Pippen Ain't Easy
Fansided

Chicago Bulls Midseason Grades: Butler shines, Wade and Rondo shrug

By Hunter Kuffel

Dec 13, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler (21) reacts after making a basket against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at the United Center. Minnesota defeats Chicago 99-94. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 13, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler (21) reacts after making a basket against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at the United Center. Minnesota defeats Chicago 99-94. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports
Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports /

Michael Carter-Williams

Stats: 21.8 minutes, 7.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 35.0 FG%, 21.9 3PT%, 80.0 FT%

Grade: F

The move to get Michael Carter-Williams for Tony Snell was seen as a smart one by GarPax, especially since Snell had fallen completely out of the rotation anyway. Carter-Williams was lauded when he came back from missing 27 games due to injury for his defensive effort relative to another Bulls point guard who will remain nameless as of now.

One thing that was especially praised was the pressure that Carter-Williams put on the opposing ball handler, so let’s examine that statistically. Carter-Williams was praised for getting in the grill of the other team’s point guard and affecting the flow of the opposing offense, and NBA.com actually tracks how many deflections every player records, so while it’s not perfect measure of on-ball defensive hustle, it will work for our purposes.

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Carter-Williams is averaging 2.0 deflections per game according to NBA.com, good for 85th most in the NBA. It’s not some sterling number, but Carter-Williams is clearly no slouch on defense. There’s only one problem with this. That other Bulls point guard? He’s averaging 3.0 per game.

Add in that Carter-Williams is currently shooting 21.9 percent from 3-point range, and things don’t get better. There are only four players in the NBA with as many 3-point attempts per game as Carter-Williams that are shooting a worse percentage. There are only nine players with as many games under their belt that have a worse true shooting percentage.

All this is to say that it’s unclear what Carter-Williams does better than any other point guard on the roster. He does clearly try harder on defense than Rondo, but how much of an impact does that really make?

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