The Chicago Bulls have serious roster tweaking to do this summer if they hope to be a serious playoff contender next season. The core of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic is solid, but not quite there yet. Chicago needs to add talent around them to give the team a boost.
However, they need to worry about bringing their guys back first. Derrick Jones Jr. recently declined his player option, making him an unrestricted free agent this summer. While the Bulls could try to bring him back, it seems unlikely.
The Bulls traded into the second round of the draft in a deal with the Washington Wizards, landing the 35th pick and using it to select Phillips.
The 19-year-old forward is 6-foot-8 and has a 6-foot-11 wingspan. Phillips has been praised for his athleticism and defensive presence, both of which Jones brought to the table.
However, Jones is only 6-foot-6, but he does have a seven-foot wingspan.
If the Bulls feel confident in Phillips’ ability to defend at an NBA level, they should feel comfortable letting Jones walk and rolling with the rookie in his place moving forward.
Chicago Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. has declined his player option for the 2023-23 NBA season.
The Chicago Bulls have some vital roster decisions to make this summer. While a rebuild could be the smartest move for the future of the franchise, Arturas Karnisovas seems intent on running it back with the current core. And if that’s the case, he’ll need to make some big-time additions to the roster.
In addition to attacking the trade market and nailing free agency, the Bulls also need to focus on retaining their current talent. Guys like Nikola Vucevic, Coby White, and Ayo Dosunmu are all in need of new contracts. However, in the case of one of their players, the decision was not theirs to make.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. will be declining his player option, making him an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
“Chicago Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. is declining his $3.3 million player option for the 2023-24 season and entering unrestricted free agency, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium,” Charania tweeted.
Chicago Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. is declining his $3.3 million player option for the 2023-24 season and entering unrestricted free agency, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
Jones Jr. appeared in a career-high 64 games for the Bulls this past season, playing 14.0 minutes. He averaged 5.0 points and 2.4 rebounds on 50.0 percent shooting from the field and 33.8 percent shooting from behind the three-point line.
Heading into free agency, the Bulls will be in serious need of forward help, especially now that Jones Jr. may not be back. Outside of Patrick Williams and Dalen Terry, they don’t have much depth at that position off the bench. It will be a huge need for them this summer.
Throw in their need at the point guard spot and lack of three-point shooting, and the Bulls will have a lot of choices to make.
Grading the Chicago Bulls after a 123-119 loss on Friday in Boston.
The Chicago Bulls (5-5) took their 2-game win streak into TD Garden on Friday night to face the Boston Celtics and lost 123-119. After beating the Celtics 120-102 on October 24th, the regular-season series is now 1-1.
Despite guard DeMar DeRozan erupting for a season-high 46 points (13-23 from the field, 20-22 from the free-throw line), Chicago could not complete the comeback. Center Nikola Vucevic scored an efficient 24 points while pulling down 12 rebounds while guard Zach LaVine had a decent game of 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals.
Chicago shot 51.8% from the field and 39.3% from beyond the arc, but they allowed Boston forward Jayson Tatum (36 points) and guard Malcolm Brogdon (25 points) to make shots when it mattered the most.
Chicago brings back Jones Jr. to bulk up their defensive versatility.
After resigning Zach LaVine to a five-year max contract, the Bulls brought back some of their depth.
Reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Derrick Jones Jr. agreed to a two-year, $6.6 million deal to return to Chicago with a player option in the second year.
Free agent forward Derrick Jones Jr. has agreed to a two-year, $6.6 million deal to return to the Chicago Bulls, with player option in second season, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
The new additions to the Bulls roster got welcomed to the city last night at the White Sox game.
There’s no better way to be welcomed to a new city for an athlete than throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game.
For Lonzo Ball and company, that was their introduction to Chicago on Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, Derrick Jones Jr., and Tony Bradley threw out the first pitch at the Chicago White Sox game last night against the Los Angeles Angels.
Though White Sox fans were presumably excited to see the new Bulls players out at the game last night, I think it’s safe to say that these guys should stick to basketball.
The Bulls have finally traded Lauri Markkanen, and received multiple draft picks in the return package.
Bulls fans had been hearing rumors over potential Lauri Markkanen trades for months, and on Friday news finally broke of a three-team deal involving the former No. 7 overall pick. Markkanen, a restricted free agent, is headed to Cleveland as part of a sign-and-trade.
In a deal reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Bulls will receive two protected draft picks in the three-team deal, as well as 24-year-old Derrick Jones Jr. from the Blazers.
Jones Jr., a 6-foot-5 wing, is a former Slam Dunk Contest champion and made an NBA Finals appearance with the Heat in 2020. In his only season with the Blazers, Jones Jr. made 58 appearances and started 43 games, averaging 22.7 minutes, 6.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.
The Los Angeles Lakers are now 2-2 after Monday night’s loss against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Los Angeles Lakers looked like they were in a position to have another one of the same games they’ve had to start the season. But instead of LeBron James being able to comfortably watch the last few minutes of the game and start his leisure earlier than expected, James played 36 minutes for the Lakers tonight in a 115-107 win by the Portland Trail Blazers over the Lakers.
Portland was solid on the defensive end in the second half of the game. Derrick Jones Jr. was a legitimate pest for LeBron James and Anthony Davis didn’t seem to be keen on getting to first gear. And who could blame AD, given that it’s 2020 in the middle of a pandemic.
