Isaiah Canaan: Passable Shooter, Not a Good Passer

On Tuesday night during the Chicago Bulls’ win over the San Antonio Spurs in Las Vegas, the Bulls signed former Philadelphia 76ers guard Isaiah Canaan to a two-year deal. Here’s a look at Canaan and what he brings to the table.

After the news leaked that the Bulls signed Isaiah Canaan to a two-year deal on Tuesday night, the signing gave the Bulls four point guards on the depth chart with summer leagues coming to a close.

Outside of the newly-signed Rajon Rondo, the other three guards — Canaan (25), Spencer Dinwiddie (23) and Jerian Grant (23) — all are 25 years old or younger.

As of now, the depth chart of the Bulls is befuddling. The Bulls are four-deep at the lead guard position and outside of Rondo penciled in as the projected starter, there’s no telling what the Bulls are going to do behind him. Grant has only played in limited action in the NBA last season with the New York Knicks and Dinwiddie missed most of the 2013-14 season with a torn ACL that ended his college career at Colorado.

That leaves the six-foot, 201-pound Canaan, who played a boatload of minutes for the woeful 10-72 Philadelphia 76ers last season.

When you glance at Canaan’s numbers, some of them are promising. He shot a respectable 36.3 percent from three-point range on 6.3 attempts per game (14th in the NBA). His three-pointers attempted rate (3PAr) was .672, which sounds like a Fred Hoiberg-type of signing.

(Basically, that figure means 67.2 of Canaan’s shot attempts came from beyond the three-point line last season.)

Isaiah Canaan attempted 11th most 3-ptrs in NBA last season, made the 15th most and all in just 25.5 minutes per game.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) July 13, 2016

Here’s where the issues lie: everything else.

For a player that played 1,966 minutes in 77 games, numbers like an 11.3 assist percentage (AST%) for a lead guard that had a 19.9 usage percentage (USG%) isn’t a good sign.

Like Jake Pavorsky of SB Nation‘s Liberty Ballers blog on the Sixers wrote two months ago, “The ball constantly stayed glued to Canaan’s mitts, resulting in poor movement and a ton of long, isolated three-point attempts by the 24-year-old.”

On top of that, Canaan shot a respectable percentage from three-point land. Everywhere else? Not so much.

Let's take a look at Isaiah Canaan's shot chart last season with the Sixers and ... oh, dear. pic.twitter.com/ROAb0iB3FV
— Michael Whitlow (@couldbelikemike) July 13, 2016

During last season, the Sixers brought in Ish Smith, T.J. McConnell continued to improve over the course of the season and Canaan was “demoted” to an off-ball guard position in Philadelphia’s rotation.