Mully & Haugh Show

Billy Donovan & Arturas Karnisovas join live in studio to preview Bulls' new season (Hour 3)

In the third hour, Mike Mulligan and David Haugh were joined live in studio by Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and head coach Billy Donovan to preview the start of the new season. The Bulls will report for training camp Monday. Karnisovas and Donovan discussed guard Zach LaVine's future with the organization, point guard Lonzo Ball's health, expectations and more.

Broadcast on:: 25 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Good morning, all good here. [MUSIC] I always think about basketball, you know, I'm thinking about winning. And that's why I'm here. I'm not here to stay in the middle. You know, it's a result driven business. I mean, you spent three times a day with Billy. I was like great leader, great coach, and I got to do a better job to help him. >> Yeah, there's definitely going to be conversations. You know, we'll sit down to talk and they'll put my brain in. I'll talk to them about stuff that always happens, you know, and they've been really, really good and I appreciate them. I want to be clear on this, like, when the season starts, right? I am totally trying to invest everything I have into the team and into the group, you know, as best I can. [MUSIC] >> Mullion Hall, Chicago Sports Radio 670, the score. We are broadcasting live from the performance studio. We're delighted to welcome in our tourist kind of show of this. And Billy Donovan, the boss, and we kept teasing it as breakfast with Billy. We've got breakfast over there, and it's really Billy, the boss and breakfast. What do you think? That's where we're showing it from. >> Well, I have seen it when I heard that. And I knew he was from Jersey. I thought Bruce Springsteen was going to be sitting next to me. >> [LAUGH] >> Well, AK, you're wearing your colors, man. >> Yeah, that is kind of the national gift of the Lithuanian national team, right? >> Yeah, so basically, Nike came out a couple of years ago with this short, that kind of reflected, you know, 1992 and 1996. And all the years that the Lithuanian Olympic team was wearing. So, I decided to put it on. >> It's a T-shirt that any deadhead could appreciate, though, right? >> Yeah. >> Actually, you know, the summer when dead was at the sphere, I've never seen Billy happier in my life when he went to see them live. >> This summer? >> Yes, and he came next day. I mean, he was absolutely shining the way he was describing how great was the concert. And I've never seen him happier. >> What was it like, Billy? >> Yeah. >> Oh, it was a great experience. I had a chance to see them in Madison Square Garden in like 1988, '89, and then they were in the sphere when we were there for Summer League. And someone had called me, had tickets and went to the show. It was great. So, I really enjoyed it. He was just disappointed that he couldn't come. He got in the day later. >> Very much. Well, you were busy. Once you get in Italy, did you have some adventures abroad this summer? >> I've done things that I've never done before. So, you know, experiences that-- >> What prompted that? >> Yeah. >> Was this isn't that bad? >> I think, you know, getting to that point where, like, you know, you live once, you try to experience certain things and, you know, certain, you know, experiences. You didn't-- I didn't plan, but they haven't. And I'm glad-- >> One example. What was one example this time? >> Yeah. So, when I went to Italy, you know, we were planning to go on a hike. And the translation, English translation, hiking and extreme rock climbing and mountain climbing. We kind of got lost there. So, when we showed up with my wife, you know, to do hiking at Mountain Tabulata. Two guys showed up with, you know, harnesses and carabiners and belays. I-- you know, I didn't have these words in my vocabulary before, but, like, you know, I'm like, what is going on right now? And what are we going to-- about to do? And four hours and five hours of that experience was like-- I've never obviously done that before. I'm not trained, you know, so it was an interesting experience. >> Billy, don't you always do some international travel just to keep up with some of your players, right? Everybody's living all over the world. >> Yeah, this summer didn't work out that way. A couple of years ago, I went over to Montenegro to see Vuj, but he was playing with the Olympic team there, so there was a lot of training going on there. So it didn't make a trip overseas to see any players. I saw Gar and Dragach, you know, that year as well, which was a great trip, but nothing overseas this season. >> But did you get together with, I don't know, maybe Zach Levine? Was that one of your trips? >> Yeah, so like, what ends up happening for me, at least, you know, we had probably about five days of summer league practice, and then we end up going to Vegas. And then after Vegas, I made a trip to LA, spent some time with Zach, spent some time with Io, Kobe, Daelin, spent some time with Lonzo. They kind of all, you know, relatively close to each other. So, you know, we go out there and do that. And then, you know, a bunch of guys came down to Miami to work out, went down to Miami and visited with them there. So, you know, even though the trip wasn't necessarily overseas this summer, you're certainly going out at periods of time this summer to visit with players and spend time with them. >> And just that you were visiting with Zach, I think, is something that we're addressing now because the pretty open dialogue last season about whether he would be coming back, what he decided to do with the surgery, all of the things, and now here