This is the time of the NBA season where almost every player and coach admittedly is filled with a certain amount of optimism.
Obviously, some far more than others.
Bulls guard Josh Giddey?
Get back to him in a few months after this roster has possibly been punched in the face and gone through adversity.
It’s not that Giddey is a cup-half-empty guy, but he is a realist. And the reality of the situation is he’s entering his third season with the franchise, has gone through a front office purge, a coaching change, and has seen enough player movement where name tags should be made available.
“Every team coming out of training camp probably thinks they’re going to surprise people,” Giddey said now that the preseason has ended. “Every team probably says the same thing, that they’re ready for a big year, but you never really know until the season starts.
“I’m very confident with the guys we have, but until you go through adversity, until you go through a losing streak, that’s when you find out where you are as a team. I don’t want to say we’re going to be a playoff team or whatever, but I think we’re good enough to be competitive every night.”
Las Vegas says otherwise, putting the win-share for the Bulls at 29.5. Understandable, but also a number that hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Vegas does their job putting win shares out there, but it’s our job to go out there and try and win all 82 games,” Giddey said. “We’ll see where we end up after all 82 games.”
But that’s the thing about this season for the Bulls: They could end up with 29 wins but if rookie Caleb Wilson and third-year forward Matas Buzelis take major steps towards resembling foundation pieces for the franchise moving forward, it could very much feel like a successful campaign.
Just don’t try convincing Wilson that under 30 wins is an acceptable outcome.
“Honestly, nobody really cares on this team what Vegas says,” Wilson said. “We know that winning is a process, we know what it takes to win, so we just got to go out and do it. Of course we have that chip on our shoulder being underrated, especially in a stacked East (Eastern Conference), but we’re just going to take it day by day.”
A mindset Wilson has been practicing since training camp started. With five preseason games under his belt, the No. 4 overall pick finished averaging 15.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists with three blocks. He shot 43.5% from the field and 31% from three-point range but will start the regular season insisting that the game has already slowed down for him while his confidence hasn’t.
“I feel like I’m able to read defenses much better,” Wilson said of his improvement. “Offensively, I feel like I’ve gotten much better off ball. I’ve just grown in a lot of areas just through trial and error.
“I’m looking forward to competing, honestly. That’s all I really want to do. When the games actually matter, and everything matters, you get the best out of everybody. I’m excited for that aspect of the game.”
As far as new coach Tiago Splitter’s excitement level? Is any NBA coach ever really truly happy with the amount of work done in the preseason?
“All of the coaches on all 30 teams, they always think they gotta do more (in the preseason),” Splitter said. “We’ve got a checklist of things you want to implement, but it’s almost impossible. There are things that we’re going to implement throughout the season, defensively, offensively, also like game situations depending on who you are playing against, defensive schemes, so yeah, we’re not there yet, 100% we’re not there.”