Billy Donovan, the coach of the Chicago Bulls, stated that the team’s 39-43 record could have been worse.
“Much worse,” Donovan remarked. Another Bulls season was cut short by a slew of ailments, as the team lost to the New York Knicks on the road on Sunday, 120-119 in overtime.
Chicago, who took ninth place in the standings, will play the tenth-seeded Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at the United Centre in the Play-in Tournament.
“If I would have said to anybody here, Zach LaVine’s out, Patrick Williams is going to be out, and you’re going to miss Torrey Craig and you’re going to go through all these, and you’re going to have to bring back Javonte Green, you would sit there and say ‘This team is incapable of having a winning record,'” Donovan stated. “So from that standpoint, the hand that we were dealt, I think that they handled it really well.”
After placing tenth last season, the Bulls were also a Play-In team. They defeated the Miami Heat in their second Play-In game after winning their first one in Toronto.
However, Chicago has improved from a 5-14 start to a 34-29 record.
Is this the direction we want to take as an organisation moving forward? No, Donovan replied. “Our goal is to be in a position where we can go deep into the playoffs. At the moment, we’re not that.
However, I think our men deserve a lot of respect for hanging onto the rope, persevering, and competing to give ourselves a chance to move forward and possibly earn a spot in the playoffs. For that, they should be given a lot of praise.
Much of the money, as I’ve indicated, isn’t working for us. And that is our squad, as it is. Right now, we are not a top Eastern team. That is merely a reality of the concern. We will endeavour to reach that objective.