Sometimes all a team needs is some added leadership and toughness to help turn their season around.
Now, not that Patrick Beverley has solely been the catalyst in the second half of the season, but the overall attitude and defensive prowess he’s brought to the Bulls has them looking like a different team.
Once Beverley joined the Bulls on Feb. 21, he created a defensive duo with Alex Caruso, who Pat Bev didn’t know was that ‘elite’ as he told K.C. Johnson of NBCS Chicago.
“I didn’t know he could slide them like that,” Beverley said of Caruso. “When I say slide then, I mean move laterally. He’s able to guard bigger guards too. He uses his body a lot, puts his body on the line, takes a bunch of charges. He’s elite. I knew he was solid; I didn’t know he was that good.”
Having both Beverley and Caruso in the starting lineup for the Bulls has created their best lineup of the season.
In 267 minutes this season, the lineup of Patrick Beverley, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, Nikola Vucevic are a plus-14.7 net rating.
“I do think for Pat Bev and for Alex, there are two things that stand out. One is they’re very high IQ players. They know the league very well. And they’ve established themselves as being elite defenders,” Donovan said.
With the likes of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic being mediocre at best on that end of the floor, Beverley and Caruso are crucial to Donovan’s team if they want to earn that playoff spot.
“They know how to function and flow,” Donovan said. “That experience, their IQ and savviness and what they bring defensively has allowed that group to be good.”
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