Best shooters for the Chicago Bulls in 2021-22: Matt Thomas
There’s no doubt that there is a real risk that the Bulls won’t wind up keeping the former Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz sharpshooting two-guard/wing Matt Thomas through the end of Training Camp. But that doesn’t mean that the Bulls don’t have one of the best shooters on the entirety of the camp roster in Thomas.
What Thomas really has to prove to Donovan and the Bulls in camp and the preseason is that he can do more for this team than just filling the role of a reserve floor spacer. Thomas also has to prove that his shooting will show up on a consistent basis this season. While he’s still almost a 42 percent shooter from beyond the arc for his career in the NBA, he didn’t even hit his looks from deep at a clip north of 35 percent last season.
Thomas hit a rough patch last season down the stretch with the Jazz. Even though there wasn’t anything broke with the shot chart for Thomas with the Raptors in the prior season and a half about, the Jazz did start to try to manuver him in different ways. Thomas is a knockdown shooter from the corners, especially from the left side. He’s shot north of 50 percent on left-corner three-pointers in his career.
But when he was with the Jazz down the stretch last season, Thomas started to take a career-high number of looks from above the break. And with that, Thomas was only able to shoot just north of 31 percent from above the break threes last season.
If the Bulls can let Thomas get some looks from where he proved he’s elite as a floor spacer in the past, then this could be a real solid addition to the bench for Donovan. And given that Thomas is a career 41.8 percent shooter from beyond the arc, 81 percent from the charity stripe, and 50.0 percent on corner threes, he has to make this list.