For far too long, the Chicago Bulls have been known as a franchise with no advanced analytic department, an inadequate medical team, and perhaps worst of all, little to no developmental personnel. When the Bulls have refused to allocate resources toward improving their young talent, it should come as no surprise when so many former players have found much more success following their departure from the Windy City.
For all his faults, Bulls president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has done everything in his power to fix that. But while the Bulls now staff a much more competent training staff and are doing their best to listen to the numbers and adapt to the modern NBA, this team has still repeatedly failed to develop its own talent internally. Well, they may have just found the guy to fix one of this team’s biggest issues.
Peter Patton made a name for himself playing college ball at Loyola Academy and DePaul University in Chicago, but his work as a shooting coach in the NBA is where he’s truly made a difference. Credited as playing a big role in the development of rising star Jalen Brunson, Patton will be a welcome addition for a Bulls team in desperate need of a shooting coach whose background speaks for itself.
Bulls beat reporter for NBC Sports Chicago K.C. Johnson was the first to break the news on Chicago bringing Patton aboard.
Peter Patton is coming home. The Bulls plan to hire the former Loyola Academy/DePaul star in player development, per sources. Patton has worked as shooting coach for the Timberwolves and Mavericks, where he worked closely with another local product, Jalen Brunson, among others
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) June 10, 2023
By hiring Peter Patton, the Bulls have made it clear they intend to develop the young core and address shooting concerns.
For a Bulls team that has hit the least three-point shots of any team in the league over the last 2 years, this should come as a massive sigh of relief. Patton’s roots trace back to the umbrella of coaches tutored by the legendary Chip Engelland. While that connection isn’t enough to guarantee this will be a slam dunk signing, it is very reassuring to see the front office in tune with what the current roster lacks.
Ideally, this mentality will carry over to the draft and free agency, where Arturas Karnisovas will be forced to cobble together an improved version of last year’s roster with very few assets at his disposal.
Since being drafted by the Bulls, Patrick Williams has been lights out from deep, knocking down 41.4% of his attempts despite jacking up only 2.6 per game. Coby White, on the other hand, has been very willing to let it fly, averaging 5.7 long-range shot attempts per game, but failing to display enough consistency to be considered a true sharpshooter. Ayo Dosunmu and Dalen Terry are another two players who stand to benefit a great deal here, as their fundamental skills have been very impressive with the Bulls, but a lack of shooting ability has held each of them back from becoming true starting-caliber players.
With Patton around, it’s possible we see these three players (among many others) flesh their games out and bounce back much better next year. Although this team undoubtedly revolves around the Big 3 of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic, it’s actually up to the young core to decide how fans will remember this iteration of the Chicago Bulls for years to come.