Mully & Haugh Show
Billy Donovan & Arturas Karnisovas share expectations for Bulls as new season looms
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 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. Holly and Hall, 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 really one of the big stories, 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 school boy leading the score. Still holds the record. Yeah. I mean, I was born by a high school player in Carolina. 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, right? So he committed the last two summers, you know, to his development, but not only that, like this summer, he goes and invites teammates to work out with him. So he grew as a leader, he found his voice, you know, yes, I mean, you know, Kobe is obviously, first of all, is a great teammate. And every summer, he's getting better, right? So he committed the last two summers, you know, to his development, but not only that, like this summer, 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 Terress 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. He 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 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 not so much of, you know, one guy having the ball the whole entire time. We've going to have to play in a way where 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 advance 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 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 done it, doing it forever, but to get the guys that you just described to now 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 Jack's kid, he gets the ball and throws it up to Kobe, Kobe drives down the lane. And all of a sudden he throws it to Zaxax, 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 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 games, you know, he can block the shot. Then at the other end he comes and he makes a three. Then the next possession, he gets offense to 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 and they fit together offensively, you worry about who's going to get the shots and who's going to take that. Defensively, I think if you're going to the off season 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 and 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 Vouch 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 and 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. Maybe in college longer, is there still the rush to get to the NBA and I mean it's really kind of amazing that Miss Ellis didn't go for the money, went to 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 still learning, you know, how NIL is going to impact, you know, basketball, you know, community, you know, our market. It also impacts, 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 NIL money is there, you know, 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. So I think that's going to impact us. So you know, it's still a way to see, but, you know, today's, you know, talented players, they have options. Billy, 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 Bulls team this season. You look at the over-under 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 together 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 going to be different this year. You know, the one thing I really appreciate and respect about our tours 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 of years. But, you know, it's a situation where can we establish 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 to things that we have to do that impacts winning on a daily basis. You know, you mentioned the defensive part, you're not going to be good by just going down and trying to outscore people, you know what I mean? You've got to be good on both ends of the floor. 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 Craig and Jevon Carter helping the leadership and the growth and development invest in some of our young guys, you know, will our young guys understand that, hey, listen, the importance of being professionals, being ready, you know, you're coming out of a situation where you've been the most talented and 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 do feel like going, you know, to start this season, we've got to be all in in terms of how we need to play 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 have to make this place a hard place to play and, yeah, that's why we try to stick to our principles and the players that 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