Now that the season is wrapping up, let’s look at why Cristiano Felicio is one more reason why no one should underestimate the player scouting skills of GarPax.
If Bulls fans have reason to fault general manager Gar Forman or vice president John Paxson for this season, it’s for not taking in a backup point guard early in the preseason. They did pick up Justin Holiday from Atlanta in exchange for aging guard Kirk Hinrich, which has turned out to be a steal this year. Holiday proved himself worthy of his insertion into the rotation and the Bulls got an upgrade on the wing.
Holiday can run the ball up to set up rim attacks. In Saturday’s improbable win over Cleveland, Holiday flat-out stopped Kyrie Irving in the fourth quarter, forcing turnover after turnover when they were matched up. There’s your wing defender, Chicago.
A BIGGER steal for the Chicago Bulls this year is backup center, Cristiano Felicio.
The Bulls often run a slide pick-and-roll rim attack for Felicio when mismatches arise. Being a deceptively athletic and strong player, Felicio can explode to the rim and slam with authority, which we’ve already seen in several Bulls games.
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Felicio has also proven as a pleasant surprise on defense, holding his ground against opposing centers and disrupting post-up plays by forcing traveling errors on smug veterans who think they can back him up in the post.
He played more minutes subbing for Pau Gasol when the All-Star got sidelined with knee injuries. Felicio clogs the lane on defense against driving guards, he bravely steps into the path of rim attackers and makes it more difficult to score in the paint.
He’s also an underrated shot blocker. Felicio can explode for a block from the blind side because guards think he can’t catch up once they get past him.
In the win against Cleveland, Felicio anchored a strong bench effort in the Bulls’ pick-and-roll defense together with Justin Holiday in stopping and stripping Kyrie Irving more than twice, boxing out strongly for the defensive rebounds and getting scores on the other end.
Felicio scored 16 big points on a 7-for-7 shooting night and grabbed five rebounds in 23 minutes of action. He was so good that Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg chose to ride him the whole fourth quarter until the final minute: subbing Pau Gasol for him for stronger free throw shooting because the Bulls were in the penalty and the Cavs were intentionally fouling to get the ball back.
The Bulls got lucky when Matthew Dellavedova missed a wide open three and J.R. Smith lost a chance to send the game into overtime in the last 1.5 seconds. Many fans and sports media analysts are seemingly projecting Felicio to potentially start at center in the future or pair with Joakim Noah (the Bulls are rumored keen on resigning him instead of Gasol) up front.
Before his breakout game, Felicio was often dismissed as the “undrafted player” addition of GarPax and this choice was derided by fans because they thought the Bulls should have taken a veteran free agent back-up point guard being too overloaded up front at the start of the season.
Hoiberg was quoted as thinking of riding with Felicio to close out games in the past week over Gasol, but deferring to the starter instead. This time against Cleveland, he made the right choice and the Bulls won handily even with Jimmy Butler almost losing the game for them with bad shots, indecisive play-making and holding on to the ball too long even with open shooters. It has been a long season of learning on the job for everyone on this Bulls team.
The giant problem for the Bulls is that if Indiana wins any of their remaining three games — even if the Bulls win out — the Bulls will be in the lottery and out of the playoffs.
In his post-game interview, Felicio was asked if other NBA teams recruited him during the preseason. Felicio replied, “I don’t think so,” then mentioned that if Gar Forman and the Bulls didn’t invite him for the summer league, he would have stopped playing basketball. We hope that GarPax signs this good kid to a decent long-term contract before other teams poach him.
Next: Bulls keep their playoff pulse and defeat Cleveland for the third time in four tries
Who says the Bulls can’t win against Cleveland?
Let’s all hope for a Hail Mary.