BOSTON — The Bulls aren’t interested in all-world college prospect Cooper Flagg.
Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey? Who needs them?
Tanking isn’t anywhere on the agenda for this Bulls roster, according to coach Billy Donovan, and he watched his team play like that against the defending NBA champions on Thursday, running away with the game late and beating the Celtics 117-108.
“One thing, as players and from what I know about Billy, we’re very competitive,” said guard Zach LaVine, fresh off a season-high 36-point performance. “Players and coaches never tank. That’s just not going to happen. We’re a good team. From all the predictions early on in the year, like we’re better than what people predicted us to be off the talent we have here.
“We’re competitive, man. You go out there and play like we did, we can beat anybody.”
That they did, handing the Celtics just their sixth loss of the season. Meanwhile, the Bulls (13-15) have now won three in a row, and have done so under a smoldering cloud of trade rumors.
LaVine, along with Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball, have had their names out there, but that hasn’t been relayed to Donovan as anything serious, and he admittedly speaks to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas almost daily in some capacity.
“The one thing I respect about the organization, and this was even in the summer from exit interviews, meetings, things like that, is collectively inside the organization there is an expectation about the integrity of competition and to go out there and put our best foot forward,” Donovan said.
“Certainly, we have things we’re trying to overcome. We’ve had some injuries, had size differential, played four guards, certainly some defensive challenges, but everything has been about going out and keeping the integrity of competition. Nothing has ever been said, ‘Listen, we’ve got to keep this pick so do this and this.’ That is not happening, and I respect that as a coach. I feel like everything we’re doing each and every day is how do we put these guys, ourselves, in the best position to compete and win.”
The Bulls will keep their first-round pick for the loaded 2025 draft class only if they -finish in the bottom 10, otherwise it goes to the Spurs. They have been walking that fine line in the standings for weeks and are residing outside that low bar.
The other side of this, however, is coaches are often on a need-to-know basis. There have been multiple national reports that back Sun-Times reports that the Bulls have been actively shopping LaVine, Vucevic and Ball, with the latest being talks between Denver — Karnisovas’ former organization — and the Bulls about LaVine.
A source described the LaVine talks as “light momentum,” however.
The way he played in the Garden definitely didn’t hurt that momentum, especially in the first half when LaVine’s 20 points kept the visiting team afloat.
“Zach kept kind of playing the right way, picked his spots, took his shots when they were there,” Donovan said. “I thought he played a great game all the way around.”
The game didn’t end without a little controversy, as Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla had words for official Justin Van Duyne that -escalated quickly into Mazzulla having to be restrained by his coaching staff and security, taken off the floor while apparently challenging Van Duyne.
That was all the talk in the Bulls’ locker room after, especially in the wake of three technical fouls handed out to the home team.
Just more intrigue for the two teams in the rematch Saturday at the United Center.
“We’ll see what the next game is going to look like,” LaVine added. “I think [the Celtics are] going to be a little more on their game.”
