Sometimes, going big is better.
That has been a new trick for the Chicago Bulls this season. Small ball wasn’t cutting it. So when the season got tough, the Bulls got tougher by playing two centers at the same time, rolling out a more extensive look at a type of rotation that coach Billy Donovan has tinkered with for years.
The trend hit a snag this week when both Zach Collins (sprained toe) and Jalen Smith (concussion) were sidelined. And losing the two-center rotations has taught the Bulls just how much they’ve come to cherish their bigs.
The Bulls like their two-big look. A lot. It provides a fix for many of the team’s weaknesses, namely its lack of rim protection and its inefficient rebounding. For instance, the Bulls gobble up 83.3% of their defensive rebound chances with both Smith and Nikola Vučević on the floor — a steep increase from their season average of 71.5%.
But while the Bulls regularly voice a soft spot for these rotations, in reality they haven’t played all that much with two bigs on the court. Through Monday’s game in Boston, they had played a total of 170 minutes with two centers on the court — 90 with Smith and Vučević, 71 with Smith and Collins and only nine minutes pairing Vučević and Collins.
After the Bulls prioritized a guard-heavy roster the last two seasons, members of the frontcourt voiced support for the increased focus on pairing big men together.
“The position is still evolving where you have to do a lot on the floor, but I grew up a big so it’s good to see how relevant they are and actually being in the game when it’s time to win,” Collins told reporters in December. ‘‘I remember when I got to the league, in late-game situations the bigs rarely would stay in. There are still some teams like that now, but it’s good to see.”
The Bulls began leaning into this rotation when they figured out how to make it work. It doesn’t make sense simply to throw two centers on the low blocks and clog up the paint. The preference is to utilize Smith at the four, which is why he has played the bulk of the two-big minutes.
It has been a welcome adjustment for Smith, who lost most of his minutes after Collins joined the team at the trade deadline last February. Smith was a healthy scratch for 13 of the last 26 games last season. He somewhat regained his footing in the rotation this season because of Collins’ absence — a 21-game hiatus due to preseason wrist surgery — but dropped out of the rotation again when his fellow center returned.
But opting for two-big rotations gave Smith a second chance to carve out a role for himself. At 6-foot-8, Smith is a little undersized to defend opposing fives, but sliding in next to another center allows him to create more spacing and show off his 3-point shooting (36% on the season). He averaged 11 points and 9.6 rebounds in his last five games before his concussion.
Playing Smith with another center helped the Bulls apply more pressure on the rim, where they take and make the second-most shots in the league. Scoring in the paint doesn’t necessarily require hefty output from the centers — after all, wings and guards such as Coby White, Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey are also at their best when scoring more than half of their points at the rim. But it will be difficult for the Bulls to get back to this strong suit until their centers return.
Monday’s loss to the Celtics highlighted the despair in the state of the current Bulls frontcourt. The Celtics pounded the paint with Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, a pair of bruising bigs who also can force the issue from 3-point range despite their lumbering dispositions.
The Bulls, in turn, called up Lachlan Olbrich from the G League to back up Vučević down low. An undersized rookie on a two-way contract, Olbrich couldn’t do much more than bang bodies with Garza in the paint, finishing without a single point.
Uncertainty clouds the future for both Collins and Smith. Donovan couldn’t offer a clear timeline for either player’s recovery. Collins will be reassessed later this week, at which point he hopes to be cleared for a ramp-up barring further pain. But Smith’s situation is more complicated under the league’s concussion protocol.
Donovan noted that NBA medical staffs now steer away from grade designations — Grade 1, Grade 2 — previously used to assess the severity of a concussion. That means the team doesn’t have specific information to communicate the expected length of a player’s return process. On Monday, Smith had not begun to clear the tests necessary to return to the court.
“I don’t know how long it will take,” Donovan said. “A lot of this can be predicated on the symptoms of how he’s doing, and that’s going to be up to the medical guys.”
Sooner is better for the Bulls, who could use reinforcements — and a spark — as they sink back below .500 during another string of injuries.
