Why The Bulls Will Struggle
In seasons past, I’d be looking out for the NBA tip-off with much greater enthusiasm, not that I’m not excited, but I may be going through a phase in life where the NFL is taking over my life! Still, no love lost for basketball!
After an unprecedented off-season with crazy money unhinging the status quo, many teams have undergone drastic change in the midst of a superteam getting formed in the Bay. None more so, than the Chicago Bulls.
TWO seasons back they made a massive change by hiring Fred Hoiberg in place of the defensive maestro that’s now the head coach of arguably the most exciting young nucleus in the NBA down in Minnesota, Tom Thibodeau. Coach Tibbs’ teams have always been solid defensively, but in Coach Hoiberg, priorities were shifting towards implementing unselfish play, floor spacing and elite 3-pt shooting.
In his first season in charge, it didn’t surprise many that the Bulls were a shell of their usual defensive self. Yet, the likes of E’twaun Moore, Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott (the latter two shall be referred to in future by their apt nicknames, Threekola and McBuckets respectively) sort of had breakthrough seasons offensively. These 3 especially went up by an average of 10% from deep, and the Bulls improved from shooting 35.3% to 37.1%. They were the 5th in 3-pt shooting behind the usual suspects: the Warriors, Spurs, Cavs and Portland.
One year later, by signing free agents Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo, the Bulls have assembled a team that’s more in Thibodeau’s mould than Hoiberg. Granted, Rondo brings a lot of savviness and experience to the PG position, Wade is battle-tested and his mental fortitude make this homecoming intriguing. They also signed Robin Lopez which is a solid acquisition. The starting 5 will now be Rondo, Wade, Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and Lopez. One thing stands out in this team: limited 3-point shooting.
In the playoffs last years, the Cavs torched the Hawks from deep in astonishing fashion. At one point in the 4-game series, they had made 3 more field goals from 3 than from 2, 76 3-pt FG to 73 2-pt FG. In game 2 they made 25 3-pointers, an NBA record. To be successful in today’s NBA, it has become a weapon that can’t be ignored.
Defensively, the Bulls will likely cause problems for many teams, especially being in the East, but since they can’t space the floor, shot creation becomes even more difficult. The advantage of having players that can shoot 3’s means defenders have to always be wary of the threat they pose, and that creates space for players driving to the basket. Wade and Butler are listed as shooting guards, so it’ll be interesting to see how they share the small forwards responsibilities when the likes of LeBron, Paul George and Melo come to town.
In 2015–2016, Wade, Rondo and Butler shot 31.7% (133–419 FG) from 3. They all love having the ball in their hands and none of them has ever been a catch-and-shoot player (Catch-and-shoot: Any jump shot outside of 10 feet where a player possessed the ball for 2 seconds or less and took no dribbles). Of Wade’s 16 shots per game last season, only one was a catch-and-shoot. On top of that, Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez cannot shoot 3’s. Most of Taj’s field goals are in the paint, Lopez barely shots past the free throw line.
One solution to the Bulls’ offense would be to bring in Mirotic in the starting lineup in place of Taj Gibson, but you give up a lot of energy and rebounding by doing so. Another possible solution may be to utilize Taj and Robin abit more in the low post, but that veers off abit to Hoiberg’s offense.
In preseason they played the Bucks and the length of the Milwaukee team caused them massive problems, Chicago’s possessions running down to the last 6 seconds being a regular theme. Rondo had a bit of a renaissance with the long ball last season, but in all honesty, Rondo gunning from 3 doesn’t necessarily instill fear to opposing teams.
It’ll be interesting to see the lineups and rotations that Hoiberg implements as the season goes along to get this offense going, Certainly trading Tony Snell was a bit of a confusing move for Michael Carter-Williams, another sub par 3-pt shooter in the guard position, but he could very useful coming off the bench. They also lost Kirk Hinrich, Aaron Brooks and Mike Dunleavy, which was not only a solid core of experience but some effective shooting. The one advatage is that they’re playing in the East and they’ll at least make the playoffs.
