At the start of the season, there was a lot of noise surrounding the Chicago Bulls — questions about consistency, identity, and whether the younger core could step up. Fast forward to now, and things are starting to click. Head coach Billy Donovan sees growth — not just in box scores or highlight reels, but in something deeper: how his young players are learning to become professionals.
Reflecting on the evolution since Media Day, Donovan pointed to one of the most overlooked but crucial areas of development for young NBA players — learning how to take care of their bodies.
“I think that for any young player that they learn that the greatest asset they have is their body,” Donovan said. “And unfortunately a lot of these guys when they’re playing and they’re young, they think they’re invincible and they don’t understand how to take care of their body, you know?”
He talked about the behind-the-scenes work that happens with the Bulls’ medical and performance staff — hydration, sleep, nutrition, recovery — all the things that don’t show up in a stat sheet but matter just as much.
“There’s an educational piece that goes on by the medical staff, by our people in terms of hydration and eating, sleeping and resting and how to handle back-to-backs, getting in cold tubs; you know? All those kind of things; massages,” Donovan explained. “These guys a lot of times, younger players, they’ve never gotten through that, you know? They’re like, I’ve never done this before…”
That unfamiliarity, he says, is where the so-called “rookie wall” starts to hit — not just physically, but mentally.
“Everybody’s talked about the rookie wall or when these guys are tired or injured and banged up — Listen, everybody’s banged up. Every team is dealing with something,” he said. “But you try to get yourself feeling as well as you possibly can and I do think a lot of this stuff in my opinion is your mental approach with it.”
Donovan’s message to his players? Mentality is everything.
“If you’re able to put the uniform on and step across the lines, it’s more of a mentality. It can’t be, I don’t think I’m going to play well tonight because my body doesn’t feel great… To me, it’s gotta be about, I gotta be able to play when I don’t feel well… and that’s what it really comes down to.”
As the Bulls continue to grind through the season, that mindset shift might be the difference between flashes of potential and real, sustained growth.
“For all the younger players,” Donovan emphasized, “they have to learn how to take care of themselves a little bit better.”
