Chicago Bulls

Chicago Bulls Weekly Player Grades: February 5 Edition

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:35 p.m. ET

Fansided, Daniel Coughlin/FanSided via Pippen Ain't Easy

The NBA regular season is almost two-thirds completed. Let that sink in for a moment. The Chicago Bulls have played 51 games of keep-you-guessing hoops and it’s been a lot of fun. I mean, it isn’t fun to think about all of the long-term repercussions of the organization, however, it is great to watch a Bulls team go out and get a big win over Russell Westbrook and follow that with a heroic attempt against James Harden.

Yes, the Bulls are all over the place.

Early in the season, there can be a lot of noise. As the season progresses, a lot of that noise starts to filter out and what noise you are left with is just the team as it is.

Right about now seems like the best time to start evaluating the Bulls, so let’s get to cracking on some grades. And, of course, the grades will be all over the place, because Fred Hoiberg. He’ll bench someone out of nowhere for a week or more, than throw a player with less than 20 games experience at any level in the United States into the starting lineup, because Hoiberg.

So don’t worry, there are few guys who will be up one week and down another. I’ll also be kind and not grade on a curve, otherwise, you know, it would be an ‘A’ for Jimmy Butler every week and ‘F’ for Nikola Mirotic. You get my point. And we picked a great week to start the grading, seeing as the Bulls offense is whirring and they seem like the best team ever compared to the public dumpster fire they were the week before.

Jan 15, 2017; Memphis, TN, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Michael Carter-Williams (7) reacts during the second half against the Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum. Chicago Bulls defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 108-104. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Point Guard Grades

Hey! Chicago has a lot of point guards, which is funny because they really don’t have a single point guard that you’d actually want starting on an NBA team that has playoff or contention ambitions.

Jerian Grant – Grade: C+

Grant played 20.3 minutes per game over the past week. Thanks to his promotion to starting point guard, he’s getting more time on the floor, but only broke 20 minutes once, against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was plus-24 in that game, and has been shooting well during that past week. The good shooting is a trend for the entire squad, but Jerian was 4-for-6 from 3-point range. Too bad it took three games to produce that volume instead of just one. The one thing in Grant’s game that seems perplexing is his lack of assists. I haven’t gone to film on him or checked his potential assist numbers, but he only had five assists as a starting NBA point guard in three games. That’s far from ideal.

Michael Carter-Williams – Grade: B-

How’s this for the perfect microcosm of players under the leadership of Hoiberg. First game of the week was the fourth straight DNP-CD for Carter-Williams. The second saw MCW sneak onto the floor for just over six minutes of action in a blowout victory. The third game? He’s back into the starting lineup for an injured Jimmy Butler. He started at the small forward spot. Makes a lot of sense, right? Over 35 minutes of playing time for the guy who is a point guard, had a bunch of DNPs, and only got garbage time the night before. And yet, he played strong basketball. Actually, he balled out by MCW standards, shooting 11-for-18 good for 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

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Rajon Rondo – Grade: C-

Rondo’s been better since his return from being benched. He put up 10 assists on January 29 in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He’s also shooting just 3-for-18 during that three-game stretch and doesn’t have anything else going for him. Just locking down those backup guard minutes before he inevitably heads to China. He has to be going to China, right?

Isaiah Canaan – Grade: D

Canaan doesn’t get a worse grade because this isn’t totally on him. He only made it on the floor for about six minutes against the Thunder and was 1-for-1 from deep with an assist. Sure, #freesip. But, not really. He’s basically on the bench forever and could easily be the ‘F’ grade getter in the future.

Feb 3, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade (3) and Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza (1) compete for a loose ball during the fourth quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Shooting Guard Grade

The Bulls, technically, have a whopping total of one shooting guard on the roster. Of course, they play lots of people at lots of positions and mostly everyone else on the roster has locked down at least some kind of bizarre role or DNP.

Dwyane Wade – Grade: C

We’re still roasting Wade for his terrible defense and hypocritical comments about his teammates, right? Well, we probably should be.

Wade just does not play very many minutes at this stage in his career. I said before the season that I expected his minutes per game to continue to dwindle, which has been a trend for him for a while now and he’s right on track for that to play out over the course of this season. Chicago had two days off after the 76ers game and one between facing the Thunder and Rockets, but Wade played just 26:17 and 24:25 in those games.

Against Houston, Wade was called into a larger role and for most of it he looked terrible. He pulled off a nice dunk late, but that just served to cover the really slow, bad start he had. In 36 minutes, he shot 8-for-22, but had a decent line of 19 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Unfortunately, Carter-Williams was having himself a game or Wade’s praises would be sung by many.

I’m just finding Wade’s production to be lackluster. He doesn’t add enough and while he helped keep the Bulls close late, his monster contract won’t get wins for this team when Butler sits.

Small Forward Grades

It’s fun to think about these.

