Chicago Bulls: Re-evaluating 5 players likely to be traded first in offseason
3. Chandler Hutchison, Small Forward
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-induced hiatus, the Bulls were expecting former Boise State Broncos small forward and the 6-foot-7 and 200 pound former first round draft pick Chandler Hutchison to miss the rest of the season due to an upper-body injury. Hutch had shoulder injury a couple months back, and it was expected to cause him to miss significant basketball activities for at least 12-16 weeks back in early March.
Like OPJ, Hutch was hoped to provide some quality depth at the wing position this season. But neither OPJ nor Hutch would be able to stay healthy enough this season to help the Bulls rotation out over any significant stretch of time. OPJ only played in 14 games prior to the hiatus, and Hutch 28 games.
In those 28 games played, Hutch averaged 7.8 points per game, 3.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists, and 1.0 steals, while shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from beyond the arc. There were some notable areas of Hutch’s game that he was starting to improve before his latest big time injury problem.
Hutch doubled his number of win shares per 48 minutes from his rookie campaign, improved his defensive rating (114 to 108), and saw his true shooting percentage jump from 50.7 to 52.1. His three-point shooting and overall shot selection were getting better too. Like many of the other young Bulls players, Hutch might not hold much value to the new front office, but they can still catch the attention of other suitors around the NBA.