Chicago Bulls: Second Unit Starting To Find Its Groove
The Chicago Bulls’ second unit has been playing well as of late following a less-than-desirable start to the 2016-17 season.
The Chicago Bulls have a couple of guys on the roster in Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade that are capable of taking over games down the stretch. Taking that into consideration, it should be of little surprise that Butler (24.7 PPG) and Wade (18.7 PPG) are the Bulls’ top two scorers.
So from a one-two punch perspective, the Bulls are in pretty good shape for the most part. However, one area that has been a concern for most of the season is the play of their second unit.
With many of the new faces having three years or less of NBA experience coming into the 2016-17 campaign, the front office was hoping that the younger players would be able to learn from the veterans and find a way to have an impact. For the most part, that sentiment has not come to fruition.
Until recently that is.
Over the past week and a half, the Bulls’ reserves have had a few noteworthy performances. Doug McDermott — the team’s most consistent bench player — posted a 31-point, six-rebound effort in a 108-104 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 15.
First-year shooting guard Denzel Valentine –who has had a difficult time staying in the rotation due to multiple ankle injuries — pumped in 19 points in a 101-99 loss to the Washington Wizards back on Jan. 10.
Bobby Portis — who has not seen a ton of playing time during his sophomore campaign — has scored in double figures in two of his previous six outings and is averaging 14.4 minutes per game in January — the most time he has played in any month this season.
Cristiano Felicio, like Portis, has also posted two games in which he reached double figures during the month of January. Furthermore, Paul Zipser — whom the Bulls selected with the 48th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft — has scored season highs of 10 and 13 points respectively over his last two games and has averaged 19.3 minutes per contest since the beginning of the new year.
This has to be a pleasant surprise for the Bulls being that Zipser had not played more than six minutes per outing during the first two months of the season. To demonstrate even further how much the second unit has progressed as of late, we need look no further than the game against the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 20.
Sure, the Bulls lost the game 102-93, and the final score was not indicative of how Atlanta thoroughly outplayed Chicago for most of the evening. Not only did they jump out to a 35-13 lead in the game’s opening quarter, they also held a 30-point advantage (87-57) going into the final frame.
With the game seemingly out of reach, though, the Bulls’ reserves surprisingly turned a one-sided affair into a competitive game again, as they trimmed the Hawks’ lead to just five points with a just over a minute and change left to play. Again, the Bulls did lose the game, but the second unit put together an inspiring fourth-quarter, nearly erasing a 34-point deficit.
Even though Butler and Wade are obviously the team’s top two playmakers, Valentine does not believe that they are the only two players that are capable of stepping up on any given night.
“They have a lot to do, but we’re all good players,” Valentine said, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “So, yeah, they have a big load. They’re our best players. But us, as backups, we feel like we can play and bring intangibles to the game. We just try to come in and play with an edge.”
If the Bulls hope to remain in playoff contention, the entire team will need to find a way to consistently play with the edge that Valentine spoke about.
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