Caleb Wilson killed his Bulls’ Vegas residency, 82 games is different though

Fresh off an electrifying four-game stretch in Las Vegas Summer League, the Chicago Bulls confirmed that rookie forward Caleb Wilson will not play in the Bulls’ fifth and final summer league game scheduled for Friday.

With Las Vegas in Wilson’s rear view mirror, his and Bulls fans' attention should turn to a more grounded set of expectations for Wilson's rookie performance in a full 82-game NBA regular season. 

Wilson’s summer league performance and a realistic outlook on his full rookie season were discussed at length on The Athletic’s Game Theory Podcast hosted by Sam Vecenie.

Vecenie and guest Es Baraheni, host of The Athletic NBA Daily podcast, delved into what Wilson was effective at doing in summer league, with emphasis on his pull-up game, and also what will be limiting factors in Caleb’s game when the Bulls transition to regular-season basketball.

Unsurprisingly, spacing is a Vecenie concern for Caleb Wilson with emphasis on center Nic Claxton and guard Josh Giddey, who are not considered credible volume three-point shooters. 

That matters because the implication is that Caleb Wilson may be faced with drawing three defenders to the ball regularly in his on-ball possessions if he’s sharing the floor with Giddey and Claxton.

Wilson’s pull-up game looks great based on his summer league minutes.  What happens when Wilson has double and triple teams in his line-of-sight between him and the basket?  

Questions about Wilson's shooting may be on the decline, and at the same time, Bulls fans should be ready to question how good a passer Wilson will be in the regular season when ball pressure forces him to make passing reads of varying levels of complexity.  The summer league evidence certainly doesn’t favor Wilson, given how turnover-prone he became in his four summer league games.

Tiago Splitter's top priority - efficient offense

Bulls head coach Tiago Splitter and his coaching staff have an important mission ahead between the conclusion of the Bulls' Las Vegas Summer League series of games and the October NBA preseason that is on the horizon for his team.  The mission is to ensure Caleb Wilson is embedded in the most efficient offense possible that suits his skill set.

Splitter’s offensive principles are rooted in running minimal set offensive plays and maximizing conceptual reads in his offensive possession.  

So rather than scripting the perfect plays for Wilson, Splitter needs to figure out reliable spacing templates for his offense using Wilson as a focal point: placing the other four guys in optimal spots on the floor that allow Wilson to have driving lanes to the rim or get to clean open three-point spots.  

Additionally, Splitter should place a hard mandate on non-shooters to consistently cut to give Wilson reads or space to operate when he’s on the ball.  This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list of offensive features that Splitter should game-plan into his Bulls offense, but it certainly is a good start.

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