The Chicago Bulls have had an interesting season this year that has been plagued with injury trouble. For how many players have gotten hurt, the season is going pretty well. The Bulls have had to play shorthanded fairly often, and whenever that happens, guys that don’t play as much have to step up. For the most part, that has gone pretty well for Chicago.
A couple of players that can be very important for the Bulls in terms of depth are Julian Phillips and Dalen Terry. They aren’t going to play a ton of minutes, but if people are out, they will have to step up. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan discussed how ready they are for that as Chicago prepares for a playoff push.
“We’ve talked about that with those guys,” Billy Donovan said to the media on Wednesday. “They’ve worked hard. I think some of the things we talked about yesterday, about where they can learn in terms of stuff that they can control. Understanding personnel, understanding schemes, really being detailed on those things. They’ll make mistakes, they’ll miss shots – that’s part of it. I do think there’s things that both those guys [Julian Phillips and Dalen Terry] can be reliable upon. When you talk about fouling, blocking out, rotations, those things where they can be more detailed as young players, and that’s part of the learning curve for them. Offensively, they need to be aggressive. If their shot’s there, they need to take those shots and shoot the basketball. But certainly, both those guys will get an opportunity to contribute.”
The Bulls are currently 26-29 and in ninth place in the East. If they are going to move up in the standings, they will need young guys to continue to step up.
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