Chicago Bulls: Devon Dotson should get rotation spot over Arcidiacono

One of the quieter decisions that the Chicago Bulls front office has to make this summer involves point guard Ryan Arcidiacono, who has a looming team option heading into what could be the final year of his current contract. The Bulls could opt to bring back Arch for at least the final year of his current deal, which would pay him $3 million for his base salary for next season.

It’s hard to tell which way the front office is leaning as to the decision to exercise Arch’s team option this summer. One varying factor for this decision could be what the front office decides to do with the rookie point guard and former undrafted free agent signing Devon Dotson.

Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley were able to get a good value undrafted free agent signing in the former Kansas Jayhawks star point guard Dotson. The former Jayhawk was signed to one of the Bulls two-way contract slots.

The other two-way contract slot is occupied by the second-year French shooting guard/wing Adam Mokoka.

There’s no guarantee that Karnisovas and the Bulls will go either way with the decision to bring back the trio of Dotson, Mokoka, and Arch. But the hierarchy should start with Dotson, and work from there.

Making the choice will be tough for the Chicago Bulls between Devon Dotson and Ryan Arcidiacono

As it stands now, the Bulls look to solve their point guard problem this summer to find a long-term starter to round out the top unit. But depending on what the Bulls decide to do with combo guard Tomas Satoransky and second-year point guard Coby White over the long-term, the backup spot at the one looks to be sealed up.

But the Bulls are going to need a third point guard in this rotation. If nothing else, there should at least be a capable third unit point guard in a two-way contract slot. If the Bulls can bring back Dotson since he looks to have some promise left to fulfill, then that seems like the best move.

Moreover, since Arch really got the chance to prove what he can do with the Bulls for the past few years, there’s not much that he has left to do with this team. Arch’s contract isn’t all that expensive for the Bulls to maintain, but it would be valuable to upgrade this spot on the 15-man roster.

Although he didn’t get as much playing time with the Bulls as Arch, Dotson was more efficient in the minutes he did get during his rookie campaign. In the 11 games that Dotson did play in (totaling around 50 minutes on the floor), Dotson registered a 2.1 box plus/minus, .177 win shares per 48 minutes, and a 19.3 player efficiency rating.

Meanwhile, in 44 games played (450 total minutes on the floor), Arch posted a -2.5 box plus/minus, .093 win shares per 48 minutes, and a 9.8 player efficiency rating.

It’s not entirely fair to Arch just to compare advanced metrics since he did get put in some brighter spotlights and tougher in-game situations than Dotson. A lot of the playing time for Dotson during the regular season was in garbage time.

But there is still a very stark contrast in some of the all-encompassing advanced metrics that Arch and Dotson registered this season.

That combined with the fact that there is still likely more growth and potential left in Dotson’s game than Arch should be enough to convince Karniosvas and the Bulls to give the former of those two the chance to return heading into next season. Dotson makes sense as a potential third unit point guard for the Bulls, or to get another two-way contract slot this offseason.

The Bulls finished up the 2020-21 regular season with a record of 31-41 under the direction of first-year head coach Billy Donovan. More change looks to be on the horizon for the Bulls this offseason, as Karnisovas and Eversley continue to try to fit this roster to their ideals moving forward.