Beverley is the 'spoon' that stirs the Bulls' pot originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LOS ANGELES --- Patrick Beverley is the spoon that stirs the Chicago Bulls' pot.
“If I’m a spoon, (coach) Billy (Donovan) is using me as a spoon. With the Lakers, I was a spoon and they were using me as a fork. It’s just different,” Beverley said. “But I’m fortunate that the Bulls called during the trade. I don’t want to let the city down. And obviously Billy and my players and this coaching staff, I don’t want to let them down. Just try to play the game the right way.”
Beverley is doing that. Not only with 10 points, five assists and four rebounds in the Bulls’ 118-108 victory over the Lakers team that traded him in February. But with his all-encompassing intensity that spanned everywhere on Sunday from flashing his trademark “too small” gesture after scoring on LeBron James to firing up Andre Drummond for his second-half start.
And that doesn’t even address his well-timed social media post promoting toilet paper.
“He’s very, very honest and direct and I think you need that in a locker room. You need to have hard conversations. You need to be able to talk and communicate,” Donovan said. “And I don’t think he’s afraid to do that.
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“But he doesn’t do it in a way where it’s like negativity or complaining. It’s him seeing the best in each guy on our team and trying to bring out the best in each guy on our team. . . . The thing I think is important for our team is he is always amped up. The volume is always at 10, in a positive way. And I love that.”
The Bulls are now 10-5 since Beverley arrived from the buyout market. And while Beverley typically downplays his impact when asked about it, it’s undeniable.
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“The aura he brings as a competitor, he’s extremely vocal, his knowledge of the game, it’s small things that go a long way,” DeMar DeRozan said. “To have that goes a long way. And you’ve got to feed off that. He holds everybody accountable at any given moment. Shoot, he holds the training staff accountable if they don’t have the tape out in time.
“Something like that is contagious and it goes a long way. It spreads across the locker room.”
When the Bulls landed in Los Angeles, Beverley posted to his social media accounts an ad for Charmin, the toilet paper company. Immediately, speculation raged that Beverley was calling the Lakers---and maybe even Anthony Davis---soft.
Beverley swore that wasn’t the case, saying that if he wanted to troll somebody, reporters would know about it.
“I got paid a ton of money to post something. And I was late posting it like a week ago so I didn’t want the window to close,” Beverley said. “I’m not out here to troll anybody. I’m out here to be a basketball player.”
Still, that’s the thing about Beverley: Even when he’s merely trying to make a buck, he’s enough of an irritant to opponents on the court that he creates speculative drama.
“I was just playing basketball, trying to get lost in basketball. (Sunday) was fun. It was good to see some old teammates, some old coaching staffs,” Beverley said. “The opportunity Rob Pelinka gave me with the Lakers never goes forgotten. Always grateful.
“We had a lot of fun. Obviously, you wish you would’ve won more games.”
Beverley also downplayed flashing his trademark “too small” gesture after scoring over James in the lane in the fourth quarter.
“I do it to everybody,” he said. “Just having fun, getting lost in the game. We’re not construction workers or guys who have to get up at 4 am. It’s about having fun.”
Donovan credited Beverley and Alex Caruso for firing up the team after he announced that Dummond would start the second half for Nikola Vucevic, who was ejected with just over a minute to play in the second quarter.
“Obviously, when Vooch got ejected, we knew we had to lean on him a lot. And I’m tough as (expletive) on Drummond because I know his potential. He was an All-Star for a reason,” Beverley said. “He did what he was supposed to do. He rebounded. We didn’t really have to trap Anthony Davis when he was in the game. Fortunate to have a big like that coming off the bench.
“We come in waves. We’re about 10, 11, 12 deep. Everyone was poised and ready. It was a team win. We got great coaching. And our superstars buy in. Our role players follow their lead. We put the work in. It’s a blue-collar club. All our success shows. It comes from the hard work we put in.”
Donovan long admired Beverley as a competitor from afar. Now he’s enjoying coaching him.
“He’s been a major contributor,” Donovan said. “One of our challenges has been when we get in those moments where there’s a run, we at times get too introverted and introspection. You gotta communicate. And he is in there talking about no second shots, put a body on them. He’s forcing that dialogue.
“It’s at 10 all the time with him. And it’s not like it’s negativity. It’s 10 in terms of, ‘Let’s go! Let’s respond.’ And I think it galvanizes our team and helps our group. I don’t want to say it’s all him. All our guys do things to try to contribute. But one of our challenges is we can get too quiet where there needs to be more collective communication.”
Beverley never will be accused of being too quiet.
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