A Tale of Two Bigs: Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio

The Chicago Bulls got out to a huge lead in Portland on Tuesday night. Like, really big. In fact, the lead was so big – 21 points – that Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg could go to his bench early. Bobby Portis entered the game. Meanwhile, Cristiano Felicio found himself on the bench for almost the entire game.

We’re talking about two young frontcourt monsters with the talent and size to play a significant role for Chicago. Portis and Felicio have significant cult followings among Bulls fans and NBA-types in general. Their fan bases aren’t mutually exclusive, but it often comes down to one or the other when a few minutes are suddenly available – there just aren’t enough minutes to go around. These two have a long way to go before they achieve their full potential and that creates a difficult situation for both.

Now, I can’t tell you if there is a right choice between the two players. I like Felicio’s game, but I’m probably more in on Portis. I like Felicio’s expressions. It’s somewhere between bashful and just got caught snooping around the house, looking for his Christmas presents. Portis, on the other hand, always looks like he is just one more Linkin Park lyric from ending you or getting an eye brow piercing. Whichever he chooses, it’s correct. He’s Bobby and he’s about to break.

Really, it feels like Portis is preferred for one obvious reason: Shooting. Both players are incredibly raw and need more time to develop. This goes right back to why everyone from myself to my co-expert, Michael Whitlow, to Stephen Noh of The Athletic Chicago, all get really excited whenever the Bulls go up or down by about 20 points. When the game is far from a contest, it’s a great opportunity to see Chicago’s bench, players like Felicio and Portis, get more time, more experience, more polish.

Back to that shooting thing I mentioned briefly about 85 words ago.

The mid-range is terrifying. Portis is the Anti-Aldridge or something. This shot chart gives Carlos Boozer nightmares, bless his heart and his catapult shooting form. There isn’t a lot of volume here, just 37 shots over the course of 10 games, but he’s 1-for-11 from anywhere outside the immediate rim area or inside the 3-point line. And that’s why I think Hoiberg is willing to run him out more often than Felicio – the outside shooting combined with ability at the rim. He’s 2-for-2 on 3s, and 17-for-24 at the rim.

Felicio doesn’t even have the meager volume that Portis has to work with. He’s only played in eight games, two less than Portis, and has attempted just 21 shots. Still, we can derive some basic information. Felicio, to no one’s surprise is not an outside shooter. He doesn’t have a single attempt from outside the arc, more willing to go at the rim where he shoots a decent 53.3 percent and he’s already made more mid-range shots than Portis.

Portis is the more appealing offensive player. This is not a revelation, but now I’ve used colorful pictures that display scientific data that confirms that assumption. There’s more to it.

You have to account for a few things, the deeper you dive into statistics. When you cross into the wide swath of grey that occupies the massive space between black and white, you find the frontier of people who have not mastered, but mostly understand analytics. This is a place where I reside.

I figured it might be fair to look at their splits for on/off numbers. There is going to be a lot of off, probably not much on. Do you have a guess at the difference in the two players when they are on the court? Yes, the defensive rating is much worse when Portis is on the floor compared to the time that Felicio is on the court. In 105 minutes, Chicago has a defensive rating of 107 when Portis is on the court. When Felicio is on the court, 92 minutes, the Bulls have a much better defensive rating, 98.6. The Chicago offense is equally better when either of them sit, an incredible 107.9, but the defense gets significantly better when Portis sits and is worse when Felicio is off the court. Here’s what I’m trying to build: Portis has decent individual numbers, but the offense isn’t significantly better with him when compared to the time that Felicio spends on the floor and the defense plays worse without Cristiano, while the Bulls offensive and defensive ratings improve without Bobby.

If I lost you, I understand. There’s another caveat to this whole situation. The ratings are counted separately, but both players have shared the floor at some point so there is some crossover. Case in point – the one five-man lineup that has played the most which features either player, features both. A lineup of Portis, Felicio, Denzel Valentine, Paul Zipser, and Jerian Grant has played two games for a total of 14 minutes.

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There’s also the question of potential. And this is probably a better discussion piece than trying to dive into a handful of minutes between two exciting big men. Portis was a surprise when he was available at the Chicago slot in the draft. He was an easy decision as a “best available” option. Felicio is no slouch, but he also comes with a fair amount of skepticism, just like every foreign player, particularly those from South America that aren’t from Argentina, part of the Golden Generation, and don’t play for the San Antonio Spurs. Portis was exceptionally raw coming out of Arkansas and still is to a large extent. Felicio has come a long way to dispel the fears of foreign players who are something of an unknown quantity when they get here.

We’ve seen that Portis has more to offer on the offensive end of the floor and while he has a long way to go before he’s truly NBA-ready, he came up in the American system. While he’s been getting bullied on the defensive end of the floor, Felicio is bringing high energy and helping to improve the defense while not hurting the offensive production when compared with Portis.

The point is that both players are great and offer something different. We want to see both players on the floor more and it might be great to get them on the floor at the same time. Portis finding his way into some playing time to start the second quarter against Portland was exciting. Felicio was put on ice and didn’t break into the game until there was just 4:10 remaining in the game and it was already pretty much decided at that point. We want more Portis, we want more Felicio. Hopefully, we’ll get what we asked for and no one will sacrifice playing time.

Now, all we need is for Chicago to build 20-point leads every night and maybe Hoiberg will trot out these two young studs a little earlier in the future.