After a 39-43 season, Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan said it could have been worse.
“Much worse,” Donovan said.
Multiple injuries derailed another Bulls season, resulting in ended with a 120-119 overtime loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday. Chicago was seeded ninth and will face the 10th-seeded Atlanta Hawks in a Play-in tournament game Wednesday at the United Center.
“If I told anyone here, Zach LaVine is out, Patrick Williams is going to be out, and you’re going to miss Torrey Craig and you’re going to go through all of this, and you’re going to have to bring back Javonte Green, you would sit there and say “This team is incapable of having a winning record,” Donovan said. “So from that standpoint, the hand that we were dealt, I think they handled it very well.”
The Bulls were also a Play-In team last season after finishing in 10th place. They won their first Play-In game in Toronto before losing to the Miami Heat in their second Play-In game.
But Chicago took positives from a 34-29 record after a 5-14 start.
“Organizationally, is this where we want to move forward? No,” Donovan said. “We want to be in a situation where we make a deep playoff run. That’s not the case right now. But I give a lot of credit to our guys for hanging on to the rope, fighting, fighting and compete and give themselves a They deserve a lot of credit for that.
“As I mentioned, there’s a lot of money that’s not playing for us. And our team is what it is. We’re not an upper echelon Eastern team right now “It’s just a fact. We’re going to work to get there.”
