It was just a serendipitous coincidence Saturday that the Chicago Bulls began auditioning the new guys for the next rebuild on the night Jimmy Butler returned to the United Center for his debut with the Golden State Warriors.
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Timing, they say, is everything.
It was Butler’s departure from the Bulls on draft night in 2017 that brought Zach LaVine to town and kick-started the last rebuild under former management, and LaVine’s departure last week that brought Zach Collins, Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter to Chicago for the latest version of a modified youth movement.
If it seems as though the Bulls have come full circle in eight years without really going anywhere, it’s probably because that’s precisely what happened.
The Bulls watched the Warriors put on an epic performance in a 132-111 win, erasing a 24-point third-quarter deficit and turning it into a laugher.
Steph Curry scored 24 of his 34 points in the fateful third, igniting a 56-13 run into the fourth that turned the game and the United Center upside down. Curry went 7-of-11 in the quarter with five 3-pointers as the Warriors took advantage of the Bulls’ lack of experience and made them look like a G League team.
“Steph had a great third quarter, just ramped it up and we didn’t respond, didn’t match their physicality,” Nikola Vučević said. “They bullied us and took away the game.”
Warriors forward Draymond Green said when Curry starts cooking like that it has a demoralizing effect on every opposing team.
“Always has, always will,” Green said. “When Klay (Thompson) was here and they were guarding those two, it was the same thing. It’s extremely demoralizing. Then everyone else can get buckets off everything they do. (Curry) is taking shots that for a normal person, you’re living with those shots. Kind of the wrong guy.”
When Josh Giddey knocked down a 3 with 8:30 left in the third, the Bulls had a commanding 83-59 lead. But it all fell apart quickly. The Warriors went on a 12-0 run in a minute and a half, starting an avalanche. They took a 94-93 lead on Curry’s 16-foot jumper with 1:11 left in the third and wound up outscoring the Bulls 42-25 in the quarter.
“For a guy like Jimmy in our first game, it wasn’t overly complicated,” Curry said. “It was just simple basketball. We were creating a lot of good looks.”
Photos: Golden State Warriors 132, Chicago Bulls 111
Butler referred to Curry as a “killer … you’re talking about a lion.”
“He’s somebody that wants to win and is going for the kill every time,” he said. “That’s who he is, and that’s who he’s been for a very long time. I’m grateful to be his teammate and ride alongside him. And I get to see it for a very long time now.”
Now it’s up to coach Billy Donovan to figure out which combinations to play in the final 29 games, with nine guards and no alpha dog for the first time since a young LaVine took over for Butler.
Lonzo Ball, who signed a two-year extension before the trade deadline, missed Saturday’s game with an undisclosed illness, giving Donovan a chance to see what he has in Jones, a true point guard, and Huerter, another 3-point threat to go along with Coby White, Vučević and rookie Matas Buzelis.
Huerter scored four points on 1-for-7 shooting, and Jones went 0-for-3. Collins did not play.
Donovan said before Saturday’s game that he would also explore using Collins, his new 6-11 center, along with Vučević, but conceded they haven’t had much time to work things out with limited practice time.
“Now that things are settled I think they’d really like to come in here and be able to help,” he said of the newbies. “Zach (Collins’) situation was somewhat unique in San Antonio because of (Victor Wembanyama) being there and the (limited) amount of minutes he was going to get. Tre did play some. … Kevin has been in the rotation with Sacramento, so certainly we have an idea of those guys as players.
“But how do they fit in culturally? How do they fit in with the guys? How well can they play off each other? Do they fit how we’re trying to play, style- and identity-wise? All those things are going to be important questions that we need to find out with all those guys.”
It’ll take a few games to answer those questions, if they can be answered at all.
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The Warriors, meanwhile, welcomed Butler to the team after a wild month in which the former Bulls star was suspended three times from the Miami Heat and forced a trade. While it didn’t help Butler shed his reputation as a player who can’t be happy no matter where he’s at or how many millions of dollars he’s paid, the Warriors believe a happy Jimmy will complement Curry and revive a franchise that was once the gold standard in the NBA.
Butler scored 25 points and hit 11 of 13 free throws.
“What I’ve learned is timing is everything in this league,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I think we’re getting Jimmy at the right time. His time in Miami expired. It ran out. You could just feel it. They felt it. He felt it. So we’re getting him at a time that it’s probably healthy for us and healthy for Jimmy. … We need each other, and I think it’s going to be a great setup.”
It should be noted that Butler’s time in Miami “expired” only because he claimed he could no longer find “joy” in playing there and desperately wanted out. It’s not uncommon for players to ask to be traded, but Butler’s soap opera went to another level of absurdity.
Butler seemed rejuvenated in his new jersey, wearing No. 10 and using Butler III on the back. He said it was a year since his father’s passing, and he would now honor him that way forever.
Butler said he never felt like his decision to get out of Miami would backfire and leave him with his old team.
“I knew I was going somewhere, whether they were sending me to the Flamengo down in Brazil,” he said jokingly. “But I’m glad it’s here. I’m grateful to be able to play basketball for a top organization like this one. I want to put everything behind me and focus on the now.”
The Bulls spent parts of two seasons and an offseason trying to find a new home for LaVine, who was professional throughout his ordeal. Either way, the team that began its season with a new, faster-paced offense will end it with a 30-game stretch to evaluate its future.
Saturday night’s game was the unofficial start of the new era, though the Bulls still have their post-LaVine core intact with Vučević, White, Ball, Giddey and Ayo Dosunmu, and Buzelis getting a chance to show he’s the real deal.
Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas said Friday that the team he put together in 2021 “came out pretty well, but we skipped some steps to accelerate the process.”
He didn’t elaborate on those steps, but apparently not making a trade to upgrade the team was one of them. Karnišovas began the do-over before the season with the trades of DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, then took the big step last Sunday with the LaVine deal.
Those looking for a complete, back-up-the-truck-style trade deadline, like the one Cubs President Jed Hoyer executed in the summer of 2021, were left disappointed when the new semirebuild plan wasn’t really explained.
“Right now we have an opportunity to kind of play slower and evaluate our young guys,” Karnišovas said. “Look, we got young quick — nine guys from 20-25. But this has to be the right combination of players in order to win games.”
Winning games has been a challenge since that 2021-22 season, and the Bulls entered the final stretch with a 22-30 record and a chance at their third straight play-in berth in the watered-down Eastern Conference race.
So it won’t just be a matter of developing players down the stretch but looking to win some games.
“From a coaching standpoint and from a playing standpoint, our guys are all in in trying to compete and go out there and play,” Donovan said. “Now whether we’re good enough to do that and perform well enough, that’s something else.
“But the message is not “Hey, we’re just going to play all these young guys and get them experience and roll them out and see what happens.’ I just don’t think that’s a good culture to necessarily have. You have a responsibility to the game, to fans, to each other, to go out there and put your best foot forward and compete. Then you live with the results.”
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The Bulls also have to make decisions in the offseason on whether White, Dosunmu and Patrick Williams are part of the core or need to be dealt, and whether Giddey, a restricted free agent, should be re-signed.
Karnišovas said he would still like to see the young Bulls team make the play-ins despite knowing it would hurt their position in the draft.
“That’s a win in terms of their development, and if you were picking high, that’s also good,” he said. “In 30 games we are able to see what’s going to happen.”
So apparently it’s a “win-win” either way for Karnišovas.
For Bulls fans seemingly stuck in a time loop, not so much.