we are on the brink of training camp, and Zach Levine is coming back to Chicago, a member of the Bulls. Could you just address how those conversations went in the off season and the fact that he is back here now, how he fits into your plans this year? >> Well, I mean, I've always enjoyed talking to Zach, and we've always had, you know, a relationship that we've been able to communicate. And, you know, like I said, any time that, you know, we've needed to sit down and talk, he's always been very open-minded about that. I think, you know, when you're a player and you're going through an injury, like he went through, and he's really disconnected, so to speak, from the organization, from the team, because he's doing his rehab. It was right after the all-star break that he had surgery. You know, naturally, you're going to want to know, okay, like, what direction are we going? How do I fit into this, all those kind of things? So, it was really once the summer, once July started, it was more like, he was, you know, back playing, he looks in really, really good shape. I think it's the first time, to be honest with you, in the last year or so, that he's actually come back to training camp, remember, he came off knee surgery, so he looks a lot better, and then it's, you know, more about how we're trying to play, how he fits in, you know, those kind of things. And, you know, I can think the big thing is, hey, we've got a lot of younger players, and we're going to go younger, we're going to go, you know, older, how's all this going to work. And we have open, honest conversations about it, and we talk about it. >> Our church there was an expectation that maybe he would be moved. There was a perception that maybe he wasn't able to be moved or traded because there wasn't a market for Zach Levine. How would you address that? >> Well, I think last season was very difficult for him, for organizations, for everyone. And, but, like Billy said, you know, the last two years has been, you know, injured. It's very frustrating for a player, and now he's finally fully healthy. He looks great, and, you know, looking forward to seeing him in a training camp. >> Is he still open to be traded? Are you open to trading him, and does he need to sort of rehab his reputation around the league because of the reason you spoke up, because of injury, coupled with his contract, et cetera? >> Well, you know, people forget that two years ago he was an All-Star, so, and he's an ultimate pro. He's a great guy, a great person. He likes his teammates, so, again, I'm looking forward to seeing him in a training camp. And, you know, we have a vision how we want to play. You know, we've obviously spent this summer talking about it with Billy, and, you know, that we want to play more uptempo, and he fits into that, and we'll see how that works. >> So much curiosity about what style of play you will be with the new players. There's a lot of changes going on. Now you've got Basilis coming in as a draft pick, and you're bringing Josh Giddy, who had a terrific Olympics, and you saw some of his capability, and you bring Zach, and you got Kobe White ready to take another step. How fun is it for you? It's almost like a lot of the same guys, but there's -- feels like a reset to some degree, because they're in different roles, or because Demarda Rosen isn't here. Alex Caruso isn't here. The guys who maybe had played into those roles so well for so long, now you're kind of -- it feels new. >> Yeah. You know, Arthur and I, you know, speak all the time, but even, you know, coming at the last season, and having to overcome, you know, the loss of players, so to speak, with Patrick Limp, situation, Zach, situation, Tori Craig, there was just a lot of things that ended up happening. I think everybody knows the way Alex Caruso plays. He's so reckless a lot of times. His availability, you know, was up in the air. So, you know, I think last year I was pretty honest, from the standpoint that, you know, we were not a team that was built to play really fast. We just weren't built that way, and I think, you know, as a coach, you always want to try to play to your player's strengths, and obviously, the job that Demard did for the time that he was here was remarkable, and he was great closing out games in a total pro, and he was great with the younger players. I think as some of the roster has changed, there is a mix of younger players, and there's a mix of some older players, and how well we can gel and mesh together. I think the other part is going through the experience in Oklahoma City when we had Chris Paul, Shane Gilgers Alexander, and Dennis Shooter. We played all those three guards together, you know, and I think when you look at our back court situation, we have some talented back court players, but they're only affected with the balls in their hands, right? So, what kind of sacrifices can we make individually, you know, where we're not going to have one guy with the ball in his hands all the time. We're going to have to be able to sacrifice and try to play to each other's strengths. I think the other part of that now is I think the way the team is constructed with the mix of some older guys and some younger guys, we have to play faster. I think one of the things we've battled the last couple of years is in some ways in our tours, and I have talked about this, we've lost the analytical battle. You know, we just were not a high-volume three-point shooting team, and there was games we walked into where you've got teams that are taking an enormous amount of three-point shots, and we're not able to even keep up with that rate. And it's not so much about necessarily just bombing up three-point