Chicago Bulls Summer League: Bulls Bomb Nuggets!
By Ronald Agers
The Chicago Bulls summer league squad continued their journey through the Samsung NBA Summer League. On day three, the Chicago Bulls were matched up against their trade partners on draft night, the Denver Nuggets.
This game featured all of the major players of the trade (sorry Anthony Randolph…hold up he’s gone) that night. It was a matchup of Gary Harris who came out like gangbusters lighting up the Toronto Raptors for 33 points in a 110-82 victory. Doug McDermott did score as well but he was a factor over the L.A.Clippers.
The Chicago Bulls set a NBA Summer League record knocking down an absurd 19 three pointers on their way to a 103-76 blowout of thee Denver Nuggets. The Bulls did this after falling behind 11-1. Tony Snell followed up a strong 27 point performance against the Clippers with a 23 point performance against the Nuggets. Pippen Peoples, let me tell all of you right here, right now. Doug McDermott is the real deal. McDermott finished with 31 points to lead everyone in the building. It was the second highest total in this year’s Summer League behind you guessed it, Gary Harris.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before Pippen Peoples. The Bulls fell behind in the first quarter. Well that’s what happened here with the Nuggets scoring the first nine points of the game to start the game at 11-1. Then it happened. Doug McDermott dropped his first three of the game to open the floodgates. The Bulls ran up 31 points in the final 7:22 of the first quarter to 32-24 at the end of the first quarter.
The Bulls continued the onslaught and took a 52-42 lead into the locker room. The story of this game was Tony Snell and Doug McDermott who combined for 34 of the 52 points in the first half. After pushing the lead to 27 in the second half, the Bulls ran away to the victory.
Here’s what I learned from this game.
Doug McDermott is going to make Tom Thibodeau make adjustments on how he plays rookies.
It is common knowledge that head coach Tom Thibodeau does not hand out minutes to rookies. Guess what, he’d better hand out some minutes to this guy if he continues to shoot like he did against the Nuggets. Doug McDermott scored his 31 points on a very efficient 7-12 from the floor which included 5-9 from the land of the extra point. He made all twelve of his free throws. All of this was in 27 minutes!
Remember when I said that McDermott was just nervous in the first game? Well the jitters were long gone in this game. This guy was firing on all cylinders and from all angles.
What I am liking from Doug McDermott is that he is aggressive and is looking for his offense early. I like this because sometimes rookies will defer a little bit trying to find their way in the team concept. It looked like he was playing that way early in Game one. This was not the case in this game and I like it. McDermott is getting paid to shoot the ball. He needs to shoot the ball.
If Tony Snell was going to play like this, we all should have shaved his cornrows last year.
If Sampson’s strength is in his hair. Tony Snell’s confidence was blocked by those cornrows. Snell dropped 23 points against the Nuggets with four rebounds and four assists. But Pippen Peoples, this dude is confident to the point of cockiness on the floor. He also dropped five three-point shots. Here’s what got me excited. One of those threes he hit was on the break. He dribbled down the court and pulled up on the left-wing and dropped it from deep. This was not happening last year.
Tony Snell, at least in the Summer Leagues looks like he has figured out the NBA game a little bit. He has worked on his handle and his jumper. The professionalism is starting to show here Pippen Peoples. Be excited.
Here’s what I learned…Now Learn from this!
If you are a Cameron Bairstow fan, you might want to tell him to pick it up a little bit. No check that A LOTTA BIT! Bairstow is on a Erik Murphy track right now. To those that think I’m picking on him needs to take a long look at the embarrassment of riches the Bulls have on the frontline. He is slow on the defensive end and needs to get those hands up to contest harder. He looks unsure of himself and he’s thinking too much. He has to relax and play his game. If not, he’ll be looking for a team by October. Remember second round picks do not have guaranteed contracts.
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