Bobby Portis, starting power forward
With Taj Gibson throwing missiles in Oklahoma City now, the starting power forward spot belongs to Bobby Portis and it doesn’t appear he wants to give that role up anytime soon.
The second-year man out of Arkansas chipped in 17 points and a team-high 13 rebounds in the win over the Warriors on Thursday night.
Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg had some nice things to say about Portis’ performance against the best team in the league:
Hoiberg on Portis: "He was out fighting their guys on the glass. He was fighting our guys on the glass. He's playing winning basketball."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) March 3, 2017
Portis isn’t shy. He got up 12 more shots in 31 minutes of action, making six of them. An added bonus was out of those 12 shots, four came from long range and he made two of them.
He’s still a major work-in-progress defensively, getting caught out of position numerous times against the Dubs while he was on the floor.
But, the offensive game is coming on nicely for Portis. He doesn’t really have to look over his shoulder as the starting four-man, being that Gibson is gone and Nikola Mirotic is still searching for that consistency that’s plagued him during his almost three seasons in Chicago.