I know the majority of the fanbase has turned fully towards rebuilding and rightfully so, but it’s interesting looking back over the last 3 years at how people were puttin the blame of the offense being bottom tier on derozan. He’s one of the most efficient players with the ball in his hands. A counter to that is someone might say his play style puts a cap on how good the offense can be. Personally I don’t believe that since he was the first option on a top 10 offense (peaking at number 2 in 17/18) every season from 2013/14 until 2019/20. It really was a case of lonzo/lavines constant injuries, vooch being horrific and a lack of shooting from the role players that did the bulls in these last 3 years.
by Aspery-
2 Comments
You’d really think the GOAT Lebron would be on here somewhere right?
One thing I’d point out is that the other top isolation scorers provide a lot more offensively when not relying on that iso scoring ability.
With Jokic, he can initiate offense with delay action, get dribble handoffs off to his scoring guards, hit cutters with the ball right in the chest, past out of double teams with pin point accuracy, and then if all else fails, punish with his own scoring.
With Steph, he tortures teams with the split actions they run, he constantly needs to be face guarded which opens up cuts for himself and others, he has range from every spot on the court, and then if all else fails, he can punish with his own isolation scoring.
Dame is similar. He’s always been terrific running horns actions, getting his wings and bigs involved either with open 3 point looks or using the high horns leverage to get downhill and get to the line/drive and kick. If all else fails, he can use his isolation ability.
With DeMar/the Bulls offense, it’s different. DeMar isnt a good 3 pt shooter, so the defense already knows thats one part of the floor they are willing to give up to him. The first look is almost always a DeMar and Vooch pick and roll. The other 3 players are usually spaced around the 3 point line, almost never cutting or setting any backscreens because they need to leave room for DeMars mid range area. If the pick and roll doesn’t work, DeMar can kick out, but there’s likely no leverage gained since the Bulls offense barely features any movement. Itll likely be a stationary shooter just waiting for the ball. If he doesn’t kick out, DeMar can use his isolation ability, which he’s proven to be great at.
The issue is the iso scoring of some of these other top players is more of a safety valve and a result of other actions failing, whereas for DeMar and the Bulls, it’s closer to being the main feature (not necessarily pure ISO, but simplied pick n roll movement-less offense)