Three takeaways from the Chicago Bulls win over the Bucks
By Luke Askew
The Chicago Bulls extended their unexpected winning streak to five games after beating the Bucks 115-109 in Milwaukee. Here are the three takeaways from that win.
It’s official: Kris Dunn can play
Maybe some of you already knew Kris Dunn could play. I had hopes, but in Milwaukee on Friday night, he proved it.
Dunn only played 25 minutes, but in that 25 minutes, he was extremely effective. He finished the game with 17 points, 7 assists and 2 steals while shooting an efficient 7-12 from the field.
Sure, the outside shot needs some work, but it has at least looked promising.
The Bulls took a gamble when acquiring Dunn in the Jimmy Butler trade – he didn’t have a good rookie year. Many Bulls fans were skeptical that he could become the “point guard of the future” which is completely understandable. But his impressive defense and improving offense, have undoubtedly made Bulls fans happy about what’s to come with their point guard.
When Kris Dunn came off injury earlier in the season, there was a bit of a point guard battle between then-starter Jerian Grant and him. That point guard battle is officially over in my opinion and Bulls fans can take a deep breath knowing that Kris Dunn should be around – and improving – for a long time to come.
Bobby Portis is a… Sixth Man of the Year contender?
In the win over Milwaukee, Bobby Portis logged a team high in points and tied the team high in field goal attempts.
Portis finished the game with 27 points and 12 rebounds in 29 minutes of play and shot an efficient 9-16 from the field.
During the Bulls win streak, Bobby Portis is averaging 15.6 points per game and shooting an extremely efficient 61.5 percent from the field.
Surely, the Bulls will come back to reality and start losing games soon (I think?) and Portis’ play might take a drop at some point – but for the time being, he’s playing really good basketball.
It’s a little unrealistic to think that the Sixth Man of the Year award would go to a player on a team that isn’t even close to being a competitor, but if the Bulls can somehow keep winning games and Portis keeps up this level of play, it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities that he could get some votes for the award.
The biggest reason to assume that his level of play won’t continue at this level is that when star rookie, Lauri Markkanen returns from injury, Portis is sure to take a dive in production as the Bulls will have three power forwards competing for minutes – and hopefully Markkanen gets the most of those minutes.
Nikola Mirotic is bad for the tank
When did this seemingly out-of-nowhere win streak start? When Nikola Mirotic returned to the court.
Does that mean Mirotic is good for the Bulls? Well, it depends who you ask.
It’s difficult to cheer for the Bulls to lose – most fans don’t want that. But realistically, the Bulls aren’t winning many games this year, even though this five game win streak has made some people think otherwise.
So what’s the best-case scenario for Mirotic playing well? Maybe it’s having the fifth worst record in the league instead of the worst? Is that really what the Bulls want?
Lauri Markkanen has already proved he is capable of being a building block of this franchise going forward and the Bulls shouldn’t waste that opportunity. I like Mirotic, don’t get me wrong, but this just isn’t the right situation for him.
He’s a good player who can make an impact on a better team, so let’s let him spread his wings and fly elsewhere. The Bulls should be trying to lose as many games as possible and lock up a top three draft pick in the star-studded 2018 NBA Draft.
Nikola Mirotic is going to make that difficult.