How the Bulls Can Get Doug McDermott a Scoring Title
The Chicago Bulls traded two first-round picks for Doug McDermott two years ago. As the ultimate scorer for Creighton in college, getting him to the next level in the NBA should be the main focus of Fred Hoiberg. McDermott — more than anyone on the Bulls team — can become next year’s league scoring champion.
Doug McDermott is more than just a shooter with range.
When Jimmy Butler went down with a hyperextended knee before the All-Star break because he kept playing through fatigue with extended minutes in back-to-back games, the Bulls offense reoriented itself to Doug McDermott. He scored 20 points in one quarter in one game, then 30 points against the Toronto Raptors the next game; the current two-seed in the East.
Most of Doug’s points came off kick-outs by Pau Gasol, Derrick Rose and Cristiano Felicio. During the course of the next few games until Jimmy Butler came back, McDermott was consistently gunning 20 points an outing. Rose was playing off McDermott more confidently, knowing the pass would mean a knockdown shot. Then Butler came back and McDermott’s touches were limited because the team had to accommodate their All-Star max-contract player with on-ball ISO plays and help him get back into his offensive rhythm.
Prior to this, McDermott was running to a corner and waiting for Butler to pass the ball if he was open. Butler almost never did. This debacle showed how the Bulls need to retool the team going into next year.
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The Bulls may have won games with Butler, but they had a hard time winning. The Bulls do win with McDermott as a main offensive weapon and playing off him helps the Bulls win games easier.
McDermott makes everybody’s job on offense so easy that sometimes they look to him as a last second bail out if the play breaks down. You’ve seen so many Bulls games with players passing to McDermott who guns an awkward toss with one second on the shot clock that hits all net.
But, the offense doesn’t have to run that way with Butler and Gasol gone.
McDermott was never drafted to be a two-way player, nor as a three-and-D player. McDermott was drafted to do one job that no one on the team, except for Nikola Mirotic, can do best: score.
Of course, Hoiball runs through Rose first as the league’s best attacking guard, then uses McDermott as part of Rose’s spacer options. If those two players run a pick-and-roll (McDermott can post up too and has jump hooks, floaters and a sweet fadeaway in his arsenal), even the best swarming defense will have a fit whom to chase after. McDermott has a quick release and a high-arcing shot that is impossible to bother because he only needs the slightest space between him and his defender to make his shot.
As an open shooter who is fed the ball in rhythm, McDermott kills it every time. And the good thing is that he can do this within a system where he is the second or third option within a play like the Spurs Hammer corner three or as the first shooter in a walk-up three (like Creighton loved to do) if the Bulls are walking up the ball. The option of a elevator play gunner works, too. McDermott can shoot the lights out just like Larry Bird.
Every possession is three up for the Bulls if the offense is focused on McDermott. Mirotic and Rose will get their production playing off McDermott and may put up better numbers, too. The Bulls offense would also be more consistent if Fred Hoiberg got the players he needed running the system. McDermott and Mirotic can easily score six threes each game if the offense simply passed the ball to the open shooter in rhythm and not 24-second, ISO hero-ball.
Mirotic is streaky at best, but he can score in bunches. McDermott is more consistent as long as he is given the confidence to take on the role as the primary scorer in tandem with Rose. Even Joakim Noah has so much confidence in McDermott’s scoring that he looks for him when they are playing together and sets him up with his trademark butt-pick screen for a sure knockdown shot.
Last year, McDermott was described by some teammates as tearing up practice with his shooting and Rose himself hinted that some of the players on his team could be starting for other teams.
McDermott can easily light up 30-a-night and he has the swagger and competitive spirit to go head-to-head with any defender sent at him. You’ve seen McDermott trash talk veterans who’ve tried to guard him and you like that attitude that he can score over anybody just like Larry Bird could. Over the course of last season, McDermott’s defense has improve enough that he puts a body on people in the paint and he rebounds, instead of just watching around. The Bulls can get people from free agency to help him out on defense and allow him to do his primary job as main scorer.
If his time in the Las Vegas Summer League last year was any indication, McDermott playing off a good point guard should have been the Bulls game this past season. The Bulls might choose to commit to small ball if they can’t get a veteran big player like Dwight Howard or young legs and a fiery disposition like Hassan Whiteside to keep the team defensively sound.
If the Bulls go for “Offense is our best defense”, given that the current Bench Mob (Bobby Portis, Justin Holiday, Cristiano Felicio, E’Twaun Moore and Tony Snell) can manage better than Gasol and Butler showed last year, the priority will be getting backup guards who can spell Rose and still play high energy on offense.
If the Bulls have competent, athletic, pass-first guards in their lineup and McDermott as their first option when open, those are sure assists racked up. Last year’s performance in Las Vegas should not be seen as just scrimmage games, but might actually be a better gauge for retooling the team.
Portis playing as the swarming big man on the opposing point guard to slow them down on offense, McDermott as first option on offense and an assortment of guard shooters who can also drive strong to the basket.
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With next year’s Bulls team working with McDermott and Mirotic, anchored by Rose and everybody else putting in their own contributions, we might see the next league scoring champion come from the Windy City.
The scoring title is just icing on the cake.