Windy City Roster Outlook: Small Forward
The NBA is almost back! With that realization comes another – the inaugural Windy City Bulls season is also just around the corner and with it comes the Windy City roster.
There’s a little more time before the D-League gets underway, but last week we got started by guessing at some potential coaching options for the Bulls when the season starts in November. This week, we’ll be running through a look at some of the roster candidates for each position on the D-League roster.
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Small Forwards
Wesley Saunders – Saunders was the first Windy City pick off the board during the D-League draft this summer. He played college ball for Harvard and already has a season of play in the D-League under his belt. He played for the Westchester Knicks and Austin Spurs. When the draft took place, he was a member of the Spurs. If visuals help, here is a clip of Saunders collegiate highlights that should be exciting for Bulls fans.
He looks like the kind of player that has some really solid skills and good athleticism, but the quality of competition for a guy in the Ivy League is a legitimate concern. Saunders got just over 650 minutes of court time in 2015-16 and shouldn’t have too much of a time eclipsing that mark if he’s a member of the Bulls squad.
Dez Wells – Wells was part of the Las Vegas summer squad for Chicago. We did a little Vegas preview on Dez right here. He was a starter on the summer team and could conceivably fill the same starter role for the Bulls this season. Saunders has to figure in to the Bulls plans as their No. 1 pick in the expansion draft, so maybe Wells slides over to a role at guard instead of forward. Either way, he’s going to need to find a way to replicate his numbers as a senior in college where he shot particularly well. If he can’t get his shot going, he’ll be hard-pressed to find himself anywhere in any roster.
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His shot wasn’t particularly great in Vegas and defense is an abstract concept to most young players in the summer leagues. That probably explains why he managed to start all seven Bulls games, but averaged 18.1 minutes and only 4.4 points on 33 percent shooting from the field and 3-point range.
Casey Prather – Prather was a four-year guy for the Florida Gators from 2010-2014. After college, Prather played for the Bakersfield Jam. While playing with Bakersfield, Prather averaged 11.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals in 25.3 minutes per game. He started 31 of the 46 games he played with Bakersfield in 2014-15 before moving to Australia for the 2015-16 season.
In Australia, Prather played for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League. Prather posted a solid line of 16.3 points, 1.8 assists and 1.1 steals in 27 games, averaging 25.6 minutes per contest. After the 2015-16 season, Prather found his way back to the NBA ranks, playing with the Dallas Mavericks summer team in Orlando. You can watch a video interview from the Orlando league here.
During his time with Dallas in the Orlando games, he started three of the five games that he played in while again posting solid averages. Prather seems like a prime candidate to play a very solid 2016-17 season in the D-League for Windy City and if he does perform well, could finally find himself in the NBA next season.
Duje Dukan – Dukan has already signed a deal in the land of his birth, Croatia. It is a three-year deal with KK Cedevita of the Croatian A-1 League. I don’t know much about the Croatian league, but A-1 is delicious. Dukan makes this list entirely because he was a Wisconsin Badger in college. He was a favorite of my brother-in-law and we liked to joke that somehow he was undrafted, but managed to get essentially a season of DNPs for the Sacramento Kings.
Since he already has a deal lined up in Croatia, it is unlikely that he would want to take a D-League deal in the United States. He could probably be persuaded to stay stateside if an offer came in from an NBA side. Sadly, Dukan would benefit from a season in the D-League he will likely not see. Nothing wrong with electing to pass on Windy City, or any other D-League team, in favor of the country of your birth.