Especially true when a team goes from afterthought to sitting atop the Eastern Conference like the Bulls did for weeks in the middle of the 2021-22 campaign.
But with the year ending poorly, courtesy of a first-round exit by the Milwaukee Bucks in five games, Donovan wasn’t assuming anything moving forward.
“We’ll actually have to work harder going into this offseason and next year to get back to this point,’’ Donovan said, when discussing a return to the postseason. “I think a lot of people were uncertain of what our team would look like, and I think as [this Bulls team] started to go through the year they earned and gained more respect around the league.