Chicago Bulls Players Losing Minutes with Their Preseason Performance

The NBA preseason is about development and acclimation, first and foremost. It takes some time to work the rust out of bodies that haven’t played the five-on-five game all summer. But for many, it’s also a tryout of sorts.

And since the Chicago Bulls come into the 2014-15 season with a handful of fresh pieces to work in, many of their new players are certainly on display for coach Tom Thibodeau’s judgment. While what he’s seen, and will see, in practice certainly matters, there’s an extra edge of expectation to game time that tells the coach something significant about his new men.

Rookies Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic have impressed Thibodeau. Their respective work ethics and understandings of the team game have left him pleased with both, even if he remains mum on whether either will crack the rotation. Here’s Thibodeau on integrating the two, via ESPN’s Nick Friedell:

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I like the way [McDermott] and Nikola come in every day. I don't know when, but I do believe it's going to happen. They're both great workers, they have a great approach to what we're doing, but it's a big jump. They have to show that they're capable of doing their job out there and they're helping their team. And it's not just how they're playing individually, it's how they're playing with the group. The group has to function well when they're on the floor.

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Even though he won’t commit to giving his rookies minutes, it seems clear that McDermott and Mirotic haven’t lost any playing time in the preseason. Despite some expected sloppiness, both have found ways to positively impact games—going after rebounds and creating turnovers when their shots aren’t falling. If there’s anything that makes Thibodeau happy, it’s that kind of gamey persistence.

The same can't be said, unfortunately, for Bulls sophomore Tony Snell.

Snell has had limited playing time in the preseason, breaking the 20-minute mark just twice and shooting a paltry 30 percent from the field. He hasn’t shown promise as a defender, either—despite his length. Lineups including Snell haven’t functioned better than McDermott or Mirotic lineups on the whole, and so it would seem that Snell is moving down the depth chart in 2014-15.

Aside from these three youngsters, Aaron Brooks is the remaining Bull who’s really fighting for playing time in exhibition games. The rest of the team will either decidedly get their minutes or decidedly not; Brooks is on the fence. Between Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich, Thibodeau arguably already has what he needs in the point guard division. Brooks has to prove something.

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

So far, the journeyman’s results have been unsurprisingly mixed.

Like Nate Robinson, C.J. Watson and John Lucas III before him, Brooks is a peripheral offensive option who’s going to give up a lot defensively while bringing occasional scoring feasts to Chicago but also plenty of famines. After an ineffectual, six-point effort in the preseason opener against the Washington Wizards, Brooks came back the next night to make three three-pointers and score 18 against the Detroit Pistons.

More important to Thibodeau than Brooks’ shot, though, is his defense and team play. The point guard is prone to errant decision-making, and on defense he is simply not large or strong enough to hang with a lot of the league’s elite.

Kyrie Irving torched Brooks in the Bulls’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, scoring most of his 28 points with Derrick Rose on the bench. This does not bode well for Brooks' playing time. And while Hinrich hasn't been a world-killer himself, he's got tenure in Chicago and his coach's invaluable trust.

The most likely path for Brooks and extended minutes is an injury on the roster—and between Hinrich and Rose, you know there will be some games missed. In the preseason, however, Brooks looks like no more than what he is: an insurance policy.

At the top of the roster, we know Thibodeau's veterans are locked in. Rose, Hinrich, Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol, Mike Dunleavy and Taj Gibson are all sure things. Though each has had growing pains in the preseason, none of them will lose minutes for what he does in exhibition play.

Noah—who's battling some knee issues after arthroscopic surgery—may play less and hand time to Gibson in the short term. But in the long run, Thibodeau will lean on him hard. Nothing about the core is really changing in the preseason.

McDermott and Mirotic, despite being rookies, seem to be trending positively toward playing time with their own performances. But Snell and Brooks may have dug themselves into the holes beneath Thibodeau's rotation.