shots, but you don't want to be up against it on a continual basis because you're just not generating enough for them because, listen, everybody, when you say DeMarr, DeRoz, and they always say this mid-range killer, and he's unbelievable, it's a reason why he's going to be a Hall of Fame players because that's what he does do. And you don't want to sit there and try to make a player be somebody, he's not. So, I do think that the tempo that our tours and I've talked about over the summer, we've got to play that way and we have, you know, you go back and hopefully he'll be able to get on the court, Lonzo, he's moving in that direction, but he was really a guy that enabled us to play faster, you know, moving the ball up the floor, I think the same thing can be said for Josh Giddy. You know, he's a guy that can really, really push the tempo, and he does it a lot with the advanced pass, and I think for those two guys, players love playing with them because they know if they run, they're going to find him. And it's difficult, obviously, to play offense constantly against the set defense, you know, when you're pushing the ball, that's when you generate rim shots and open threes and that's what we're going to try to get as many of those as possible, after misses or after make. Lonzo hasn't played in so long, so I mean, I just don't even know what that would look like. I'm sure you've got a good plan in place that would seemingly have to be some kind of minutes limit or some sort of, you know, maybe natural days off within a comeback like that's been two and a half years, basically. He's been, you know, we've been talking to, you know, obviously, just always excited about the training camp, but again, during the training camp, we're going to try to find out, you know, you know, that the loads that he's going to have to take in training camp and the grind on a daily basis will depend, is, you know, rotational minutes, you know, his role and, you know, how much he's going to play. But he's been playing five and five since August and he's been doing more. He had recently set back just because he got sick and he missed like a week and a half, but by training camp, he, you know, he should be ramping up. You envision him as a bench player, you've mentioned him as a starter and controlled minutes because he's a guy who obviously went healthy and that's, it's always dangerous to say when healthy because it has been so long, but do you think or is this to be determined? Well, I think the thing that Arturis mentioned, which is critical, we don't know how he's going to respond after games, after practice, because we haven't seen it, right? So that's where we first got to start off with is where, you know, is it something where he plays 15 to 20 minutes and now he's going to take the next day off, can he play 25 or 30 minutes, you know, how does he respond, you know, the back to backs, you know, we don't know, we don't know any of those things, so we're going to wait to find out now. I do think the one thing I look at it from this lens is it, Lonzo loves to play, he loves to play and at his age, you know, as much as he loves to play, he wants to play beyond this year. So we have to think how else have a responsibility to make sure that he's in a position, you know, where he can play after this season, where it's not one of these things where, you know, it's not managed correctly or we're not putting him in a situation to be effective. Could that be 15 to 18 minutes a game? Maybe. Could it be 20 to 25? Maybe. There's just a lot of things. If you look at him as a basketball player, he's an elite point guard that certainly, you know, warrants being out on the court a lot, but is he capable of doing that physically? And those are things we just don't know right now and until we get to training camp and he's out there, we'll have a better feel of how we can maybe manage him and allow him to be a productive player. You know, it feels maybe it's not true that you're working at cross-purpose, that you're trying to do player development, you're trying to get young guys incorporated, and you have a lot of players that are back. Does that, I mean, does that signify that you are going to be starting certain guys and then extending minutes through more guys than usual? Usually you'd like to go about 90, but you don't go much more than that, but does this mean you have to go tending? Well, you know, I think one of the things that when people look at the development piece of a player, they only look at it through the lens of playing time and they think, okay, the only way to develop a player is just throw them on the court, playing 35 minutes, let them make mistakes and figure it out from there. You've got to be able to, I think, help a young player in particular understand the things that really go into winning and the things that go into being a successful player. Is playing time part of that? Sure, adversity is also a huge part of that. How are they going to respond to tough games, you know, being exposed, not having the experience? I think for a young player developing a routine, you know, what do they do? How do they recover, you know, and this idea of, hey, listen, we're just going to take a bunch of young players, throw them out there and then, you know, what, just give them playing time. I think there's also things that develop and you got to earn things too, you know, and I think our mentality and focus is we're going into every game trying to win. So when you look at a guy like Mathis, yes, part of his development is being on the court. No question, but he also needs to develop a routine. He also needs to understand the league, he needs to understand who