Fred Hoiberg‘s homework at the Bulls’ training camp after an impressive Las Vegas Summer League performance by Denzel Valentine and the Bulls’ second unit should still focus on defense and an inside game.
The Chicago Bulls showed us how their second unit can excel when the pieces fill up the glaring holes from last season’s team. Refocusing the offense to attack the middle with new draft pick Denzel Valentine was key in the SummerBulls’ success.
The Bulls scattered the ball into attack positions at the corners whenever possible and showed that even the second unit can create plenty of scoring on their own. Hoiberg’s college teams have always shown their weaknesses to be against teams that pack the paint and rebound well.
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This year’s Bulls team looks like it can overcome the inherent weaknesses in Hoiberg’s shooting offense.
Cristiano Felicio and Bobby Portis showed us strong performances running an inside-outside offense with Valentine and Jerian Grant swinging the ball to them for easy scores in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Felicio showed that he is potentially one of the most efficient scorers inside with a 1.52 points per possession production during summer league via aggressive dunks and also using a soft touch at the rim. Portis just dominated at times and showed us a stronger body posting up and rebounding, plus some better three-point shooting.
On the defensive end, both Felicio and Portis still can clean glass like nobody’s business. The Bulls could even invite rebounding maniac like Jack Cooley to training camp and free both to have more energy on offense. Even Valentine’s rebounding game provided extra possessions for the team and catching up on opponent’s leads or build on their own.
The SummerBulls subdued almost every team they faced by the sheer dominance of their rebounding and inside play and may look at this as a better core offensive system to develop going into the preseason games in October, as opposes to just shootouts. (We even saw Thibodeau’s Bulls teams catch up on sweet shooting opponents by just grinding out every possession.)
The team doesn’t even have to play slow, walk-up offense like Thibodeau liked. Assistant coaches Pete Myers and Charles Henry have showed us some Hoiball sets in the summer that already work for Portis, Felicio and even Cooley.
Even with big leads by opposing teams, Portis, Felicio, Cooley and Valentine at times just grinded it out doing their work in the paint, while the back court got into their shooting rhythm to pull the team ahead.
Going into next season, if the Bulls have a stronger inside game and become the East’s strongest rebounding team, they can weather hot shooting streaks by opposing teams better just by scoring easy on the next possession.
Grant and Spencer Dinwiddie have already shown they can play good defense on opposing playmakers during the summer and convert that into a running game for the SummerBulls.
Although both need to work on their passing and shot selection, their defense kept the team in games. LVSL MVP Tyus Jones had a hard time scoring against the SummerBulls, shooting 9-for-21 and 1-of-5 from deep playing against Grant in the championship game. The Bulls have also shown plenty of defense and more aggressive coverage on opposing playmakers this summer which should carry over into training camp.
We already know that Hoiball as a pace-and-space, shooting offense can create opportunities for scoring easier. The Bulls have shooters in Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic, while Bobby Portis, second-round pick Paul Zipser and even the much-maligned Tony Snell can deliver scoring when the ball is shared and he works off screens.
Next: SummerBulls in Vegas: Bulls win LVSL title on buzzer-beater by Valentine
Zipser is a dark horse like Felicio, whom fans won’t acknowledge yet, but once his numbers start to impress, the shooters only need to fit with Rajon Rondo, Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade’s games to complete the picture.
Pete Myers mentioned at the trophy ceremony after the Bulls won it all in Vegas that Fred Hoiberg personally rallied the younger Bulls — Felicio, Portis and McDermott — about changing the culture of the team at the end of last season.
The Bulls already have players who can make shots all game long and the veteran additions promise to make the team a bigger surprise to doubters and naysayers. Getting that punch in the paint and cleaning up rebounds will make winning and everything else easier for Hoiberg.