Bulls fail in deer hunting as win over Wizards draws a tie with Bucks

WASHINGTON – Billy Donovan knows the percentages and knows the standings.

The Bulls coach won’t be budging off his stance no matter what the numbers say.

In once again being out-tanked by the slumping Wizards on Thursday, the 119-108 win put the Bulls in a tie with Milwaukee as the No. 9 and No. 10 spots in the draft lottery order remain up for grabs.

The difference between the two?

The No. 9 spot has a 4.5% chance at the top pick in a loaded 2026 NBA Draft class and a 20.3% chance at hitting top four. No. 10 has just a 3% chance at the No. 1 pick and a 13.9% chance at top four.

Donovan gets it, pointed out that they were basically playing a bare bones roster against Washington that only went nine deep, but maintained that they were still focused on winning games until told otherwise.

“From the top, and I think (team president) Michael (Reinsdorf) even spoke about this, there’s just an organizational view that there’s an integrity to the game,” Donovan said. “And with the number of guys we have out and the fact that we’ve had to elevate some of the guys from the G League team, and the fact that we have nine guys, I just feel like every player is going to go out there and do their very best, as I think all the coaches are too.

“From an organizational standpoint it’s never come to me, ‘Hey listen, wink, wink. Just put these guys over here.’ That’s just never happened. The perspective is you have fans that pay money, you have season ticket holders, and you want to go out there and do your best. I totally get the (percentage part of it) too, but there’s another side of it where ‘What’s a little kid thinking in the stands that’s playing basketball?’ I would think people would want to see someone out there giving their best, but I understand all that stuff.”

Forward Leonard Miller sure understood the assignment from his coach, putting together a career night with 26 points against the Wizards, as well as grabbing 11 rebounds, while Tre Jones led the Bulls with 31 points.

That was just some of the news around the Bulls (31-49) in the finale in The District.

Reinsdorf brought national attention to the organization in his Tuesday presser when he made it clear that the focus of filling the front office firings of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley would be with perspective candidates looking to keep Donovan in the mix.

That didn’t go over well in a lot of national media circles, and Donovan addressed that.

“(Executive director of basketball communications) Beth (Esler) shared with me what Michael said, and I think Michael was just trying to make the point of how he felt about me and as I said as I was in here (Tuesday) I was grateful, right,” Donovan said. “And his responsibility is he’s going to do whatever is best for the organization. That’s why I think we’re going to have to sit down and talk because certainly going into the season things have changed all the way around and we really haven’t sat down and talked about that.

“Obviously, there’s going to be a search in terms of what they want to do. We’re going to sit down and talk about those things. And I want what is best for the Bulls too, and I think from my perspective all the things he was talking about was just endorsing and supporting me, but I also understand that everyone has to look out for what is best for the Bulls at that point and time.”