Chicago Bulls: 4 best surprises from the first 4 games of the season

1) Best Chicago Bulls surprises through first 4 games

Shooting efficiency from downtown and the charity stripe

Definitely the biggest turnaround the Bulls made as a team on the stat sheet through four games played this regular season (and there were even signs of improvement in this regard from the preseason) is shooting efficiency and overall shot selection. The Bulls are doing really well in terms of hitting on their looks from downtown and from the charity stripe.

There is still a main area of concern for the Bulls in terms of their overall field goal percentage. They rank 26th in the NBA so far this season in terms of field goal shooting percentage, at 43.3. But they are a bit better in team effective field goal percentage (51.7, good for 23rd in the NBA). And they’re doing much better in both getting to the free-throw line, and hitting their looks from that spot.

The Bulls now rank second in the NBA in free-throw attempt rate, at 33.0 percent. And they rank seventh in the NBA in free-throw shooting percentage (80.2), and second in the NBA in free throws made on the season (93).

Another big area of improvement is with their three-point shooting. They rank 11th in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage (37.1). Their three-point field goal percentage is roughly three points higher than it was under the direction of former head coach Jim Boylen last season. It’s also nice to see that they rank 11th in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage while ranking in the top 10 in three-point attempt rate.

It would be great to see the Bulls shooting percentages, especially general field goal percentage, continue to tick up in the coming weeks. They didn’t do too well in this regard in the last few seasons both under Boylen’s direction and former head coach Fred Hoiberg.