There’s no need to sugarcoat anything. The Chicago Bulls are playing bad ball right now. Despite swinging a deal for All-Star Nikola Vucevic, they find themselves in the midst of a three-game losing streak following their 101-90 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies (27-25).
The loss brings their record to 3-7 with Vucevic and much of the talk has been about just how disjointed they’ve looked while getting acclimated with such little playing time.
But that can’t be an excuse. Not for what ails this team.
Rough stretch for Bulls. Lost shooter and Grayson buried a 3. Unforced TO by LaVine, who had to foul Morant on fast break for FTs.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) April 13, 2021
The stretch late in the fourth quarter that the tweet is referring to sealed the deal. But it didn’t just start this game.
More problems ailing the Chicago Bulls
Chicago is 23rd in fourth-quarter scoring on the season. But over their last 10 games, they rank 28th. In that same stretch, they’ve gone from shooting 32.5 percent (27th) to 26.1 percent (29th) from beyond the arc.
Against the Grizzlies the Bulls went 5-31 from outside.
The Bulls were 11th from deep before acquiring Vucevic; who himself is shooting 42.9 percent from three since arriving.
Vuc is also shooting 50.3 percent from the floor and over 86 percent at the free-throw line while giving 9.7 boards, 1.1 steals, and a block too. Even with all of that he’s not immune to the fourth-quarter woes.
He’s still shooting well from the floor and from three, but he’s averaged just over three shot attempts in the fourth quarter since joining the Bulls. What’s worse is he averaged less than one free throw attempt per in the final frame.
The lack of free-throw attempts has been an issue all season as the Bulls rank 30th in trips to the charity stripe. They had more attempts than Memphis but were outshot 48 attempts to 27 at the free-throw line the previous two games combined
Chicago is 29th in turnovers this season but they’re actually 11th in fourth-quarter turnovers in the Vucevic era.
Their defense isn’t getting any better this season so it’s a shot-taking and making issue which brings us back to the point guard position.
We’ve seen first-hand how quality guard play allows teams to steady themselves during rough stretches. For all of their scoring prowess, Zach LaVine and Coby White aren’t good decision-makers in the clutch.
Tomas Satoransky is far too much the opposite, often passing on open shots to wait for teammates to come open. This leads to stagnant offense and one-and-done trips.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Vucevic averaged 6.0 points on 4.7 seven attempts per while in the fourth quarter with Orlando. It’s 3.5 points on 3.1 shots with the Bulls.
Perhaps the hub needs to be the guy with multiple All-Star selections.
The Bulls can try to control the pace without a floor general by working inside-out later in games.
On the season, the Bulls rank 10th in scoring in fourth-quarter clutch situations (within five points or less in the last five minutes). But they were seventh before trading for Vuc and are 27th since.
This is a power struggle.
Nothing malicious. Just a roster in transition that would definitely benefit from more practice time. But that’s not coming.
They should simplify things to get everyone into a rhythm and maintain that rhythm late into games. Until then, we’re likely to see more of the same as we have of late.
A brief homestand, including a shot at revenge against Memphis, should allow the Bulls to shake off a 2-3 road trip that actually helped bring them to 3-7 in their last 10 away from the United Center.
With much of the supporting cast struggling to get anything going the Bulls need to get back to basics.
Feed the big man (they can, in fact, make a simple entry pass) and play off of him.
That’s the only way to right this current rudderless ship.