Billy Donovan doesn’t like the nickname.
“Billy Ball” is a good way to sum up the up-tempo, shoot-from-the-hip style of basketball that the Bulls coach has switched to with this roster this season, but in Donovan’s world he’s just another branch that grew from the tree.
Rick Pitino coached Donovan back in their days at Providence, and then while Donovan was kicking around Wall Street looking to be the next Gordon Gekko, it was Pitino that talked Donovan into leaving New York to join him as an assistant coach at Kentucky.
Pitino has always had an affinity for the horses and coached like it.
His philosophy was lean into the three-point shot, “racehorse basketball,” and that combination of pressure will break teams in the clutch part of the game.
“Billy Ball?”
Try “Pitino’s Bambinos” – the nickname of the Providence team that put Pitino’s name on the map, and the squad that Donovan excelled with.
“I don’t like ‘Billy Ball,’ “ Donovan admitted, when asked about the nickname of what the Bulls have transformed into. “I just think as a coach the same things that go into winning haven’t changed. What you have to do to win hasn’t changed at all. You’ve still got to rebound, you’ve still got to get out in transition, you’ve still got to defend, and you’ve still got to share the basketball. Like there are certain things that are just staples all the way through and certain things that I believe in.”
And while the sample size is small – just five games – this current Bulls roster is putting those staples in.
They entered Thursday first in pace (106.73), leading the Wizards, Grizzlies and Thunder, they have two 20-point deficits that they’ve dug out of to win games, and they are third to only the Celtics and Warriors in three-point attempts per game (44.2).
To put that last stat in perspective, the Bulls ranked 26th in the NBA in three-point attempts last year with 32.1 per game.
So if there are any lingering questions about the coaching acumen of Donovan, those should be put to rest. The Bulls have the right guy for the job and have had him in place for the past five years, despite a sometimes loud minority of critics.
That deserves applause from the fan base.
That’s about when the applause should then stop.
While Donovan has shown he can adjust his philosophy based on personnel – which top tier NBA coaches do – the 3-2 start to the season is still a mirage.
If the fan base chases that fool’s gold, well, their fans, what are they supposed to do? But if the front office buys into this start and gets delusions of grandeur, shame on them. It will be a continuation of the organizational malpractice that’s gone on under executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas since the 2022-23 season.
The Bulls have a coach, have an offensive philosophy that works, but they don’t have “that dude.”
No Jayson Tatum, no Jaylen Brown, no “King James,” no Giannis, no Luka, no “Joker.”
Until you figure out how to get “that dude,” go ahead and grab your mid-April hotel reservations on South Beach, make sure it’s one night, go through the motions of your meaningless play-in game, and then gather in the tunnel after the game for the “1-2-3 Cancun!” summer vacation chant.
A quick start to this season could help showcase draft assets like Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball, but the focus has to be in making sure to keep that top-10 protected 2025 draft pick out of the hands of the San Antonio Spurs and hope for some lottery luck to land Cooper Flagg or even an Ace Bailey.
So go ahead and be excited about “Billy Ball,” “Pitino’s Bambinos,” whatever you want to call it, but anything beyond that should come with a very thick, readable label: “Buyer Beware.”