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NEW YORK — In the first quarter of Tuesday’s blowout loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan had a problem.
He knew that 76ers star center Joel Embiid would play every minute of the opening quarter after missing the previous four games with an ankle sprain. Donovan also knew he couldn’t afford to keep Andre Drummond on the court without risking foul trouble. And Patrick Williams — the logical replacement for Drummond on Embiid — had exited early after suffering stiffness from a lingering ankle injury.
So Donovan’s only choice was to pull Drummond for the final two minutes of the quarter and bring in Terry Taylor — a 6-foot-4, third-string power forward — to guard the 7-foot, 280-pound Embiid, the reigning league MVP.
This is the current reality for the Bulls, who are trying to stay afloat during the extended absence of starting center Nikola Vučević and now the limited availability of Williams.
Tuesday’s game was just the latest hurdle as the Bulls manage their downsized rotation. Can they keep competing while playing small ball?
“We’ve got no choice,” Donovan said.
The Bulls don’t know when Vučević can return to the lineup. The initial hope was that he would be back within a week of suffering a left groin strain Dec. 23 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But after missing his fifth consecutive game — Wednesday night’s 116-100 loss to the New York Knicks — the timeline for Vučević's return is no clearer.
Donovan has been much more bullish about the impending return of Zach LaVine — who could play as soon as Friday against the Charlotte Hornets — than about Vučević, who has yet to resume contact practices.
So what are the Bulls to do? They don’t have a luxury of choices at center. Drummond can be sensational as a backup option — and he averaged 14.3 points and 20.3 rebounds in his first four starts in place of Vučević — but he comes with limitations.
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Drummond’s offensive production has been hit-or-miss. He delivers less of the consistent scoring and ball movement the Bulls are accustomed to from Vučević. He also struggles to guard stretch-five centers such as Embiid, who dropped a pair of 3-pointers and earned 12 trips to the free-throw line Tuesday.
And if Drummond picks up early fouls — which he has shown a tendency to do in his first four starts — the Bulls are left scrambling for options at center.
Donovan has landed on two possibilities: Williams and Taylor. Both are undersized for the position, but they bring ample energy and adaptive defensive positioning that allows them to match up well with bigs.
The Bulls called up rookie center Adama Sanogo — the Most Outstanding Player of last year’s Final Four at Connecticut — from the G League’s Windy City Bulls, but Donovan has shown no signs of working the 6-9 Sanogo into the rotation as a stopgap. And given the initial estimate for Vučević's return, the team has made no moves to bring in a temporary fix on a short-term contract.
Donovan doesn’t feel personnel is the issue.
Chicago Tribune Sports
“There’s enough out there,” he said. “When Patrick went out in the first half (Tuesday), that certainly made us a lot smaller, but we didn’t get pounded on the backboard.
“There was just opportunities that we could’ve been a little bit more physical, provided a little bit more help, been a little bit better contesting, and I think that would have made a difference for us winning tonight.”
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This has been a common theme for the Bulls, who often adapt their rotations outside of the typical size stratification — playing Alex Caruso at the four, for instance, or utilizing Williams as a wing or a stretch-five depending on the matchup. Donovan emphasized that the Bulls have to win these rotations through spacing, defensive physicality and attacking the boards.
Rebounding is a sneaky strength for the Bulls. Over their recent 10-6 stretch, they were fourth in the league in total rebounding (46.6 per game) and third in offensive rebounding (13.3). While it’s easy to associate rebounding with centers such as Drummond and Vučević, those numbers require the entire roster to crash the boards with gusto.
This directly reflects the Bulls’ strategy for absorbing their loss of size. They might not be able to make up the inches of height lost with a sidelined center, but they can negate that deficit through efficient defense and rebounding.
It’s not a perfect solution — but the Bulls don’t need it to be.
“We scramble, we try to help each other, we move around as much as we can, understanding that we’re down in size, we’re down a man,” DeMar DeRozan said. “We’re just trying to work with one another, trying to make it as difficult as possible for the opposing team.”