Chicago Bulls aim to improve performance against NBA's top teams
CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago Bulls had their struggles last season against the top teams in the NBA, but this is the dawn of a new day.
CBS 2's Jackie Kostek had more on the huge test for the Bulls right out of the gate this season.
"I don't want no cake walk," said DeMar DeRozan. "I don't want nothing easy."
DeRozan and the Bulls were practicing at the Advocate Center in preparation for a decidedly not easy Wednesday opener in Miami against the Heat, a team the Bulls went 0-4 against last season.
"A lot of stuff that happened last year was last year," DeRozan added. "Obviously, you can learn a lot from it ... Understand our weakness and approaching it much different this time around. Sometimes you gotta have a learning experience and we had a hell of a learning experience against the top teams last year."
With a stacked Eastern Conference that only got more competitive in the offseason, head coach Billy Donovan believes the keys to beating the elite teams like the Heat are creating space and getting downhill faster.
"It's a great test because we didn't fare very well against them last year, so I think it's a great test to see how much better have we gotten or can we get playing against some of these team?" Donovan said.
While the preseason cemented Ayo Dosunmu as starting point guard, Donovan and the Bulls are still considering who to start at power forward between Patrick Williams and Javonte Green.
Williams was injured last season. The former number four overall draft pick did not start two of the preseason games this year.
Between Williams and Green, we have we have iron sharpening iron in an open competition. But DeRozan said it is not actually a competition between them.
"I don't think it's a battle between both of them. It's more so, you know, two guys that's competing to make this team better, and bring in whatever they can and whatever is asked for and needed to this team to make it successful – whoever it is," DeRozan said. "Those guys don't go out and look at it from that standpoint as it's a battle between the both of them. It's more so, 'How can we figure out how to be the best players to this team as we can be, and make it as successful as we need to be?'"
