When most of the assembled media disbursed away from Jimmy Butler’s locker following Friday's 87-86 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday, the forward – who had just been asked several questions regarding Nate Robinson’s performance – exhaled and asked to no one in particular, “When are ya’ll going to show my man Vladdy some love?”
The seldom-used forward had already dressed and was on his way towards his vehicle when reporters were granted access into the locker room.
While Robinson stole the show, Radmanovic’s contributions to the win were
He finished with seven points, connecting on all four of his shot attempts – including a three-pointer with 4:20 remaining that came in the middle of an 8-0 Bulls run – four rebounds, two assists, a block, two steals in 23 minutes.
“Everybody was going 'Keep shooting, shoot the ball, shoot the ball,' but when you don't play the whole season and you're running up and down, the ball starts feeling a little different than when you're shooting it regular," said Radmanovic of his corner three. "It was a good feeling to hit a shot like that.
Aside from cheering on his teammates, good feelings have been hard to appreciate this season for Radmanovic. He signed with the Bulls last offseason with the intentions on adding some long range shooting to an offense that had lost Kyle Korver (45% in 3-point shooting this season), C.J. Watson (41%) and John Lucas (38%).
Instead, the forward who owns a career three-point average of 37 percent, has found himself in a role more similar to the one Brian Scalabrine served the previous two seasons than helping spread the floor.
Still, with Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson recovering from injury and Malcolm Thomas still being green to coach Tom Thibodeau’s system and schemes, Radmanovic has seen his number called as the Bulls try and build as much momentum it can while healing and headed towards the postseason.
“To stay ready; that’s not an easy thing to do with what he’s done this year,” Thibodeau said. “Sit there, not play a lot, but to get called upon, step up and get the job done.”
Despite him having to be a spectator throughout the season, teammates have praised his work ethic in practice as well as his patience and professionalism.
Nazr Mohammed knows exactly what Radmanovic has had to go through stretches without playing and spot minutes.
“Once you have so many years in this league, you don’t have to tell a guy to ‘stay ready,’ ” Mohammed said. “That’s the reason why you’ve been around for so long because you know you have to stay ready.
“It’s the one difficult thing about this league. The truth of the matter is, there are 15 guys on the team. Everybody isn’t going to play, so you have to stay prepared and stay ready for when your number is called. Sometimes it’s very difficult to stay at the top of your game when you’re not playing and you don’t have those minutes. But that’s your job, so you go out there and try to do it.”
Radmanovic can feel good that he has done his at a time when needed the most.
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