Bulls making substantial progress toward fixing their biggest weakness

Last year, I think everyone can agree that three-point shooting and rebounding were the Chicago Bulls’ biggest weaknesses that opposing teams repeatedly used to their advantage. While signing Andre Drummond immediately addressed the issue on the boards, the Bulls left many skeptical after failing to add any genuine threats from outside in free agency or the draft. Instead, the team has banked on internal improvement from the current roster to account for the lack of shooting,

Up until last night, that looked to be an incredibly poor decision on Chicago’s behalf. After taking the fewest three-pointers per game in the entire league last year, the Bulls are somehow taking even less this time around and are once again the only team to average less than 30 shots from beyond the arc per game this year.

However, there is hope this issue gets resolved, as the coaching staff appears to be acutely aware of its flaws on that end of the court. After allowing the Warriors to convert an absolutely ridiculous 20-of-50 three-point attempts one week ago, Billy Donovan addressed the media regarding this blatant shortcoming in the offensive scheme.

"“We’ve got to take more threes. We’ve got to generate more threes. It’s got to be our team and I think we can do that.”"

It’s going to take a lot more than just a few words to amend this situation, however, as many fans remained skeptical until Donovan could prove he was serious about drawing up more plays that end in three-point possessions.

It’s finally time to start taking the Chicago Bulls seriously as a three-point shooting team.

Although the Mavericks were handicapped without superstar Luka Doncic, the Bulls tuned out the inevitable excuses gave Dallas a long-overdue beating. In fact, this was the first time Chicago has defeated an opponent by a margin of 20 points or more dating all the way back to January 12 against the Detroit Pistons.

Shooting a ridiculous 19-for-34 from three-point range as a team played a huge role in this win, and proved that Donovan may actually be good for his word here. This was the fourth-most threes the Bulls have shot in a game this season; it should come as no surprise they won two of the three games they reached the 35+ attempts mark, including wins over Milwaukee and Miami.

Patrick Williams and Goran Dragic deserve credit for helping revitalize the shooting here in Chicago, two assets the Bulls didn’t have (for most of) last season. The pair is shooting 45.3% and 42.2% from three-point range, good for 10th and 25th in the NBA, respectively. Nikola Vucevic also finally looks like the floor-stretching big that was promised, as he’s knocking them down at a much improved 36.6% clip after posting a lowly 31.4% just last year. Even the role players have gotten involved, with Javonte Green knocking down 37% of his attempts and Derrick Jones Jr. hitting an uncharacteristic 4-for-5 from deep last night.

Perhaps just importantly, Chicago’s three-point defense has improved on par with their offense. Through 22 games, the Bulls were allowing opposing offenses to shoot by far the NBA’s highest percentage from deep. Since that beatdown at the hands of Golden State, however, Chicago seems locked in on correcting the issue. Here’s how the last 3 opposing teams have shot the ball from deep since the Bulls played the Warriors.

• Kings: 13-for-43 (30.2%)
• Wizards: 9-for-31 (29%)
• Mavericks: 11-for-44 (25%)

Whether or not this defensive intensity is sustainable may ultimately make or break the Bulls’ season, but at the very least, it is concrete evidence that the Chicago Bulls are adapting to a modern NBA despite featuring primarily mid-range threats on offense. For all the flak he receives for Chicago’s shortcomings, this commitment to placing an increased focus on the three-point line on both sides of the ball has been commendable work from Billy Donovan.