The Chicago Bulls trade deadline moves left the team with a roster full of guards. That’s something that Bulls coach Billy Donovan has to figure out with his rotation moving forward.
“We have an overabundance of guards, quite honestly,” Donovan said. “We just do. I think we have nine guards. It’s a lot.”
The Bulls have regularly started four-guard lineups around center Nikola Vucevic. In those looks, Josh Giddey and Zach LaVine were tasked with guarding bigger players. With LaVine out of the picture after being traded to the Sacramento Kings, Donovan is having to re-think that approach.
“With the number of guards we have, I’m not opposed to the times when we’ve started with four guards,” Donovan said. “But that may not be the best thing for this group rotation-wise.”
Chicago has been prioritizing starts and minutes for rookie Matas Buzelis in recent games. The development of Buzelis, plus reconfiguring the rotation, is something Donovan will focus on coming out of the upcoming All-Star break.
“I’m not going to sit there and just say, ‘Listen, the whole entire offense is going to be geared around Matas,'” Donovan said. “But I do think for his development, his growth, he needs to be in some of those situations.”