Chicago Bulls: Shaquille Harrison deserves a bigger role

A big last two games for the Chicago Bulls 6-foot-4 combo guard Shaquille Harrison should make head coach Jim Boylen reconsider his role.

A difficult 109-102 loss at the hands of the Central Division foe Indiana Pacers on March 6 moved the Chicago Bulls to a record of 21-42 on the season so far. The Bulls pretty much effectively fell out of the Eastern Conference playoff race for good out of the All-Star Break, and they aren’t getting on the right side of the win column as much as anticipated once they started getting healthier.

The return to the rotation of key players like power forward Lauri Markkanen, center Wendell Carter Jr., and small forward Otto Porter Jr. didn’t help out as much as it should’ve. The Bulls are the healthiest they’ve been since early January, but it’s not doing anything where it counts.

What helped the Bulls out more than anything in the loss to the Pacers, and what made it as close as it was late in the fourth quarter, was the efforts of rookie point guard Coby White and combo guard Shaquille Harrison. Coby and Shaq combined for 51 points on the night, and they were very effective with the ball in their hands for most of the night.

When given the opportunity of late, White was scorching in the scoring department. He’s as hot as any rookie guard out of the All-Star Break, which could help him end out his first season in the NBA on the right foot.

Moreover, Harrison is heating up of late too. Given his bigger role down the stretch this season, he’s taking full advantage and continuing to show that he belongs in the NBA. Harrison is getting more playing time of late due to a quad injury to shooting guard Zach LaVine. In the last two outings for Harrison, he’s combined for 42 points, seven rebounds, six assists, five steals, and three blocks.

Harrison is playing just about as well-rounded of a game as he possibly could of late too. He’s not turning the ball over all that much and he’s shooting from three-point range at an insane clip. Harrison is shooting well over 60 percent from the field in the last two games, and he combined to shoot 8-of-9 from beyond the arc in that same time span.

When given at least 17 minutes on the floor this season (which only happened nine times thus far), Harrison was a net positive on six occasions. All but one of his double-digit game scores (per Basketball Reference), in a sample size of seven games, came when he had at least 17 minutes on the floor too.

Harrison is quite obviously showing that he thrives when given a bigger role. This is just not happening all that much this season. He can be a steadying force, especially on the defensive end of the floor, with 6-foot-4 point guard Kris Dunn out for the remainder of the regular season.

And head coach Jim Boylen shouldn’t have been put in such a limited situation depth-wise to give Harrison and fourth-year shooting guard Denzel Valentine more playing time. Harrison is proving himself at a higher level than he even did last season. He’s got a player efficiency rating north of 18.0 so far this season, and 1.3 win shares. Since he’s missed more than 20 games for the Bulls, that’s a good number of win shares.

Moreover, Harrison has a career-best offensive and defensive rating this season. He also has a career-best box plus/minus rating of 3.1 and .154 win shares per 48 minutes. Even the advanced stats are liking what Harrison brings to the table this season.

There’s little to no reason why the Bulls should not be giving more playing time and investing more in the development of Harrison down the stretch. They should not ruin their positioning in the draft lottery now since they’re out of the playoff picture in the East and allow a solid depth piece like Harrison to develop.

The Bulls are currently in the midst of facing the Brooklyn Nets on March 8, as they look to build some momentum before their schedule really turns into a gauntlet. Harrison will also look to continue to stay hot to cap off the weekend.