NBA: Bulls-Offseason: Defence is overrated

The Chicago Bulls spent a lot of money on two defensive “specialists” in the summer, but are still optimistic about the future. But how do Lauri Markkanen, Zach LaVine and newcomer Jabari Parker fit together?

After the trade of Nikola Mirotic in the pre-season the Bulls had their own Pick (No.7) as well as that of the Pelicans (No.22) this summer – with their own they pulled a talented Big Man in Wendell Carter Jr., the Pels-Pick was used for Swingman Chandler Hutchison.

The Bulls then took part in a three-team trade: Jerian Grant went to Orlando as part of the Bismack-Biyombo-Timofey-Mozgov trade, Chicago got Julyan Stone back for it, but he was waived a little later – just like Paul Zipser and Sean Kilpatrick. For Chicago, the deal was primarily for financial reasons.

The Bulls spent their money elsewhere. When the Kings made their Restricted Free Agent Zach LaVine an offer over four years and $78 million, Chicago went with them, and a week later they signed Jabari Parker from the Bucks for two years and $40 million (team option in the second year).

Apart from that, Chicago left it to smaller moves. Antonio Blakeney received a new contract for two years and $2.9 million, Ryan Arcidiacono received a new non-guaranteed one-year contract, as did Antonius Cleveland. David Nwaba in turn joined the Cavaliers, Noah Vonleh went to New York and Quincy Pondexter joined the Spurs.

The Bulls have continued to rejuvenate and at the same time have acted quite ambitiously. Chicago are fully on offensive potential and took a lot of money for two players in LaVine and Parker, who already have some injury problems behind them (especially Parker) and defensively have not been very positive so far.

Anyway: Because of the team option the risk for Parker, a hometown hero from Chicago, is very low and so coach Fred Hoiberg can evaluate for a whole season how well Parker, LaVine, Carter, Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen fit together or what this young core still lacks – but of course the Bulls’ injury Markkanen in the training camp has put a stop to it.

This is annoying, but theoretically gives Parker the opportunity to switch to his probably better position Power Forward. Afterwards it will be interesting to see how compatible Markkanen and Parker are. In general, the coming season has a great test run character for the Bulls – this applies to Dunn and Parker, but also to Hoiberg. After three years as head coach, it’s time for the Bulls to really get to grips with his philosophy.

After all, the staff now seems to fit in better this year. LaVine even said directly that Chicago could attack the playoffs, which seems rather unrealistic. In the front office, one obviously hopes that things will go uphill in a playful way and that one can see which players can really shape the next successful Bulls era.

Last season the Bulls were 28th in the offensive rating and 24th in the defensive rating. Both could change – but only an offensive improvement can be expected. Carter was a defensive specialist at college, but as a rookie he won’t immediately be an elitist rim protector. But this one would be absolutely necessary for the other assembled staff.

If they’re all fit, the Bulls are likely to run up regulars with Dunn, LaVine, Parker (“You don’t pay players to play defense!”) and markkans, creating so many gaps that even Bill Russell couldn’t fill them in his prime. Dunn is a good individual defender, this statement cannot be made about any other of the supposed top performers so far. It should rain regularly at the United Center.

Also offensively there are question marks despite the existing potential. On the one hand to the state of health, on the other hand to the fit, especially between Markkanen and Parker, whose game has always been most effective on the four, but which should nominally run as Small Forward. It will also be a challenge to get all players enough throws.

Moreover, this task is not necessarily in the best of hands, at least not yet. The point guards in Chicago are Dunn, Cameron Payne and Arcidiacono – elitist is different. The great hope must be that Dunn can still achieve at least one drastic development step.

Although Markkanen will miss the first weeks of the season, it is actually the first name to be mentioned here: The Finn exceeded all expectations in his rookie season and made the Jimmy Butler trade look good from Bull’s point of view even before his trade demand. Markkanen has a good touch and is tougher than announced, and he’s still only 21 years old – he’s the player in the Bulls who has the most franchise player potential so far.

Parker is also worth mentioning here. The 2014 number 2 pick comes from Chicago and is deeply rooted in the community, being the first homeown hero since Derrick Rose with the Bulls. With his scoring skills he is supposed to provide enthusiasm and also give the Bulls an identification figure which they lacked last time.

It is legitimate for the Bulls to experiment a little in their situation, so the Parker deal can be justified with the team option – although it and Markkanen actually “overlap” positionally. If it doesn’t fit, you just reject the forward after a year or two.

The LaVine deal is somewhat more difficult to tolerate, as it is far from easy to get rid of. The Kings put Chicago in a difficult position here, and the Bulls probably went with the offer because they did not want to lose the asset without countervalue. However, LaVine has by no means justified this money with his previous appearances. He is still young (23), but has already suffered injuries and revealed serious deficits in understanding the game and in defense.

Apropos: How the Bulls want to defend credibly with this team is still completely unclear. Carter might turn out to be a very good pick, but it’s curious that the Bulls didn’t get reinforcements on the one in the summer and even gave up a point guard instead. Probably no NBA team is so thin and weakly staffed in this important position.

The note: 3-