Pippen Ain't Easy
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Chicago Bulls Positional Grades

By Jeremy Karll

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Apr. 25, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) drives downcourt past Milwaukee Bucks guard Khris Middleton (22) in the first quarter in game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Shooting Guard: Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell, E’Twaun Moore, Jordan Crawford

Jimmy Butler had a great year in 2014-15. He racked up a numerous amount of awards and showed everyone that he’s one of the best two-way players in the league. He’s widely considered a top-three shooting guard in the NBA now after his impressive year.

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Butler was able to average 20 points per game last season, a team high. He also was once again named to the All-NBA Defensive Second Team, which proves how good of a two-way player he is. Not to mention that Butler is also an iron man, as he has led the league in minutes per game in each other past two seasons.

Jimmy Butler is the best player on Chicago now. The wing can do it all. However, there is a reason why he has led the league in minutes per game in each of the past two straight seasons; the Bulls don’t have a reliable backup.

Tony Snell is a solid player, but doesn’t do anything extremely well. He’s not a great shooter and doesn’t score in bunches. He also isn’t a defensive force who can come in and shut down the other team’s second-string shooting guard or starter. Snell isn’t a bad player, but at the same time, he isn’t anything special and sometimes disappears when on the court.

E’Twaun Moore is the wild card on the Bulls this year. If the Bulls want to be successful, then Moore needs to step up and continue to improve on last season. Moore only played 504 minutes over 52 games, a big dip from the 1,506 minutes he played in the previous season for the Orlando Magic. He played well when he got a chance and shot a career high 44.6 percent from the field.

Moore showed a lot of improvement last season. Per 36 minutes, Moore tied his career high with 1.4 steals per game and averaged just one turnover per game. These are all great signs for Chicago, as they hope he can play a defensive specialist role like Kirk Hinrich has been in previous seasons.

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The Bulls have recently signed Jordan Crawford to a training camp deal and this could go as an under-the-radar good signing for Chicago. Crawford can heat up fast like Brooks and gives the Bulls a solid scoring option off the bench to give Butler a couple of minutes of rest. He played in China and in the D-League last season, but has four years of NBA experience under his belt.

He averaged more than 10 points per game in each season in the NBA, including 14.7 points per game during the 2011-12 season. While he isn’t a great shooter, he can score and scores in bunches, which is something the Bulls were missing from the shooting guard position last season.

One of the best shooting guards in the league plays for the Bulls, but his backups haven’t proven to be anything more than a player who can give Butler a couple of minutes of rest here or there. Both Snell and Moore have potential, but they need to prove to everyone that they can consistently give solid minutes off the bench.

If Snell continues to develop and Moore fits the role of a defensive specialist, then the shooting guard grade for the Bulls will quickly go up. The scoring ability of Jordan Crawford is also very intriguing and could add an interesting factor that the Bulls have missed in the past, therefore, they get a B+.

Grade: B+

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