he's playing against. There may be a situation that our tourist and I sit down and maybe with the amount of minutes he's getting is, hey, listen, he needs to go down the G League and get more minutes. Like the development part is so, it's such a bigger process than just, hey, go on the court, work on a shooting and ball handling, because the biggest thing that a young player has to deal with that's coming from where he's coming from or any young player coming from, you know, is the fact that there's a level of inexperience, there's a strength issue, there's a lot of things guys have to develop. So the development piece is critical, but also one of the things that really go into winning because at the end of the day, you're trying to compete and win and you want to help a player develop winning hats. And as you're saying that, people are nodding their heads and agreeing with you because it all makes a lot of sense. And then the Bulls fans are thinking about, okay, where is Patrick Williams in that development? Because Patrick Williams went through a lot of the things that you just described and he had to learn how to be a professional. He's 23 years old, this is his fifth season, but people talk about him like he's been in the league for 10 years. And yet his development, I think he seems like from the outside looking in, ready to take a step, also needs to take a step to justify his draft status and what he means to this team. Well, also, you know, let's not forget that he almost missed two seasons out of four. So he missed his second and he had injury last year. So he obviously worked extremely hard this summer to get back and we're ramping him up right now for training cap. So it's going to be an important season for him. But when we are talking about us being younger, you know, you also look at, you know, Kobe, this is his sixth year, you know, Patrick is fifth, IO is fourth, Josh Giddy is fourth, you know, so we young, but at the same time, you know, there's a lot of experience there. So again, how far has Patrick come since you have big coaching him? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting what Artur has said because I really felt when I first got here, I thought one of the most difficult things for three players in particular, they were not equipped and ready to handle was when Wendell Carter, you know, was maybe in his second year, Kobe was going into a second year, it was coming off of Kobe and then Lori Market and it was like, okay, these guys are going to be the leaders in the future. They didn't have enough experience for that. But I think like Artur said, with IO, with Kobe, with Patrick, these guys now have got legitimate years of NBA experience under their belt. And I do think from what Artur said, some of the injuries has probably stunted that a little bit. But I do think Kobe's a way different leader than he was when I first got here just through the experience. Same thing with IO. I think the same thing could be said for Patrick, you know, I think he's starting to understand a little bit more. But when you talk about a player coming in as maybe the youngest player in the NBA, just to throw a guy out there now, some of it worked out roster wise that he was given the opportunity to play quite a bit, right? But I do think he mentally has taken some growth and some development there in his part that he's in a much, much better place in terms of understanding who he is as a player. All right, it's Molly and Haw, we are broadcasting live from the Blue Cross Blue Shield performance stage, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois through it all. And special thanks to the fine folks at Schmaltz Deli located on Ognet Avenue and Lyle. They are spreading some deli goodness. Well, they're spreading it everywhere. But today they're spreading it in here and we appreciate it. And we're going to be right back. Wanna talk about Kobe and about the step that he took and maybe the step in front of him. We'll do that when we return Molly and Haw in the score. I feel like I'm just part of my growth overall, just getting better. As the season went on, I think one thing I need to work on, probably this all season focus on is probably just my conditioning. I don't think anything I could have done in this past all season would have prepared me for the amount of minutes and and load that I had this year. So for me now moving forward, I just need to work on my conditioning to make sure I'm prepared for anything coming into the team. Molly and Haw Chicago Sports Radio 670 the score. That's the voice of Kobe White. And there was a little bed of dead music underneath that just to make everyone comfortable. So let's talk about Kobe because that was that was really one of the big stories. You know, you decide to sign him. Minutes open up for him. Things happen in his favor. And he answers the bell. And the question would just be, is there another level there? Because we've seen him. I mean, the guy was like a he was like a childhood superstar in North Carolina. I think he was like the schoolboy. Still the record. Yeah. So I mean, you know, he can score. You know, we can do different things, but he just seems to be continually getting better as a player. Yes. I mean, you know, Kobe is obviously, first of all, is a great teammate. And every summer he's getting better. All right. So he committed the last two summers, you know, to to his development. But not only that, like this summer, he he goes and invites teammates to work out with him. So he grew as a leader. He found his voice, you know, last year. And, you know, and hopefully this year is going to take another step. Yeah. I mean, he's, it's been really, we