Billy Donovan explains why pushing for playoffs is so important for Bulls

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00:00And I know a lot of people have a lot of different opinions of what we should or shouldn't do,

00:06you know, as it relates to the draft, re-agency, I get that.

00:10But there's something really, really powerful in players that are younger.

00:16At some point in their career, they've got to impact winning.

00:21And even though, you know, where we're at right now as a team, you know, we're in the

00:27play-in, but we're still kind of at the bottom, you know, of the Eastern Conference.

00:35But the reality is we have a chance to play meaningful games.

00:38And that's going to help Modis.

00:41It's not just like, hey, the regular season's over, we're not playing for anything, let's

00:45just roll him out there for 35 minutes and just see what the guy can do.

00:49And now what happens is the focus gets taken off the result of winning.

00:53Now, I think the results of winning are a byproduct of the things that you do for 48

00:59minutes.

01:00And you've got to understand every possession's important, paying attention to scouting reports

01:04are important, you know, the game plan discipline is important.

01:09So I think the one thing we've tried to do all season long is to make the point that

01:14all these games are important.

01:16And let's see what this group can do if we're fortunate enough after April 13th to be in

01:22a situation that we're playing after the regular season's over with.

01:25Those things are meaningful.

01:27That really, really plays a major factor, I think, in player development.

01:31And it also puts these guys in situations that they haven't been in before.

01:35And I think when you take the focus off of winning, you miss, I think, a big point of

01:40what's going to happen in the future.

01:42At some point, these guys are going to be put into a situation where now winning becomes

01:48important.

01:49You want to make a run.

01:52And if they don't play in these meaningful games, I think it hurts their development.

01:56So what we've tried to do as a team, to your point of whatever the perception is of what

02:01or how the season should go, we in the locker room have kept it on.

02:06Let's see how good we can be as a team.

02:08Let's go all in to become as good as we can be.

02:12And then whenever the season's finished up, hopefully it's something we can build upon

02:16going into the next season.