Chicago Bulls: Can Ethan Thompson find traction in camp?

Now that the roster is starting to round out for the Chicago Bulls heading into Training Camp and the preseason, we can look at how the rotation could form together under head coach Billy Donovan. The Bulls added two players over the long holiday weekend that are definitely contenders to make the final 15-man roster. And then, two more were added on non-guaranteed deals to round out the holiday weekend.

The two contenders to make the 15-man roster are the former Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors small forward Stanley Johnson and the former Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets power forward Alize Johnson. Those were two solid additions in terms of the defensive value that they bring to the table.

And Alize will help the Bulls fill a need at the power forward position that was a hole on the bench left by the departures of Lauri Markkanen and Thaddeus Young.

Moreover, the two non-guaranteed signings for the Bulls included the former Oregon State Beavers combo guard Ethan Thompson and former Iowa State Cyclones shooting guard Matt Thomas. This will be Thompson’s rookie season in the NBA after going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft class.

But Thomas has experience playing for the Utah Jazz and the Raptors over the last two seasons.

Thompson did play for the Bulls Las Vegas NBA Summer League team last month, which finished up with a record of 2-3. There wasn’t much that Thompson did that stood out, but there is clearly something that the front office and/or coaching staff sees in him.

So what is the background that Thompson brings to the table for the Bulls heading into Training Camp?

Thompson is a 6-foot-5 and 195-pound combo guard that hails out of Los Angeles, CA, and attended Bishop Montgomery High School. He was a highly-touted four-star recruit (and five-star at one time, he just finished as a four-star) coming out of high school before signing with Oregon State.

Oregon State boasted Thompson as a starting guard in every single one of the 127 career games he played in. He averaged 13.5 points per game in his four years at Oregon State, 4.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.4 blocks. And Thompson shot 40.2 percent from the field, 32.9 percent from beyond the arc, and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line.

Thompson was a decent facilitator, registering an assist percentage north of 25 during his final season with the Beavers. And he became an increasingly high-usage scorer during his four seasons in college.

Where Thompson sets himself apart is with his ability to create off-the-dribble. Less than 25 percent of his field goal makes among two-point jumpers were assisted last season. And only around 31 percent of his field goal makes at the rim last season were assisted.

There was a bit of an overreliance on him to create his own looks when he wasn’t the most efficient shooter for Oregon State. But there just weren’t many other options that the Beavers had for the past few seasons to create on offense.

The fact of the matter was for Thompson in college that, when he was generating points efficiently, Oregon State won more often than not. He was adept to getting to the free-throw line often in college.

Chicago Bulls have some competition looming in Training Camp in the backcourt with Ethan Thompson coming in

Two stats standout in that regard for Thompson from his time at Oregon State. In the 10 games in his college career where Thompson got to the free-throw line at least 10 times (all else the same), Oregon State finished up with a record of 6-4.

But when Thompson shot at least 80 percent from the free-throw line, regardless of number of attempts, Oregon State finished up with a solid record of 41-17 in 58 games. That is part of a bigger point that Thompson played such a large role in all aspects of the offense that Oregon State won when he was producing points in multiple facets of the game in efficient fashion.

For example, in the eight games last season with Oregon State where he posted a floor impact counter rating (per RealGM, which measures overall efficiency in game-by-game box score) of at least 12, the team finished up with a record of 7-1. That FIC rating on RealGM was good to be around the top eight percent of college hoops players last season.

The main question with Thompson will be how he can translate this do-it-all skill set that he developed at Oregon State to the Bulls. It’s hard to see him fitting in as a knockdown shooter or a lockdown defender. But the Bulls don’t necessary need those things at this point with the rest of the personnel that the front office brought into the roster this summer.

Where Thompson might be able to make some headway is as a more efficient two-way volume-scoring guard for the Bulls. If he can put up decent efficiency as a net positive on defense and a volume scorer on offense, then Thompson might be able to find a home here.

All the Bulls have among volume-scoring guards at the moment is third-year point guard Coby White. But White is not a good defender and could be traded before too long if the fate of the other pieces of the previous Bulls young core is any indication.

It will be interesting to see how the Bulls utilize Thompson in the preseason, or even if he gets significant minutes at all. He was a decent scorer for the Bulls in Summer League, at a clip of nearly nine points per game, and he was really efficient at the charity stripe (just shy of 90 percent shooting).

Training Camp is set to open up for the Bulls on Sep. 28, in a little less than three weeks from now. And then, the preseason slate is set to tip-off on Oct. 5 at home at the United Center against Markkanen and the Cleveland Cavaliers.