A ‘born leader,’ Patrick Beverley knows why the Chicago Bulls brought him in — to give the stagnant team a kick-start

In the hours after Patrick Beverley signed with his hometown team, the veteran guard’s phone was overtaken with a deluge of calls and texts from family and friends welcoming him back to Chicago.

It was a long time coming for Beverley, who logged 11 seasons in the NBA before signing with the Bulls on Tuesday. As he prepares to make his Bulls debut Friday at the United Center, Beverley embraced the opportunity to make an impact on the court in Chicago.

“I get a chance to come home, to represent the city in a fashion that later on in my career I can do,” Beverley, 34, said Wednesday. “I’ve been trying to get here for the longest, so I’m just fortunate it worked out.

“The way I play, I’ll run through a wall for any team I play for. It’s even more now that it’s the city where I’m from. I don’t know what might happen. I might pull some (stuff) out I never did before.”

The Bulls signed Beverley after the Orlando Magic bought out his contract on the heels of a four-team trade that included the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Beverley averaged modest numbers — 6.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists — as a bench player for the Lakers. But the Bulls didn’t sign Beverley for statistics. They recruited him to bring a much-needed spark to pull themselves back into contention for a play-in spot.

“I’m really excited,” Beverley said. “You can tell by the energy I have, the smile on my face, the joy. I’m a guy who likes detail and (coach) Billy (Donovan) is a detailed man, so it’s a breath of fresh air.”

This is both a homecoming and a reunion for Beverley, who has appreciated Donovan as an opponent for most of his career.

Beverley played for Donovan’s former assistant John Pelphrey — and against the Bulls coach, then at Florida — during his sophomore year at Arkansas. Donovan tracked his career, emphasizing Beverley’s ability to command a locker room as a key factor in the decision to sign him.

“You hope that a guy like him coming in gives a boost to our team,” Donovan said. “He wouldn’t mind the responsibility because that’s the kind of guy he is. He wants to make an impact. He wants to help. I do think he can add some energy to our group.”

Beverley’s signing was met with enthusiasm by the veteran leadership of the Bulls, who also share a long history with him. DeMar DeRozan met Beverley as a high school player, working out with him in Santa Monica, Calif., the summer after Beverley’s freshman year of college and remaining close as competitors in the NBA.

Guard Zach LaVine said he had been attempting to bring Beverley home to Chicago for at least a year. Beyond his defensive tenacity and experience, LaVine sees Beverley as an important locker room leader who can fill a role he believes has been missing since Thaddeus Young was traded in 2021.

“He’s somebody you hate to play against but love as a teammate,” LaVine said. “I think we’ve been missing that since Thad was here — a vocal leader and somebody that is very out and open with how he thinks about things and how he approaches the game.”

With one practice under his belt, Beverley said he still is learning the intricacies of the Bulls system. Although he didn’t watch many Bulls games this season, Beverley identified one key area of improvement for the final stretch: the ability to close games.

The Bulls are 10-20 in clutch games this season — the second-worst percentage in the league.

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“We’ve got to learn how to finish,” Beverley said. “You got problems like that, those are good problems to have. You can adjust. It doesn’t take a lot of cooks in the kitchen to fix those types of problems.”

A critical portion of Beverley’s role will be intangible — breathing life into a roster that grew stagnant and sluggish in the final weeks before the All-Star break. Beverley describes himself as a “born leader,” a skill he ascribes to growing up as one of the youngest of 11 kids raised by his grandparents in Chicago.

Beverley already threw himself into this role during his first practice Wednesday, challenging LaVine to take shots with more self-assuredness — and with more selfishness — in the final 23 games.

“A lot of shots he kind of hesitates,” Beverley said. “I told him: ‘Your job here is not to pass at all. We don’t need you to pass. We need you to put the ball in the hole at an elite level.’ And that’s my job to keep preaching on that, keep harping on it.”

Beverley said part of that job is getting in the faces of his teammates — and he relishes that responsibility.

He pointed to former teammates — including James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — he considers proof of his ability to lead and challenge in a constructive manner.

“The ones who want to be great, they respond well to it,” Beverley said. “The guys who don’t aren’t the greats.”

LaVine laughed at Beverley’s insistence that he increase his shot-making selfishness — but he didn’t shrug off the challenge either.

“I’m going to play my game,” LaVine said. “He’s going to be great for all of us. He holds people accountable, from the best player on the team to the coaching staff to himself all the way down to guys that are on two-way contracts. That’s what you want.”

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There’s one glaring question for the Bulls leading into Beverley’s debut against the Brooklyn Nets on Friday: Where will he play?

He was playing 26.9 minutes per game as a role player for the Lakers. But his experience at point guard could move him into the starting lineup in place of second-year guard Ayo Dosunmu, who has been a stopgap since Lonzo Ball’s injury in January 2022.

Regardless of which rotation he lands in, Beverley’s presence will affect the minutes of veteran guard Goran Dragić, whose efficiency has fallen off steeply the last two months.

Donovan did not commit to whether Beverley would start Friday.

“I do know this — somebody’s not going to be in a rotation,” Donovan said. “That’s going to happen. Who that is, it’s hard for me to say that right now.”

Beverley was similarly reticent about advocating for a role, but he emphasized his eagerness to compete for any spot on the Bulls roster.

“Things always seem to work out the way they work out for me,” Beverley said. “We’ll see.”