3 Chicago Bulls players that would thrive in the modern NBA: George Gervin
Although he didn’t really make a name for himself with the Bulls during his long and illustrious NBA career, longtime Spurs shooting guard/small forward George Gervin did spend one season in Chicago. And it was actually the final season with any actual production for Gervin when he played in one season with the Bulls.
At the age of 33, Gervin still put up borderline All-Star type production in the final season of his NBA career. That was also the same season in which he spent his lone year with the Bulls. During the 1985-86 campaign, Gervin averaged around 16 points per game, three rebounds, two assists, one steal, and 0.5 blocks. And he shot 48 percent from the field and 88 percent from the free-throw line.
For much of his career, the 12-time All-Star selection and Hall-of-Famer Gervin was a decent shooter and a very gifted scorer. That type of natural scoring ability was something that made Gervin a real force to be reckoned with.
The real value that Gervin would bring to the table, though, in the modern NBA comes with his three-and-D ability on the wing. At 6-foot-7 and 180-pounds, Gervin was the ideal size with an ideal skill set to fill the role of a critical two-way scoring wing.
Gervin did shoot just over 27 percent from beyond the arc for his career. But a lot of that was due to the fact that the three-point shot just wasn’t valued as high back in the 1970s and 1980s. Gervin did have three seasons, though, where he shot better than 36 percent from downtown.
We have to recognize the insane scoring ability that Gervin had with the Spurs back in the day. There were actually three seasons where he led the NBA in scoring while registering at least one steal and one block per game. That type of number is something that is pretty impressive when it’s done in the modern NBA.