Cool stuff and Not so cool stuff from the Bulls back-to-back games vs NOP and ORL

Bulls go 1–1 but show positive signs, holding opponents to 89.5 points per game over their last two contests

The Orlando Magic came into Friday’s match-up with the Bulls as the number one team in the Eastern Conference at 6–2. So of course, the “Bizarro-Bulls” of Chicago dominated the Magic in a 22-point victory.

The New Orleans Pelicans have been maddeningly inconsistent, but defeated the Bulls on Saturday night as Chicago fizzled out down the stretch. Fred Hoiberg’s bunch was outscored 39–26 over the 4th quarter and overtime, and they wouldn’t even have been in that situation had they had some better late-game execution. But it is encouraging that the team has been in many close games as of late rather than getting blown out by 30 every night.

Here is Michael Walton II’s (follow me on Twitter to understand a Bulls fans’ true pain and suffering) “Cool stuff” and “Not so cool stuff” that I’ve observed over these two games.

Cool stuff:

Lauri Markkanen’s athleticism no longer “sneaky”

European prospects who aren’t named Hezonja have a tendency to be labeled as “soft” or “lacking athleticism”, and even when scouts admit they have hops, you’ll usually see a lot of “sneaky athleticism” tags that act as somewhat of a back-handed compliment. Well now the cat is out of the bag.

Lauri Markkanen dazzles fans with his pre-game dunk routines, and now he is bringing it to live game action. The “Markksman” is known for his floor-stretching ability — currently shooting 37.9 percent on 7.3 3-point attempts per game — but word got out, and he has reacted like a veteran by working on his counter-moves. In the above clip DeMarcus Cousins commits hard to the close out, and the Markkanen uses the show-and-go move to get to the cup.

He leads the Bulls in points and rebounds with 16.3 points and 9 rebounds per game. He has also quickly forced his way into the Rookie of the Year conversation. I’m not saying Gar Foreman nailed the Jimmy Butler trade, and we can’t definitively say anything until we see what Zach LaVine looks like. But as far as the №7 pick from the 2017 NBA Draft? So far, so good.

Hoiball secret weapon: Denzel Valentine

“Obviously, I want to be a starter. Who doesn’t?….I started one game and thought I did pretty well. They make their decisions. We have to roll with it.”

— As told to the Chicago Tribune.

It’s a not-so-well-kept secret that I am a huuuuge Denzel Valentine fan. I won’t lie, my cell phone screensaver looks something like this:

Valentine’s above quote was hilarious. In the one game he started, he said he played well. I’m not sure if I would call not what I would call going 3-for-14 from the field, even though Chicago won the game. But Valentine is almost a walking personification of “Hoiball” (Fred Hoiberg’s preferred style of play). He takes 10.1 shots per game, with 56.8 percent of his shots coming from 3-point range.

He is currently leading the Bulls at 41.3 percent from deep, remarkable considering how many he shoots. His still is abysmal from two-point range, but Valetine has proven he can hit the 3 with consistency, as he shot 35 percent from 3-point land over 57 games last season.

Over the last two games (against Orlando and New Orleans) Valentine is averaging 13.5 points, 3.5 assists, 5 rebounds, and is hitting 53.8 percent of his 3-pointers, and some of those have came in big moments. With David Nwaba’s injury, it would be neglectful of Hoiberg to not insert Valentine into the starting lineup. He is still too much of a “gunner” at this point, but his willingness to make the extra pass and hustle in general would help the starting lineup despite his (mainly man-to-man related) defensive shortcomings.

Valentine is confident he should be a starter. And when give an expanded role he has more potential than anyone not named Markkanen to go off from deep. If Hoiberg finally settles on Valentine at the starting small forward spot, expects to see more nights like this game from last season:

Not so cool stuff:

Hoiberg’s sideline out of bounds play to potentially win the game….

Kris Dunn’s jump shot progress

Part of the reason so many teams weren’t interested in Kris Dunn was that his shooting was so awful his rookie year that is seemed beyond repair. Hoiberg has been working with Dunn closely on his shot, and by George is he is trying to use it. Dunn is shooting three 3-pointers per game. He is making 25 percent of them, which is actually worse than he shot last year from deep. Initially I liked his aggressiveness, but at this point he needs to stay true to himself and reel it in in terms of 3-point attempts.

The whole point of developing Dunn’s jump shot is to make him a better player. Right now he is shooting 40 percent on 2-point attempts, which is currently worse than his rookie season as well.

Dunn is 23 years old and could conceivably become a better shooter. But in the four games he has played, it looks like more of the same. He has not done much to separate himself from Jerian Grant in the Bulls — most likely season-long — point guard competition.

Anthony Davis bullies Justin Holiday

Paul Zipser’s minutes

Paul Zipser is — I would assume — a pretty cool guy. His Instagram is full of great inspirational messages after games, and fun hijinks with his young teammates. But as a player I get very frustrated with Zipser. He is solid at a host of things, but isn’t amazing at any one particular aspect.

I’ve complained a lot about his lack of shot-making ability, but now I’m livid. The Holy Grail of shooting is the elusive 50/40/90 club where you shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range, and 90 percent from the free throw line. I wanted to mention that because Zipser is forming his own elusive shooting club…..the “34/31/50 club”. I won’t hold the free throw shooting against him since he has only attempted two this year. But last season Zipser shot below 40 percent from the field, and he is shooting below 35 percent from the field as of now.

I’m not sure if Zipser is hurt, or if he is just having a bad season. But either way his PER (Player Efficiency Rating) is 3.9, which is not good (in fact it’s very bad). And his net rating is -21.1, meaning the Bulls are outscored by about 21 points on average when Zipser is on the floor.

I don’t want to end this post with negativity, so here’s to hoping he can improve his overall play. Hoiberg may want to experiment more with Zipser as a small-ball four just to get him some mismatches. My solution would be to give some of his minutes to Felicio, who is playing just 16 minutes per game despite being newly signed to a four-year extension.