Grooming the Bulls’ Bobby Portis: Want Him Like Garnett or Iguodala?

If you are a Chicago Bulls fan, you gotta love rookie forward Bobby Portis. He’s a high-motor, high-energy, hard-working big who gets his points and rebounds off hard work and intense attitude.

Bobby Portis had a single mom who raised and taught him how to work hard for his points and rebounds. He averaged only 7.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, while shooting an average 30.8 percent from long range for the Bulls his rookie season.

But, a better look would be his production per-36 minutes of playing time: 14.2 points, 11 rebounds and 1.7 assists. We’ve seen Portis play better when he is involved in the offense on top of what he gets playing scrappy rebounder and run-out rim attacker.

With Pau Gasol likely leaving next year, there will be more playing time open for the younger Bulls front line and a bigger role as a possible starter.

Portis played in Arkansas in college, which uses a system now relatively out of vogue with the rest of competitive college teams: an all-game, full-court press. Basketball teams in the 1980’s and early 90’s like Georgetown under John Thompson, UNLV under Jerry Tarkanian and Kentucky ran it with Rick Pitino. These coaches used to have the best young athletes in the country hounding and running the opposing ball-handler out of the gym because they had able bigs backing them up.

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In this age, the stronger three-point shooting among college and pro teams has made all-game full-court press less efficient as a defensive team system philosophy, but it is something that can be incorporated in the Chicago Bulls defensive philosophy, given that the team has some of the better young athletes suited for the role.

First among them? Bobby Portis.

In fact, Portis won the SEC Player of the Year in his second of two seasons at Arkansas, getting his impressive numbers in an all-game full court press squad. Since Bulls opponents were driving the lane at will for most of last year, having a pinch of a full-court press, swarming opposing ball carriers from end-to-end might be a workable idea for Fred Hoiberg. It would also allow the bigs like Joakim Noah and Cristiano Felicio time to recover on defense.

Portis and Justin Holiday, along with Tony Snell might fit this swarm squad along with E’Twaun Moore.

One good thing about Fred Hoiberg is that he played everyone on his bench and gave each of them a chance to strut their stuff; omething you would never see with former head coach Tom Thibodeau. Portis showed that he is a fearless and hardworking player who will post up on anybody and do well.

Last summer, he matched up well against Karl-Anthony Towns when they played against each other. He will mix it up in the paint for that tip-in or offensive rebound. Portis is also a big with a little range range and when he’s feeling his stroke. He has that mentality of being the first person to run out for rim attacks as well.

Those traits that makes him a perfect fit for Hoiball. He is never a dead-ball option and can score within the Bulls new pace-and-space system. The Bulls need more intense players with that edge like Portis and Noah.

On defense, Portis has been hampered by his lack of bounce to help defend the paint. He isn’t known as a strong face-up shot blocker, but he can swat shots and he even plays the passing lanes like a wing and gets a good number of steals. He was instilled with a full-court press mentality in college and you often see it in his game when he plays minutes. Portis plays more zone-press coverage on where the ball is instead of body block, man-up defense like Felicio plays the paint.

When given spare minutes as a backup forward, Portis can be lost playing single-man coverage for the Bulls when opponents move the ball around and he relies on scrappy play on offense when the Bulls sets break down. He also plays below the rim as a big, so crowding him on defense gets him in trouble.

When the Bulls involve Portis in their offensive sets, he does remind many of Kevin Garnett because of his tenacity and fearless game. He only needs to get stronger, which doesn’t necessarily mean bulking up. His low-post game will get more polish as he gets more minutes and learns other facets of his role playing with the best. Someone like Noah can help him learn to be the second generation Bulls point-center offense option. Portis’ deep-range shooting will be more dependable with practice and with more games under his belt.

In other words, Bobby Portis is already on his way to being a KG-type, high-energy, post-player with deep range to space the floor. It is up to Hoiberg if he assigns Portis this wing-post role as a big with more minutes, offensive sets and even a starting role once he fits.

Another role that might look like a downshift to less savvy basketball fans is looking at Portis growing his game with some Andre Iguodala tendencies.

As of this time, Portis, Holiday and Snell as a group somewhat mirror the 2012 Philadelphia 76ers; the team that beat the Bulls in the first round four years ago. That team was a hyper-athletic, run-out team that had hot-shooting from deep range coming from Iguodala and unstoppable drive-the-lane opportunities via Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner.

Portis would come into his own as a bigger Iguodala of the bunch — a small-ball center who can hit the three and play nasty man-to-man defense. Portis already has handles good enough for him to take the ball coast-to-coast against sleeping defenses, but he can still improve to maneuver smoothly in a crowded paint. His passing game can also be sharper, so that opportunities for open teammates always become free layups.

Next: Bulls need a (healthy) Nikola Mirotic in year three next sesason

If the Bulls front office sees what they have and add a piece or two, we’ll have Hoiball evolving into a 10-man deep roster for next season. Pace-and-space in 2016 going forward won’t look much better with Bobby Portis getting his potential realized faster than people expect as a future Garnett or Iguodala.