talked earlier about development, right? Like there's things that he had to go through to put himself in his position. You know, there was a time there where remember we had some injuries and he was at the point court position, then he was off the ball, then he was coming off the bench, then he was starting. It was a difficult year, but he always did whatever needed to be done for the team. And I think maybe you heard him before we started speaking about what he learned this year. Right. And I think the one thing he learned was the endurance of a guy like Steph Curry, who can run around and move like that for the amount of minutes that he endures. And I think he talked about, I got to get into much better shape. I've got to be able to have much better stamina. Like that's a development piece that when you look at it, he's not going to really know that unless he went through it. And I think he even mentioned beforehand, there's nothing I could have done to prepare for this, you know, but now he knows going into the summer. And I think as our terrorist mentioned, him trying to step up and lead and have a voice, all those things. He's a guy that has taken complete ownership of his career, his development and what he's needed to do. And, you know, he's not a finger pointer at anybody, always looks internally first. And, you know, he's grown into an incredible player. And now the next thing is, you know, when you look at our team, he's going to be probably in some of these situations at the end of games. Right. And you know what, that hasn't been something he's done, but that's like another opportunity for development for him. And I do think that Kobe can get to another level just because of his drive and his will to want to be the very, very best he can be. And he likes to have the ball in his hands. So now the adjustment comes, Josh Giddy likes to have the ball in his hands. The offense goes through him or maybe Lonzo Ball likes to have the ball in his hands. How do you think he will adapt to maybe being an off the ball kind of guy and still being the effective scorer that he was last year? Yeah, I think for us, it's it's not so much of, you know, one guy having the ball the whole entire time. We we've going to have to play in a way we play a lot faster and decisions are made quickly, you know, and that doesn't necessarily mean that Kobe needs to change who he is. You know, a guy like Josh Giddy has always been a pretty good advanced passer up the floor. It may open up opportunities for Kobe to run and catch it in transition and be able to make plays and do what he does. You know, but for Josh Giddy, for Lonzo, for for Kobe, for I/O, for Zach, you know, you got guys that are, you know, I don't want to say they're ball dominant players, but they're most effective when the ball's in their hands. So every guy out there is not going to have the ball in their hands. So they're all going to have to play off each other. And this is going to be a learning and growing process for this group playing together, you know, for the first time. But the mentality of a guy like Kobe is he wants to win in his competitive. So he'll kind of figure out, you know, how he can still stay true to who he is. So how hard is it for you at this stage of your career? You've been doing it forever, but to get the guys that you just described to not bring their egos into the equation. Because what you just talked about requires, you know, being team first, not you first. And I think sometimes that can be a challenge depending on the player. Yeah, I mean, what you do is it starts in the summer, you know, you're sitting down, you have meetings with three or four guys at a time. You talk about, hey, how do you guys see this list is what I think. And then you kind of work together. I think they're all smart enough and bright enough to understand as they look at each other. Like, you know, someone's just not going to have the ball. The problem is, is when you get into a situation where one guy has the ball at a time. And now all of a sudden, not everybody's being utilized. So you could have a situation, just, you know, a positive situation where a guy like jocks kitty gets the ball and throws it up to Kobe, Kobe drives down the lane. And all of a sudden, he throws it to zaxx, shoots a three, you know, like, that's how we're going to have to try to do things. And they're all going to have to be able to understand that they all can generate offense, but they got to generate offense. And so inside of what we're doing, and then try to utilize that to make each other better. Tell us a little bit about Jalen Smith and how you envision using him. There's a guy you picked up in free agency. And he's got a role on this team, especially with, with vouch and the way he plays. This is a different style of player. So we envision, obviously, he's so versatile. Just to watch him play pickup, pickup games, you know, he can, he can block the shot. Then at the other end, he comes and he makes a three. Then the next possession, he gets our offensive rebound, put back like he's very efficient, very gifted player. And that's, you know, we'll see how we can, you know, incorporate his skill set into, you know, our team. But, you know, I'm very excited about him as a player, because he can do so many things. Defensively, how will you stop people? Because I think that's a big concern when you lose Alex Caruso, you lose Andre Drummond, you lose guys who traditionally are known for their defense. They're not here any longer. You have some nice pieces. Then they fit together offensively. You worry about who's going to get the shots and who's going to take that. But defensively, I think if you're going