3. Goran Dragic
Let’s be honest, the Bulls didn’t go out and sign Goran Dragic so he could be a showstopper in the preseason. They’re only asking two simple things of the Slovenian guard:
- Help stop the bleeding in the backcourt until Lonzo Ball can return
- Give it your all when your number’s called in the postseason
As long as Goran plays adequately in the first half of the regular season and in the playoffs, the Bulls will have gotten exactly what they wanted out of the 36-year-old veteran. It’s for this reason that I don’t expect Dragic to expend what limited mileage he has left on meaningless preseason scrimmages.
Still, it was hard to ignore the fact that Dragic clearly looked like the worst guard on Chicago’s main roster in preseason play. Averaging just 7.7 points with an unimpressive ratio of 2.3 assists to 1.3 turnovers per game, the three games he played in weren’t exactly an inspiring performance from Dragic.
Small sample sizes rarely mean much, especially in the preseason, but Dragic’s massive dip in 3-point shooting last season may not have been a fluke after all, as he hit just 1-of-6 attempts from beyond the arc. Fortunately, he did compensate for this by converting an extremely efficient 10-for-15 on 2-point field goals. This is ideally a sign Dragic can adapt to the transition-dependent and “random” offense Billy Donovan is looking to employ this year.
Once regular season play begins, we’ll hopefully see a more polished game from Dragic with the mistakes fewer and further in between — and please, no more open airballs, alright?