Chicago Bulls at Denver Nuggets Takeaways: Jimmy Needs Backup
By Ben Rains
Bulls Bad Bench
Early in the season Butler seemed to let the games come to him. But as his teammates have began to struggle around him, he is forced to do more and more. To his credit he has done just that with amazing efficiency, but he needs help.
The Bulls have been outscored by 21 pts with Butler off the floor so far. He is literally everything for this team.
— Micah Adams (@MAdamsStatGuy) November 23, 2016
If the Bulls are going to make this whole winning thing a habit, the bench and the rest of the starting unit really need to step up. The Bulls bench was outscored 61-13 by the Nuggets reserves. Bobby Portis failed to score during his eight minutes, and grabbed only one rebound. Denzel Valentine also failed to score in over his 14-minute stretch. And Isaiah Canaan scored just two points in 18 minutes.
With the bench playing so poorly, especially Portis, it only makes sense that the Brazilian wonder Cristiano Felicio see more playing time. But it seems like Hoiberg has him crazy glued to the bench.
One positive from this stretch of pretty rough bench play is that is makes Doug McDermott seem even more valuable. Without McDermott the second unit lacks floor spacing. And recently, really any scoring at all.
If the bench guys keep playing so poorly, Hoiberg will need to spice some things up just to see what works.
The Bulls don’t play again until Friday in Philadelphia. So enjoy the holiday Bulls fans, because even if you don’t need a break, this team does.