to the offseason from our perspective, from my perspective, that might be your number one concern. Yeah, it's going to be a challenge for us, you know. And I think that, you know, for us, mentioning, you know, losing a guy like Alex. And even, you know, Lonzo has always been a very, very elite defender. Hopefully, you know, him coming back will help with that. But we're going to have to do it by committee in terms of, you know, whether it's, we're in mismatch situations, you know, trapping the post. We're going to have to probably try to be a little bit creative to try to cover for each other in certain situations. I think Vuch has done a good job, you know, being able to, with his IQ, mix up coverages that he's in, and he's pretty smart doing that. You know, I think for us, we're going to have to protect the paint, you know, and provide support behind him as much as we can. And then I think the big factor and probably the number one thing defensively that you always try to look at is how well you can contest and challenge shots, you know, so, you know, certainly for us, we're going to have to put a huge emphasis on that, you know, as a group. And it can't just be, hey, Alex is here, let's throw him on this guy, he can shut him down. We're going to have to do it by committee. I'm very curious about what the changes in the college game mean to AK to your drafting, to your, you see this NIL stuff and you see the amount of money that some players are getting. Will they stay in college longer? Is there still the rush to get to the NBA? And I mean, it's really kind of amazing that bazellis didn't go for the money went to the the g league i mean you would expect that the amount of money available to players my god billy you would have made a fortune back in the day well we we still learning you know how n_i_l_ is going to impact you know basketball you know community you know our market it also impact you know international talent you know you know a lot of young guys from europe come to play here in college and so we still learning how that's going to impact in terms of college obviously you logically think that they're going to stay longer just because you know you know the nl money is there you know and and when you don't have anything guaranteed when you commit to getting drafted and coming to a league then you're just going to take a short thing um so i think that's going to impact us um so you know it's still a way to see but you know today's you know talented players they they have options bill my perception would be as a college coach you would use the outside noise maybe more to your advantage to motivate players they're younger maybe more prone to react to those kinds of things i don't know how it is with professionals but there's not a lot of expectations around this bull's team this season you look at the over-under with in vegas and 28 victories or whatever the case may be coming off last season do you use that as fuel do you refer to that at all as you guys get ready to gather for another training camp go off to a season into full of unknowns do you use the fact that people are doubting whether or not you're going to be any good well i think everybody has pride you know in terms of wanting to go out there our team is you know going to be different this year um you know the one thing i really appreciate and respect about our tours from from from the get go has been you know building you know a winning culture and this is kind of almost in a certain way a reset i don't want to say a total start over because we have certainly players back from the past couple years but you know it's a situation where can we establish in an environment a culture you know a foundation of how we need to play and also you know try to do the things and set into motion the things that we have to do that impacts winning on a daily basis you know you mentioned the defense apart you you're not going to be good by just going down and trying to outscore people you know i mean you have you've got to be good on both ends of the floor uh that's part of the development what are the things that go into winning so i think all these guys are incredibly prideful and you know we all want to be competitive and you know this is not a situation where it's like hey we're just going to play all these young guys and just see what happens and this is how like we're talking about really trying to develop everything develop the young players you know can the older guys like vouch and zach and tori kreg and javon carter helping the leadership and the growth and development invest in some of our young guys you know well our young guys understand that hey listen the importance of being professionals being ready you know you're coming out of situation where you've been the most talented the most gifted player now you're not now there's a learning curve how much humility do you have to want to learn like all these things i think are going to be on the table for us but i i do feel like going you know to to start this season we've got to be all in in terms of how we need to play in in terms of doing the things that really go into winning and you know also we're going to put emphasis on obviously bringing the home court advantage back because even last year we had you know losing record at home and that shouldn't happen especially we we have to make this place a hard place to play and uh yeah that's why we try to stick to our principles and the players that you know have good work ethic you know physical you know culture you know movers and we just recruit certain players that you know fit what we're trying to build here all right we're going to be right back with 8k and