NBA Season Preview 2018-19: Bulls can get versatile on offense

In the recent years, we have seen positions in basketball fade away and invoke in a new era of “positionless basketball”. While it has been used a lot when looking at how teams are going to shape up defensively, this also can be applied offensively as well. While nobody has anything like the Warriors famed “Death Lineup”, it won’t stop teams from trying to make their teams more versatile offensively.

Being versatile opens up the playbook offensively and if you have multiple ball handlers on the court, you can run a lot of action to free up a number of different players. The court expands in a sense and stretches the defense out, forcing them to switch into unfavorable matchups or make mistakes. Guys are able to play multiple positions and teams are able to fit as much talent on the court as they possibly can.

This seems to be the plan for the 2018-19 Chicago Bulls. It was an abysmal year for the Bulls last season and they finished one of the worst teams in the league. Thanks to some additions via the draft and free agency, it doesn’t look to be the case this year — adding Jabari Parker while letting David Nwaba walk in free agency. They also did decently well in the draft, adding Chandler Hutchison and Duke standout Wendell Carter Jr.

Along with the likes of Zach LaVine and Parker, Chicago has a very interesting potential starting lineup, one which we might not see immediately, but with Dunn, LaVine, Parker, Markkanen, and Carter Jr. in the middle. While it looks to be an absolute disaster defensively outside of Dunn and Carter, there are plenty of questions about how they will fare offensively.

In this day and age, switching defensively is everything and if teams find a weakness in one of those matchups they will attack it relentlessly. Just look at how some of the last playoff series have gone. You have to be able to switch and offensively, you have to be able to attack it effectively too. Chicago might have some guys who can attack switches both as a ball-handler or popping out for an open jumper.

When it comes to initiating offensive action expect LaVine to be the main creator in the pick and roll. Defenders know Kris Dunn’s struggles when it comes to shooting the ball and will almost certainly back off when he goes around a pick. This is going to cause problems, disrupting the roll man’s movement after setting the screen. LaVine is a much better 3-point shooter than Dunn and is going to be a tougher matchup off pick-and-roll. Last season he had a very small but intriguing sample size when being a pick-and-roll ball-handler. LaVine in the 2017-18 season landed in the 73rd percentile and averaged 0.90 points per possession in those types of situations. It was much better than Dunn’s .79 PPP rating, who had nearly the same number of opportunities. o

Now LaVine will have a lot of options for his roll man — Markkanen, Carter Jr., and Parker. Markkanen was decent as a roll man last season, registering 1.08 points per possession with an effective field goal percentage of 52.3. He really caused problems for opposing big men with his ability to hit from deep.

Markkanen also flashed some very solid potential with his ability to put the ball on the deck when opponents forced him off the 3-point line. There were a lot of good moments last season where Markkanen went straight to the rim and scored. He also was able to stop on a dime then pull up for an easy mid-range jumper. This wasn’t something many saw from the big man while he was at college in Arizona and it does raise his offensive ceiling. His length and ability to stretch the floor has Chicago thinking of all sorts of ways to get him in the ball in favorable matchups. This could also lead to Chicago playing a small-ball lineup with the Finn being at the center position. 

Parker is another interesting case. In Chicago’s first pre-season game, the first play they ran was a LaVine-Parker pick and roll. While it’s really hard to read into pre-season games, this could be an interesting duo Fred Hoiberg could work with. Parker didn’t do much as a roll man last season for the Milwaukee Bucks. Although he averaged 1.20 points per possessions when the roll man they only accounted for about five percent of his offensive possessions.

If it’s Jabari and a lot of the bench guys, teams will zero in on him and force him to take contested mid-range shots. If he has other floor stretchers on the floor, Parker could be a threat off the pick-and-roll, he could roll down the lane and use his huge frame to shield off defenders at the basket. He could pop out and knock down a 3-pointer. Although he isn’t a knockdown shooter, Parker has shown signs of being a player teams need to pay attention to, with a career 3-point percentage of 35.2. 

Carter Jr. won’t necessarily be a 3-point threat either but he showed some range in Vegas, with him sliding off a pick and into a nice spot-up jump shot. This will be a very similar situation to how he was used at Duke. He won’t be the main guy offensively but he will certainly be one of the more important players. Carter Jr. is already one of the better passers on this Chicago team and will look to play all sorts of roles for them. As with all rookies, there will be a huge learning curve, but Carter Jr. has shown some signs of being at least an efficient offensive center.

One play where all three big men can show off their skills is in hand-offs. Fred Hoiberg ran a lot of dribble weave hand-off with Robin Lopez getting the ball at the top of the key and immediately handing it off to the first guard/wing he saw. Hoiberg could add a few wrinkles into the offense and use it as a decoy for other actions on the court or have it be a fake hand-off and let the big man create on his own.

There are lots of question marks surrounding this Chicago team and no real clear expectations. They aren’t bad enough to tank for a higher draft pick and they aren’t necessarily good enough to be a playoff team. If anything this team sneaks into the playoffs as a No. 8 seed or they find themselves at the back end of the lottery.

Amid all of the fog surrounding their upcoming season, the Bulls have set themselves up for a year of freedom to experiment and try new things with their young core. Thanks to their offensive versatility there are plenty of possibilities to explore.

All stats via NBA dot com or Basketball Reference