In this week’s edition of Chicago Bulls Blurbs here at Pippen Ain’t Easy, we’ll take a look at a couple of the more intriguing pieces for the Bulls heading into next season: Zach LaVine and David Nwaba.
As you can probably tell these days, the Chicago Bulls and the rest of the NBA is the long lull period after the madness of free agency, but before training camps start for teams. It’s long. It’s boring. And unfortunately, there’s not too much to discuss. Or is there?
The Bulls are intriguing heading into the 2017-18 season for a couple of reasons: 1) How bad are they really going to be? (Very bad.) 2) Can any of their young guys make some strides throughout the rebuild that was initiated with the trade that sent Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves?
In this week’s edition of Chicago Bulls Blurbs, we’ll take a look at a couple different “younger and more athletic” options for the Bulls this season: Zach LaVine and the recently signed David Nwaba from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Eye test vs. numbers: How good is Zach LaVine? – (@StephNoh)
Zach LaVine is clearly the best piece that the Bulls received in the Jimmy Butler trade right now, but how good is he? He’s currently rehabbing a torn ACL and may not be ready for the start of the season, but there’s definitely some potential with his offensive game. But, his defense ranks among some of the worst guards and wings statistically in the entire NBA. The Athletic Chicago’s Stephen Noh takes a good dive into what scouts and executives said about LaVine during the Las Vegas Summer League.
What the Bulls may have claimed with David Nwaba – (@VJVemu)
Although he didn’t play much with the Lakers last season, David Nwaba became a cult hero among Laker fans during the latter part of the 2016-17 season with his leaping ability and defensive presence for a bad Lakers bunch. The Bulls did the right thing by bringing in a player like Nwaba, who isn’t an offensive weapon by any means, but he’s an athlete that can make an impact on the game that the box score won’t always show. It’s a good signing and SB Nation‘s Blog a Bull contributor Vijay Vemu tells you what the Bulls may have with Nwaba on board.
NBA economic reality could speed up Bulls rebuild – (@MarkSchanowski)
The summer before the 2018-19 NBA season is going to be one of the more chaotic summers we’ve seen in recent times. Stars such as LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins will all be unrestricted free agents next summer and with the Bulls’ lack of spending due to a rebuilding process, they’ll be one of the teams that can offer some good sums of money to high-profile players. Can the Bulls actually make a splash? Comcast SportsNet Chicago‘s Mark Schanowski takes a look.
Check out the awesome series our friends at Bulls Confidential are doing over the summer about the 25 most beloved and best Bulls players of all time
Next: Nikola Mirotic will not play for Spain in EuroBasket 2017
From one of our own: The Chicago Bulls and tanking: What to expect when you’re expecting
Our own Jonathan King touched on what the process could be like for the Bulls with their commitment to basically being bad for the next couple of seasons. “Tanking” is a weird process that doesn’t always bring the most positive results, but it’s a track that can get a franchise back on track. (Example: the Philadelphia 76ers if their potential future stars can stay healthy.) Jonathan dove into how it could work and couldn’t work for the Bulls in a humorous and enlightening piece.