The Lakers lost at home for the first time since opening night and it came at the hands of a team that didn’t lose by 50 points at home, so they shouldn’t feel too bad about the loss. The Lakers start a four-game road trip on Wednesday night.
As the Utah Jazz now resume basketball activities, there are major issues they need to fix regarding stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.
As the Utah Jazz now resume basketball activities, there are major issues they need to fix regarding stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.
After so much time off due to the coronavirus pandemic, there will be a lot to iron out for all rosters. But the recent gap also exposed some harsh truths about the two best players on the Jazz.
In a recent story, Tim MacMahon reported that Gobert feels he should receive more lobs from Mitchell (via ESPN):
“Gobert rarely hesitates to let teammates know if they miss him when he is open around the rim. He’ll occasionally point up during play in animated fashion, sometimes as he is running back on defense, to note that a lob should have been thrown … Gobert knows his lobbying for lobs wears on teammates to the point of being counterproductive, like the wide receiver who gripes at the quarterback after every play when a pass isn’t thrown his way, regardless of the pass rush.”
Gobert led all NBA players with 306 dunks recorded last season, according to Basketball-Reference. But even when including alley-oops layups, the big man paired with Mitchell for only 28 lob connections during their 2018-19 campaign.
Considering that Gobert attempted 125 alley-oops in 2018-19 (17.6 percent of his total attempts from the field), this is certainly a major offensive focal point for the two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
As such, McMahon continued, the two players have specifically worked on their “lob chemistry” in individualized practice sessions to further avoid the blunders like the one seen above during their game against Denver back in January:
“Utah coach Quin Snyder and his staff have attempted to help facilitate that trust, especially between Mitchell and Gobert. That duo have had dozens of two-man workouts under the watch of coaches, with a focus on ironing out intricacies of their pick-and-roll partnership and lob chemistry. They also occasionally join coaches – usually some combination of Snyder, Jensen and Johnnie Bryant, the assistant who works most with Mitchell – for small-group film sessions at the team’s facility.”
Gobert made 16 alley-oops following passes from Mitchell, per NBA.com. This accounted for 4.5 percent of his total field goal count, down from 5.9 percent last season. This would average out to approximately 0.36 connections per 36 minutes when looking at their total time spent (1607 minutes) on the court together, down from 0.48 last season.
For a better understanding of how that compares to other lob threats around the league, we looked at the top combinations on this play type. Brooklyn’s Spencer Dinwiddie assisted DeAndre Jordan on 46 alley-oop opportunities this season. This means they averaged 2.76 alley-oops per 36 minutes shared (599 minutes) on the floor.
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
While these two players are no longer on the same roster, Houston’s James Harden and former teammate Clint Capela were also successful on 46 of their alley-oop possessions. Capela, now on the Atlanta Hawks, was able to catch 1.53 alley-oops per 36 minutes that he played alongside Harden (1,082) in 2019-20.
Other prolific pairings in the NBA this season include Dinwiddie-to-Jarrett Allen (40), Trae Young-to-John Collins (36), LeBron James-to-Anthony Davis (34), Chris Paul-to-Nerlens Noel (33) and Elfrid Payton-to-Mitchell Robinson (33).
The data makes it clear that there is certainly room for more lob connections between the two players. However, considering how rare these opportunities are even for the most prolific duo, perhaps there are other aspects of offense to worry about in Utah.
HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report.
Kevin Durant and Harrison Barnes have been officially eliminated in the NBA 2K tournament.
While the NBA season is still on hold, a form of hoops returned to national television on Friday. Although it wasn’t professional basketball, the players-only NBA 2K Tournament kicked off for the first round on ESPN.
The tournament started with a major upset as the top overall seed for the contest Kevin Durant went down in the first round against Derrick Jones Jr. of the Miami Heat.
Durant played with the Los Angeles Clippers as Jones used the Milwaukee Bucks. Jones and Bucks rolled the former Warriors’ forward in a 78-62 victory.
Another former Warrior was eliminated in the first round when Trae Young took to the sticks. Atlanta’s young All-Star cruised to a comfortable victory against Harrison Barnes. Young chose to play with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks in his blowout 101-59 win against Barnes and the Toronto Raptors.
Along with Young and Jones, Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton and Clippers point guard Patrick Beverley punched tickets for the second round of the 2K tournament.
With two former members of the Warriors already eliminated, DeMarcus Cousins is the only remaining player in the tournament connected to Golden State. The former Los Angeles Lakers center will faceoff against Andre Drummond on Sunday.
Kevin Durant entered the Players-Only 2K Tournament at the top seed, but the Brooklyn Nets forward was knocked out by Derrick Jones Jr.
Kevin Durant didn’t mess around when it came time to pick his first team for the Players-Only 2K tournament on ESPN on Friday. While Miami Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. went with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, the Brooklyn Nets superstar forward decided to take Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
But, Durant could not lead the Clippers to a win as Jones and the Bucks blew out Los Angeles 78-62.
Durant’s Clippers’ held a 17-14 lead after the first quarter, but Jones’ Bucks held a 35-31 lead by the half and built on that through the third to enter the final quarter with a sizeable 59-44 advantage, en route to the 16-point win.
Durant shot 52% from the floor with the Clippers (41% from long-range). The big difference was Jones made 12 3-point attempts (out of his 24 tries) while Durant made seven threes.
