Payne’s spot unclear
Cameron Payne has played in 16 of 18 total games this season and has started 12. To the surprise of many, he started out the month of October with some fairly solid games.
Out of the eight games Chicago played in October, Payne managed to record 15 or more points on over 50 percent shooting in exactly half.
In a game against the Hornets in which he scored 21 points, he connected on a whopping 7-of-11 3-point attempts and still managed to grab five rebounds and dish out four assists in 31 minutes of play.
It seemed that Payne’s play was going to be fairly consistent, considering he was able to have an impactful performance in half of their first eight games, but, as expected, his production slowed tremendously.
Since the start of November, Payne has not been able to record over eight points or shoot over 40 percent from the field-except for a 1-of-2 shooting night against the Boston Celtics.
Still receiving starter’s minutes and now not performing in the only area he was expected to in the first place, Payne has now taken a backseat to Arcidiacono and Harrison.
His defensive impact has always been underwhelming, so the Bulls were relying on his potential to make plays and score the basketball to keep him in games.
He was doing those two things fairly well to a certain degree at the beginning of the season save a few face-palm moments here and there.
Now that he was given a chance to prove his worth and ultimately couldn’t provide consistency, it’s going to be hard for him to take priority over the other two spots off the bench when Dunn makes his eventual return.