Jimmy Butler – Grade: A

Yeah, you want to give him a lower grade because he got run by Russell Westbrook’s chasedown block, but you don’t. Butler was 11-for-17 against the Thunder. And hey, Chicago won both games that Butler played this week. Do you know which game they lost? The game he didn’t play. Butler makes this team go and it doesn’t matter how much delusional, angry voices want to scream about the old Bulls or Hoiberg’s system or how good the bench players are, it is all nothing without Jimmy.

Paul Zipser – Grade: A

Basically, Zipser has earned an ‘A’ for the enter semester (season). He’s looked good in a lot of areas and had the privilege of starting a few times. And he’s a second-round pick, rookie, from Europe, with no prior basketballing experience in North America at the professional level. That’s awfully impressive. Give Gar Forman that extension and pay raise! No, don’t. Fire him. But keep Zipser. He’s averaging 27.3 minutes, 10.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, and one assist over the past here games. That’s an ‘A’ grade all day for the 22-year-old 48th pick in the draft.

Doug McDermott – Grade: B-

Doug has been a massive disappointment in a lot of ways, but those aren’t his fault. The organization gave up too much to get him and assumed he would be something that he isn’t. He’s still very bad on defense, but over the past three games he’s averaging 12.3 points in just 18.4 minutes and shooting more than 50 percent on fields and 3-pointers. This is good Doug. It’s possible that McDermott still has another level up this season, I’m willing to assume that his most recent concussion did a scary amount of damage and he’s still recovering from it.

Denzel Valentine – Grade: D, as in D-League

???? #TripleDoubleWatch for @chicagobulls assignee @denzelvalentine (15p, 10r, 8a)! @windycitybulls X @wcknicks
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— NBA D-League (@nbadleague) February 4, 2017

Valentine is balling out – for Windy City. He has been recalled to the team, but his best work of the season definitely has come during his stint while in the D-League. It doesn’t help that he does some good stuff and then Hoiberg sends him to the DNP-CD realm, just like Carter-Williams, Rondo, Grant and others.

Power Forward Grades

Gibson was good and who knows how long he’ll be a Bull. Mirotic hasn’t been consistent, but despite how bad Portis has been, Hoiberg has been messing with him in totally unfair ways.

Taj Gibson – Grade: A

Gibson played in two of three games over the past week and he averaged 14 points and seven rebounds in those two games, along with a block on the defensive end for good measure. Gibson didn’t play against Philadelphia, had a middling game in less than 22 minutes against Oklahoma City, but really turned up for the Houston game. He had 20 points, six rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block against the Rockets. He’s good and should be traded, but while he’s here it would be ideal if he keeps doing the same great work that he’s been doing for years. Much respect for savvy old Taj.

Nikola Mirotic – Grade: C

For Mirotic, it’s all about inconsistency. This is a major issue for Niko. He played solid basketball against Philly, not against OKC, and then was solid in a limited roll against Houston. It’s just up and down all year long for Mirotic, mostly down. The last three games, he’s been a good barometer for the rest of the squad, good shooting numbers, solid production in limited court time. It’s overall good this week for Niko, let’s all hope he can continue to show up and start eliminating those down swings.

Bobby Portis – Grade: F

Okay, figure this one out if you can. I’m putting it mostly on Hoiberg. Portis played all three games, even starting against the Sixers, but somehow only averaged 8.7 minutes and 2.7 points during that time. If Niko hasn’t been good this year, Bobby has been awful. He seemed like a steal as No. 22 in the draft last summer, but he’s really struggling right now. Still, it’s not on him that Hoiberg gives him four consecutive DNP-CDs, only to call on him to start against Philadelphia. He also had four points, five rebounds and an assist in that game, but only played 14 minutes. Just all sorts of head-scratching around Portis and Hoiberg’s use of him.

Center Grades

It’s the end of the line, the last group of players to grade. The big men.

Robin Lopez – Grade: B+

Lopez played really good basketball this week. He was huge against the 76ers, putting up 21 points and 10 rebounds, a nice double-double, on 9-for-13 shooting. He also had a decent game, though not much on the boards in a win against the Thunder. The problem for Lopez, that kept him out of that ‘A’ range for a grade was his struggles against Houston. After making almost everything through the first two games, he shot 3-for-8 against the Rockets. He had a monster 40 minutes in that game, and had two blocks, but he couldn’t convert on his offensive opportunities. In a game that close, with a player on the floor that much, he has to take a hit on his rating if the result is an overtime loss.

Cristiano Felicio – Grade: D

I love the potential of Felicio. If the Bulls don’t keep him this summer, it will just be another example of the front office making awful decisions and not knowing how to handle the players on their roster. The past week hasn’t been kind to Felicio, however, as he picked up an injury against Houston and didn’t play well in the two games before that. He’s been a huge revelation this season, doing really fun things like rolling to the rim for huge slams from Wade or opening up the entire court for his teammates or being physical and aggressive on both ends of the floor. He just didn’t have a great week. There’s plenty of reason to believe he’ll just keep getting better and that’s something to look forward to until next week’s grades.