3 winners and 2 losers from Chicago Bulls 2023 preseason

Loser: Dalen Terry

For a Bulls team built to win now, there wasn’t much pressure on Dalen Terry to come out and contribute right out of the gate as a rookie. Terry was supposed to focus in on developing his three-point shooting to add to his versatile defensive skillset and playmaking ability.

We’re over a year removed from the 2022 NBA Draft now, and those developments have not come. In fact, Dalen may not even be the savvy passer and lengthy defender he was advertised as. on top of all that, the Bulls may not actually even be a team built to win now, after limping to a 40-42 record in Terry’s rookie year.

After averaging a miserable 2.6 points and 1.8 assists per game on a miserable 20.8% shooting in the preseason, the pressure is now officially on for Dalen to show us something. He was supposed to take charge in the Summer League and was instead overshadowed by G League talent. As it currently stands, Terry doesn’t even look like an improvement over the recently drafted second-round pick Julian Phillips. Unless he flips the switch soon, things don’t look great for Dalen in Chicago’s rotation this season.

Alex Caruso is settling into a comfortable role, while Dalen Terry may not have one at all.

Winner: Alex Caruso

While we’re on the subject of players with uncertain roles heading into the 2023-24 season, I don’t think Alex Caruso will have any complaints about where he slots in now. All too often over the last two seasons, Caruso was forced to bump into the starting lineup, sometimes to play point guard, sometimes to play power forward. Needless to say, this isn’t the optimal way to utilize Caruso’s talents.

Now that Coby seems to have locked up a starting role, Caruso can expend his full effort into being a frenetic ball of energy on defense for approximately 25 minutes a night, rather than conserving himself to stretch his play time to 30 minutes or more. Already an All-Defensive First Team talent, Caruso’s 55.6% three-point shooting in Billy Donovan’s new system gives me hope he can be one of the league’s premiere two-way talents this season.