With just a few days before the tip off of the Chicago Bulls preseason slate, which players should be expected to get a bigger role in the 20-21 campaign?
With Training Camp well underway for the Chicago Bulls, the focus has shifted to the start of the preseason and 2020-21 regular season slate. The Bulls and newly hired head coach Billy Donovan open up their four-game preseason slate on Dec. 11 at home at the United Center against superstar guard James Harden and the Houston Rockets.
And the Bulls will get two preseason games at home against the Rockets before hitting the road to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder (Donovan’s former team) in the last two on Dec. 17 and 19. Then the regular season slate tips off on Dec. 23 at home at the United Center against star point guard Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks.
Moreover, the Bulls are coming off a rather disappointing 2019-20 shortened regular season slate, that saw them finish up with a record of 22-43 under the direction of former head coach Jim Boylen, good for 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. That led to rampant changes from the front office, all the way down to the coaching staff.
The Bulls wound up replacing former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson with Arturas Karnisovas, who takes over as the lead voice in the front office. And Karnisovas hired Marc Eversley to take the role of general manager from Gar Forman.
With all of this renewed excitement in the Bulls rebuild in store for the 2020-21 season, which players can fans expect to rise to the occasion? Here’s a look into three Bulls players that at least deserve a bigger role, and might be able to come to the forefront, during the 2020-21 campaign.
3) Chicago Bulls who deserve bigger roles
As his rookie season moved along, it just made so much sense to give the former Arkansas Razorbacks standout center Daniel Gafford more playing time in the frontcourt rotation. This 6-foot-10 and 235 pound El Dorado, AR, native and physically gifted big man was one of the more efficient young frontcourt rotation players in recent memory for the Bulls.
The Bulls really found a hidden gem with their 38th overall pick in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft, getting a steal in Gafford. He might wind up being one of the two or three biggest second round steals of the 2019 draft.
Gafford played in just shy of four dozen games as a rookie during the shortened 2019-20 regular season with the Bulls (seven of which he started in). And he averaged 5.1 points per game, 2.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks. Gafford shot a very efficient 70.1 percent from the field (granted nearly all of his field goal attempts came from within six feet from the rim) and 53.3 percent from the free-throw line.
That all amounted to a stout 124 offensive rating/109 defensive rating, -1.3 box plus/minus rating, 0.1 value over replacement player rating, .146 win shares per 48 minutes, 1.9 total win shares, 68.6 true shooting percentage, and 16.2 player efficiency rating.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Gafford should get more playing time than the likes of center Luke Kornet, big man Cristiano Felicio, and/or power forward/center Noah Vonleh next season. He only played in 14.2 minutes per game as a rookie, and barring injury, that should really rise during the 2020-21 campaign.
2) Chicago Bulls who deserve bigger roles
Just ahead of his 23th birthday, the former Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors rookie guard Zach Norvell will get the chance to make the 15-man roster of the team from his hometown. The Chicago native and former Washington Huskies product Norvell is getting the test that he likely wanted last season in Bulls Training Camp; which is the chance to become a regular rotation player.
It won’t be easy, though, for Norvell to work his way into the backcourt rotation for the Bulls. They already signed the likes of the former Brooklyn Nets veteran 34-year-old shooting guard Garrett Temple out of free agency this offseason. And he’s still be competing with the likes of combo guard Tomas Satoransky, point guard Ryan Arcidiacono, shooting guard Denzel Valentine, point guard Devon Dotson, etc. for a role in this backcourt.
Norvell played in just five games during his rookie campaign last season with the Lakers and Warriors (none of which he started in). And he averaged 2.0 points per game, 1.2 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.4 steals, and no blocks. Norvell shot 25.0 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from beyond the arc, and 100.0 percent from the free-throw line.
Given the gifted physical tools and floor spacing ability that Norvell showed during his time with the Huskies in college, he is definitely worth a shot from Karnisovas and the Bulls. If he shows out in Training Camp, then he’s worth giving more of a shot heading into the regular season with the Bulls than he got with the Lakers and Warriors last season as a rookie.
1) Chicago Bulls that deserve bigger roles
Most of the attention in the Bulls camp throughout the preseason, and heading into the regular season, will fall onto the second-year former North Carolina Tar Heels 6-foot-5 and 200 pound point guard Coby White. The former seventh overall pick of the Bulls in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft didn’t have the most efficient rookie campaign as a whole, but he surely rounded it out on a high note.
White was the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month for February, and was on fire in the brief time to round out the regular season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic post-All-Star break.
As a whole, White played in all 65 games during the shortened 2019-20 regular season with the Bulls (just one of which he started in). White actually started in the final game of the Bulls regular season, in that de facto home finale win over the Cavaliers. And last season he averaged 13.2 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.1 blocks.
White shot 39.4 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 79.1 percent from the free-throw line. Given the way that White finished out his rookie season, it should be a no brainer that Karnisovas and Donovan plan to give him more playing time at the outset of the 2020-21 campaign.
Depending on where Donovan plans to play White in the rotation next season, he should at least get more than one start in the process. White might still be the planned starting point guard for the Bulls, or they might want to move him into more of a combo guard role that shifts between the one and the two like Satoransky.