It didn’t take very long for Billy Donovan to take the drama out of naming a starting lineup.
Not that it came as a real surprise.
The expectation when camp started was the Bulls coach would lean on a three-guard lineup of Zach LaVine, Coby White and Josh Giddey, with Patrick Williams starting as the lone true forward and Nikola Vucevic in the middle. Sure enough, that was the starting five in Cleveland on Tuesday, and the one used in most practice scrimmages once Giddey got over his injured ankle.
The expected one, but the correct one? An ongoing debate that will likely stretch into the regular season.
The concern with Donovan’s starting five is and will remain the defense, and once the basketball was tipped off against the Cavaliers, those concerns became reality. Poor closeouts, blow-by after blow-by from Cavs guards, and a lack of physicality at the point of attack.
Even Giddey didn’t hide from the obvious coming out of that game.
“Obviously, Pat is the point of attack guy in the starting group,” Giddey said. “It’s going to have to be a collective effort. We switch a lot. We don’t have that elite (defensive) guard that some other teams have. We can’t leave guys on an island one-on-one. It’s got to be four guys behind so that guy has confidence to get up on the ball, play it tight. If we leave guys on an island one-on-one it could cause some problems.”
So what can Donovan actually do to fix it? That’s where it could get interesting. Starting Ayo Dosunmu would fix some issues, but who would be the odd man out?
Giddey is considered the lead playmaker, White the up-and-coming scorer with All-Star potential, and then LaVine, who has two All-Star seasons on the resume.
That’s why it won’t happen.
Dosunmu could start against the Grizzlies in Saturday’s preseason game, but only because White was dealing with some groin tightness that forced him to miss Friday’s practice.
All things equal, Dosunmu is the first player off the bench, and that’s why Donovan will have to get creative.
The past few seasons, former Bull DeMar DeRozan would be used as the stagger player, starting the game, coming out in the first quarter a few minutes early, and then acting as the main scorer/facilitator with the second unit.
LaVine, who has also been used in that stagger role in previous years, would best be served to pick up where DeRozan left off.
That would allow Donovan to play LaVine with Lonzo Ball – now expected to finally get some playing time in two of the final three preseason games – Dosunmu, Jalen Smith and rookie Matas Buzelis.
Still a flawed fivesome, but that’s as good of a balanced reserve group that Donovan could hope for with this roster.
What helps is that Dosunmu isn’t the type of player to rock the boat, whether he’s starting or coming off the bench. He hasn’t been since the Bulls drafted him out of Illinois and he’s not going to start now.
“Of course, (starting is) a goal,” Dosunmu said. “I wouldn’t sit here and tell you that I would just wake up and say, ‘Oh, I would love to come off the bench.’ Because I’m a competitor, you never want to have that mindset, but it’s all about winning games and that’s what I’ll be going with … I’m all with it, I’m trying to help the team win.
“I’m all in to doing whatever it takes to help the team win, and just knowing having that trust, having that faith that whenever Coach brings me in, he understands that. Allows me to do the right things, be aggressive, just be an extension of the coach.”
So who will Donovan use to finish close games? One hurdle at a time.