Bulls
Executive vice president Arturas Karnisovas and guard Zach LaVine are saying all the right things — but it’s hard to envision the Bulls staying this course deep into the season, wrote Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Cowley added that a source indicated the “Bulls will continue actively shopping” LaVine this season. Meanwhile, Karnisovas more or less spoke the truth when indicating that winning fixes everything.
“We’re not where we want to be yet, but the direction remains clear,” he told reporters. “… I think the ultimate goal is to win, right? Because the development is not learning how to dribble the ball, shoot, all this stuff. Part of it is adversity and also to teach those guys what goes into winning.
“The process we’re going through right now, we just started, and it’s not a final product. I think coming into this training camp, there are a lot of players coming back from injuries, a lot of new faces. We have no idea how that’s going to work.
‘‘There are a lot of questions going into this training camp, and we’re going to be going through it and learning about this group, how this group can work together in this mix.”
We have more on the LaVine situation here.
Pacers
Guard Bennedict Mathurin said he was “humbled” by the Pacers’ run to the Eastern Conference finals, which occurred with Mathurin on the sidelines with a leg injury.
“It was kind of tough to see that,” Mathurin said, via Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. “It was good for the team, and it was good because it puts me back to myself and it kind of humbled me a little bit because we had such success.”
Mathurin is back at practice and ready to roll.
“Benn has great ability,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He has an indomitable will to score. He gets the ball in the basket. What he needs to do this year is adjust his game to how we played in the season and in the playoffs, which is to play fast, to run, to make quick decisions, to keep the ball moving and to take his defensive ability to another level. He has the physical tools to do it.”
Pistons
Forward Tobias Harris said he’s excited to be back with the Pistons, back in a situation in which he will serve as a veteran leader.
“It’s a fresh start and a place that’s familiar for me,” Harris told reporters, via Omari Sabnkofa II of the Detroit Free Press. “I wanted to really be a part of something that I thought was growing in the right direction. You can look at it on paper but sitting down with (Trajan Langdon) and talking to (Cade Cunningham) and seeing where his mental was at the time and where he wanted to get to as a player, made me really realize this is moving forward in the right direction.”
With the likes of Harris, Malik Beasley and new coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons should be considerably more competitive this season, too.
“Obviously that’s a role that comes with a lot of responsibility, and for somebody like me, just coming in and always building respect,” Harris said. “No matter how many years you have in the league, building these guys’ trust with myself, and you have to lead by example. Coming in and being in the best of shape and just leading by example in everything I do, pushing these guys and making sure that they reach their full potential.”
