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PAE Roundtable: The Chicago Bulls’ Summer

By Michael Whitlow

Jul 18, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Denzel Valentine (45) holds the NBA Summer League championship trophy after helping Chicago defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 84-82 in overtime at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 18, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Denzel Valentine (45) holds the NBA Summer League championship trophy after helping Chicago defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 84-82 in overtime at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Chicago Bulls won their first summer league title this summer.
Jul 18, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Chicago Bulls players hold up the NBA Summer League championship trophy over head coach Pete Myers as he is interviewed after the Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime, 84-82 at Thomas & Mack Center. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /

What were your biggest takeaways from the SummerBulls’ title run in Vegas?

MW: As everybody saw, the Chicago Bulls added another banner to their collection with a summer league title in Las Vegas. The trophy’s going to look sweet in the trophy case at the United Center this season. (We even have a preview of it!)

In all seriousness, what were your takeaways from the run in Vegas?

BR: The summer league is very odd. It’s difficult to extrapolate much based on the overall level of competition, but it appears that Portis and Felicio are ready to shine. Valentine showed he is unafraid of the moment. Despite his poor shooting numbers and defensive woes, I’d bet on the Bulls’ first-rounder playing well in a reserve roll.

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    • Winning it all in Las Vegas, even in such a low-stakes contest is great for their confidence as well.

    MP: My biggest takeaways were Denzel Valentine’s confidence and Cristiano Felicio’s potential.

    Valentine, despite struggling to shoot well during the entire summer league, looked calm and poised and he showed his great floor vision. Even though he was shooting poorly from the field in the final, he had the confidence to take two important shots and he drilled them both to give Chicago the win. That kind of confidence is something I look forward to seeing in the regular season.

    Felicio played great during the entire summer league, continuing his high-level performances from the end of last season. He is a great pick-and-roll player who has shown several flashes of brilliance and I think he earned himself some minutes for next season.

    DC: Bobby Portis is better than players who aren’t as good as him. There’s a lot of optimism on Cristiano Felicio, but also a lot of people who can’t say his name correctly (it’s not Feliciano, though everyone said that at least once during Vegas). I’m not buying on Felicio, yet. He’s nowhere near Lopez and I’m not sure he ever gets there, particularly if he has a limited role. However, now that I’ve said that, he’s probably going to have a great year. The rest of the roster was a big whatever, Dinwiddie got his training camp invite (good) and Grant was a volume scorer in spurts that didn’t look good (bad).

    SC: Winning a summer league title is not taken as a blow off in the NBA. In fact, there’s a lot on the line for these organizations, players and coaches looking to win a title.

    With that said, the Bulls summer league roster showed a lot of tenacity to win. With steady offensive production from Portis (17.3 ppg), Jerian Grant (12.7 ppg), Denzel Valentine (11.6 ppg) and Christiano Felicio (11.4 ppg), the Bulls showed great chemistry and patience through out.  Could we have a new “Bench Mob” on our hands with these young Bulls? Only time will tell how these young men will gel with Butler, Wade and Rondo.

    One other main takeaway from summer league for me was how well Cristiano Felicio played.  The big man from Brazil show cased his adequate passing and defensive skills. According to reports, Felicio wanted to spend the summer focusing on the Bulls rather than an opportunity to play for Brazil’s Olympic team and he ended up with on the team anyway. Good for Felicio, who continues to fight and prove his worth on a daily basis.

    Next: Can this 'Three Alphas' thing work?

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