billy you're listening to mullion on the score we're going to listen to dead music now for the rest of our lives it's mullion ha we are broadcasting live from the blue cross blue shield performance stage so we got of it is here our tourist car to show us is here schmaltz deli is here serving food and uh and guys a lot of a lot of fun to just have the start of a season i mean there's so much going on i'm just curious did you spend any time watching the olympics do you like olympic basketball did you like seeing the the u_s team did you like having some guys that were involved in the olympics do you think that's a good experience for players i mean i i'm always nostalgic about olympics i love olympics that's my you know favorite event and um obviously you know go back to 92-96 i had an opportunity to play for lithuania national team but i mean this you know olympics i i watched every sport um it was available it was great you know televised streamed uh each sport and it was just uh lovely opening you know the ceremony obviously again going back to you know when they used to just walk around the stadium and um opening ceremonies it's just a special event um that unites uh all all world you know just to for sports event at one point did you scout for team u_s_a_ for my saszewski um i did for the world cup uh 2014 uh not olympics um but yeah for a couple years i worked with the u_s_a_ basketball kind of uh while i was in denver uh to help him out a little bit with scouting yep yes i did um that was kind of fun to see the u_s win that thing it was worrisome though because it was closer than i thought it would be and especially france could be a dangerous team moving for what the heck was that well the evolution you know as of basketball and how every you know the world caught up to u_s_ and you know seeing 37 i think NBA players um play in olympics it was really good competition and closed games um and it was great to watch let's talk about the eastern conference parody is everywhere in the eastern conference and as much as we can talk about what you guys do well and what you need to work on how much of that parody gives you hope this season because you can be a team that you know you stick around depending on what your goals are but there's a lot more parody it seems like than ever that gives you a chance right but for us it's like you know you got to start you know from training camp trying to figure it out you know with this uh new group um guys coming back from injuries new faces um and how that all is going to work because a lot of players that you know going to have certain responsibilities and roles they've never had them before so it's going to be good to see in training camp and we're going to have to take you know one game at a time in terms of expectations and see where we at Billy you like the eastern conference do you worry that um that that this particular group of teams you know I mean Boston seems to sit alone atop those standings and obviously win the title but um it's a the conference itself the division doesn't look overwhelming yeah I mean the way I always look at right the schedule comes out you're playing 82 games right and the schedule is what it is and to me you know the one thing you know is that like every night is a challenge doesn't make a difference who who you're playing against if you don't come ready these guys are professional athletes as well so I think our focus is our tourist mentions gotta be on ourselves what are the things that we have to do and certainly you know you know Philadelphia getting Paul George and you know about Milwaukee you know with another year that group under their belt you know you talked about Boston um and then I think there's probably a lot of teams trying to find you know like we are an identity and how they're going to play and how guys are going to gel and mesh together and you know for us I think we just need to worry about us and what we've got to do and and how we need to play and the things we've got to commit to on a daily basis organizationally how will you handle the rhetoric surrounding the team because if you are as good as you want to be then maybe you jeopardize that protected top 10 or that pick with that you have and there's you know how pro sports works you know how it works in a in a sports city like Chicago so what is the approach and how will you answer those questions well the approach again going into into training camp and then depends how the things work out in training camp now we're gonna approach every game you know and we're gonna try to win to win every game and uh because you know going back to you know development is like what goes into winning and that's the only way you can teach those guys you know how to win games is you know going through that and um with a lot of things to be determined I think uh training camp will show a lot of things all right we got a special guest believe it or not now joining us on the famous Bulls player uh near MVP with the Bulls but certainly a championship winner with Billy and Florida Joe King welcome to the show what's going on guys going on wow thanks for joining us wow what are you up to these days well I just wanted to give some love to my old ball coach and I had a few questions from him I'm calling from the deep jungles of Africa you know hunting lions out here and just taking the time to call into the radio show and see if coach was going to have the five men at the top of a press and just play some real winning gun Billy the kid fouled that good welcome well unfortunately we don't have some with his athleticism used to put him on the ball at floor in front of the press and he was a nightmare but he is one