7. Doug McDermott
- Age: 24 (Jan. 3)
- Contract: one year, $2.5 million; team option 2017-18
After two years of experience, the same concerns that followed Doug McDermott coming into the draft are still there. He can’t play defense, but man, can that guy shoot.
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Last year was certainly a step in the right direction offensively. But when McDermott is the liability he is on defense, he has to be putting up over 20 points per 36 minutes. Dougie McBuckets’s ability to get buckets doesn’t do him much good when the guy he is guarding is getting even more buckets.
It will be interesting to see if Fred Hoiberg increases McDermott’s minutes at power forward this season. According to Nylon Calculus, the Bulls were outscoring their opponents by over 6 points per 48 minutes with McDermott at power forward. That’s a big difference from when he was playing small forward. During those minutes, the Bulls got outscored 4 points per 48 minutes.
While it is nice too see McDermott have success while playing power forward, it was a small sample size. Only 7.4 percent of his minutes were played as a power forward. Of course, McDermott can’t last long stretches in the front court, but it would be interesting to see some expanded minutes for him at the four given his success last year.
It’s too soon to label McDermott as solely a three-point specialist given his ability to score in a variety of ways. Nonetheless, if he doesn’t get his act together on defense, a three-point specialist is what he is going to be.
Next: No. 6