to look like four years from now.’’
A player such as Buzelis might be a perennial All-Star and the face of the Bulls’ franchise by then. Giddey might be turning in nightly triple-doubles. White might be an elite guard who continues to push up on the ceiling.
That’s Donovan’s hope as he enters his sixth season with the Bulls, who will host the Pistons on opening night Wednesday.
The reality, however, is that White is sidelined with a strained right calf for at least the next two weeks, Giddey has to become a consistent player and Buzelis just turned 21.
‘‘I have to help these guys understand what really goes into winning and what it takes,’’ Donovan said of his focus. ‘‘I don’t know if it’s retooling, rebuilding, but we’re in the second year of saying, ‘Can we continually move forward?’ Building out an identity where you can say, ‘OK, stylistically, this is a good style to play.’
‘‘I like our guys competitively in terms of what we’re trying to do, and we’ll see how it all plays out. I think we’re in the next iteration of what we established last year.’’
That involves still playing at a pace that has opposing players resting their hands on their knees by the final quarter, plus adding an element of physicality, especially on defense.
The success of this experiment of pace and depth, however, still relies on one simple question: Where is the superstar going to come from?
It’s a question executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas bobs and weaves on when he is asked, and he suggests such a player still might come from in-house, perhaps with White, Giddey or Buzelis.
It better.
The Bulls have six players — including White — whose contracts will expire after this season, won’t be looking to tank for a loaded 2026 draft class and have had more misses than hits in the draft.
That’s why all eyes are on Buzelis, who is coming off a preseason in which he led the Bulls in scoring at 17.6 points per game, had a five-block game against the Nuggets and shot 39.3% from three-point range.
He has added some secondary ball-handling to his offensive skills and some muscle to his frame to help him on defense. Besides a lack of experience, there aren’t a lot of flaws in Buzelis’ game going into his second season.
White, however, missed the entire preseason schedule with his calf injury. So when he gets healthy enough to return, will that push Buzelis from the driver’s seat back to the passenger seat?
Donovan isn’t concerned about that.
‘‘We don’t have [an isolation] kind of team . . . and I don’t mean, like, holding the ball for 24 seconds,’’ he explained. ‘‘When I say isolation, the ball is in the guy’s hands, and, ‘OK, you go make the play.’ I don’t think our team is like that, so we’ve got to be predicated on ball movement and player movement. I want Matas to be as aggressive as possible, with Coby [or] without Coby.
‘‘There’s going to be five guys out there, and certainly you’re going to run things for a Coby, for a Matas; you will do that. But in the course of the way we’re playing, pace- and speed-wise, if you’re trying to manufacture a guy’s usage rate, the first thing that goes down is your pace, speed and tempo. We’ve got to play fast.’’
