Chicago Bulls: 3 most important role players so far this season

3. Daniel Gafford, Power Forward/Center

Possibly the most efficient player off the bench so far this season for the Chicago Bulls is the rookie former Arkansas Razorbacks big man Daniel Gafford. Racking up 1.3 win shares and a player efficiency rating better than 17.0 as a former second round pick during his rookie year with such a bad team is nothing short of tremendous.

So far this season, Gafford is averaging 4.7 points per game, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.4 assists, while shooting 67.0 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from the charity stripe. He has a stellar offensive rating of 124 and a bit of a deceptive defensive rating of 107. That should be better, but his awareness down low still needs room to grow and bad defenders around him hampers that number.

The number of win shares per 48 minutes, .153, is a great indication of the type of impact Gafford can make when he’s on the floor. His defensive box plus/minus rating of 4.0 is also stellar. That is best on the team, even better than point guard Kris Dunn. He’s also got one of the best block rates in the NBA this season, at nearly 10 percent.

At the moment, Gafford is dealing with that dislocated thumb injury that kept him out or on limited minutes for almost a month now.

The fact that Gafford isn’t getting a bigger role when he’s healthy is something that places blame on Boylen. He came out of Arkansas with a polished skill set. He has room to grow, but mostly comes with a known skill set.