of my favorite guys I've ever coached uh and just an incredible teammate uh great great human being and um you know it's it's been great to be in Chicago where he certainly did so much and then he comes back through with his foundation and stuff so you never know where he's at it could be Hawaii it could be Africa you never know you never know where he could be at where are you Joe i have a quick question so when you get a defense to when the big man gets a defensive rebound are you gonna bring him are you gonna let him bring the ball up the border yeah tell me a little bit yeah well you know it's interesting with him and Horford when I had both those two guys it was a little bit unique I let those guys rebound and bring it on the break which is always a little bit different because you know in college they would always send the guards back for floor balance so these guys were always coming down the floor racing it but uh Joe Kim I don't know if we've got anybody like that on our team we'll probably be out letting to the point guards this year okay okay that's that's a good that's a good thing just wanted to let you know I was just hanging out with your boy numbness aka Torian green and keeping him in line I hope still really he was still really mad about that the fact that you didn't let him come back to the ball at the point guard we need listen with the with you and uh Al the way you guys handled the ball we needed to get him up the floor he failed to realize that on that flooring team no one knows this he took more shots than you Brewer and Al can you believe that he took more shots than all three you guys you guys roll lottery picks and we got this guy's taking all the shots I hope he hears this I hope he hears this yes so what coach what are you most excited about with this year you know just to start of the season for one I think too how we can try to play um you know with with our current personnel I think we've got some backcourt players that you know can really help us force tempo and force pace um I think we can play a lot faster I'm looking forward to that I think we got a really good group of guys that will work um we had most of our guys Jo Kim in in Miami because during the democratic convention our place was shut down mostly all the guys were in um we're in Miami for a week and then we've had a lot of guys come back right after Labor Day to work out so I think it's a good working group I think that they know there's going to be some challenges and some sacrifices that we've got to make but as a whole in terms of the people that we have a feel really good about them any more questions Jo Kim? No I'm just really looking forward to coming and see you guys during the year you know I always cherish the time um spending some time with Coach Donovan and talking after the games and talking basketball and talking strategy you know that's always one of my favorite things to do in the year so I know the the expectations are not high but I know that you're going to come in right now and just make us proud coach I appreciate you know I love you I love you too man great stuff Jo Kim thank you buddy thank you for a great career with the Bulls too man I'll never forget that year oh yeah great well team ambassador Billy though when you look back to that Florida team yeah which would have been higher if that NAL existed which it would have been higher the payroll for that team or the first NBA team you coach well you know people people don't realize this um so when those guys won the national championship they were all lottery picks and Jo Kim after his sophomore year was projected as the first player taken in the draft and everybody says to me like what did you do from a sales standpoint to get all these guys to come back like how'd you get him to come back and the reality was the only guy in that class that could not go pro and was not going to get drafted was touring green and Jo Kim and Corey Brewer and Al Horford they all made a pact that they were not going to leave him out to dry in his career so when people ask me what that what are those teams when that's what goes into winning that like you talk about sacrificing and I'm not saying that everybody needs to do that in order to win but it speaks to their character in terms of if we leave this guy's going to be left with a team that's not going to be very good and what's going to happen in his career you know they used to give him a hard time all the time when he wasn't working hard like you got one more year and that's it we're out of here you know but they then they came back and did it again but that was the reason not why they came back and you think about and it Jo Kim the character of bypassing being the number one pick and going back for your teammate worked out well in the draft for him and the balls now it was a perfect situation for him here and and he was great and I knew he'd be great wherever he went but just his the integrity and the character of competition and winning and being a teammate is is is incredible did you help him pick out that suit he wore on draft night i couldn't even tell you have to i couldn't even tell you have the outfits he had while he was on campus you know hey gentlemen thank you so much really appreciate okay really appreciate your time thanks everybody we appreciate our chance to get down here into the blue cross blue shield performance stage blue cross blue shield of Illinois through it all and of course special thanks to the fine folks at smoltz deli for providing breakfast for us and our listeners this morning check out smoltz deli and lyle spreading deli goodness everywhere molly and haw on chicago sports radio six seven the score