If Bulls Make Changes, Bulls Could Look to David Lee for Veteran Presence
David Lee is an unrestricted free agent and the Bulls are likely going to need some depth in the front court heading into next season with both Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah potentially heading for free agency.
The NBA free agency pool this summer includes All-Star veteran David Lee, who scored 17.7 points (shooting a career high .636 FG %) with 14.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per 36 minutes as a backup in the Dallas Mavericks front court. Lee was traded to Dallas last season by the Boston Celtics for draft picks.
Lee is a post player, whose game actually complements Hoiball more than Pau Gasol (who is expected to go elsewhere for his last big contract). Gasol, to some extent, needs touches in the post to score, while Lee can roam around via Hoiball movement traps to get his offense through off-ball opportunities. He doesn’t need to post up with the ball. Lee can play off back-door cuts, pick-and-roll dives, rebound put-backs, lobs and fast-break rim runs.
Dale Redman of Today’s Fastbreak has a good profile on David Lee shoring up the Mavericks and finding his game with them after initially bogging down with the Celtics.
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A strong, off-ball post offense frees up Hoiberg to assign plenty of modern offensive patterns to allow Lee to score faster. Watching Gasol or Taj Gibson physically post up (eating up time on the shot clock) get a pass and allow quicker wing defenses to converge plenty of times last year and left shooters just watching at the corners.
Lee can attack the rim using both hands facing his defender or taking advantage of defensive breakdowns; one aspect of his offense that is very strong.
Lee is a willing post passer and always finds the best available scorer cutting to the basket or out at the corner. He also has a good mid-range game and is a strong defensive rebounder (as you can see from his per-36 numbers last year). He can help Joakim Noah (if he returns) and Cristiano Felicio haul down loose balls if they play in tandem as bigs.
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Lee is also a decent weak side defender blocking shots and can set himself in the paint as a big wall that presents difficulties to opponents driving the lane. He’s not a strong defender by any means, but can make a few plays on that side of the floor.
Fitting Lee in the post allows the Bulls to play Bobby Portis in his natural position as a stretch- forwar and as a roaming long defender to close in on perimeter shooters or blitz the pick-and roll and pick off passes. Together with Felicio, Lee can contribute in shutting down the paint against drives and match up really well with opposing low post bigs.
Noah and Lee staggered in the rotation or playing together to overwhelm stronger opponents will allow the Bulls to play their strongest bigs spelling each other and not suffer any drop in defensive, nor offensive intensity.
In the Golden State Warriors championship run last season, it was David Lee being inserted back into Steve Kerr’s lineup that partially spelled the difference against Cleveland, along with Andre Igoudala’s clutch play in the last three games of their series.
The Bulls might need to free up more salary to grab someone like David Lee. If they resign Joakim Noah and let Pau Gasol walk, that limits their cap allowance. An option could be trading Taj Gibson ($9 million). In exchange for Gibson, the Bulls get an All-Star who is a good fit for Hoiberg’s attack.
Unless Mark Cuban offers Lee the moon, GarPax may well offer him a real shot at contributing in Chicago. Lee’s a veteran guy with a good offensive touch and championship experience.
Do you guys like David Lee coming off the Bulls bench next year?