2) Chicago Bulls that were worst off with Boylen: Wendell Carter Jr.
Former Duke Blue Devils two-way center Wendell Carter Jr. is a key piece of this young core, and should be one of the more promising parts heading into the fourth year of the rebuild. The 6-foot-9 and 270 pound big man really only was healthy for half of Boylen’s tenure as the Bulls head coach over the last two years.
WCJ played in just over 40 games in his two seasons in the NBA to date. His rookie season saw him miss roughly half of the 2018-19 campaign. But he was working his way back from an ankle injury and was getting back into the swing of things just as the 2019-20 season hit the pause back in mid-March.
Moreover, the problems that WCJ faced while playing under Boylen were partly similar to Gafford’s. He was placed in poor no-help situations down low on defense way too often and sometime asked to do too much in transition on both ends of the floor. The Bulls also didn’t help develop the most of WCJ’s skill set consistently in either of Boylen’s two seasons as head coach.
WCJ played in 43 games during the shortened 2019-20 regular season with the Bulls (starting in all of them). He averaged 11.3 points per game, 9.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks. And WCJ shot 53.4 percent from the field, just over 20 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.7 percent from the free-throw line.
Maybe Donovan will allow WCJ to expand his offensive game and facilitate the offense from different spots on the floor outside of the paint heading into the 2020-21 season.