The 3-point game is an increasingly important element of a state-of-the-art NBA offense. During this century, average 3-point attempts have increased from 13.7 per game in the 1999-2000 season to 21.6 per game this season. I don't know about you, but this strikes me as a bit of a striking trend. The thing is, the Bulls have been ignoring this trend. So far, the Bulls have taken the fewest 3-point attempts of any team this season. Last season, they were #29 of 30 in 3-point attempts. If the Bulls were among the top scoring teams in the NBA, I wouldn't raise the issue, but they're not. Yeah, the season just started, but the Bulls are at the bottom of the NBA in terms of Offensive Rating. From what I read, Thibodeau's one offseason request of Gar Forman was to get him more shooters...not scorers, shooters. I consider both Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli as scorers. I consider Mike Dunleavy a shooter. In this context, letting Robinson and Belinelli go while adding Dunleavy makes sense. However, through this "shooting lense," trading Kyle Korver for an unused trade exception makes Korver look like "the one that got away." I agree that Robinson and Belinelli made more sense for the non-Rose Bulls than did Korver, but right now Korver would be a great backup to Butler, and teaming with Dunleavy on the 2nd unit, this wing tandem could be deadly. Increasingly, the top NBA offenses are featuring 3 point shooting. Despite the addition of Dunleavy, the Bulls may not be fully-equipped to compete when it becomes a long-range game. I realize that the hope was that rookies Tony Snell and Erik Murphy would enhance the team's artillery, but they can't shoot if they don't play. As things stand today, the Bulls badly need Butler to return to his 2012-13 3-point proficiency level and for Rose to demonstrate that all the 3-point practice we read about during his rehab has paid some dividends. And yes, any time Deng wants to make more than 1 out of 20 of his 3 point attempts, this would be helpful as well.
Nice post. I agree, we need more shooting. It's true that Rose is not scoring enough, but even if he was playing his former MVP level, we would still need more scoring.
Nate shot .405 from 3 on 4 attempts per game. Marco shot .357 on 5 attempts per game. What's wrong with shooting AND scoring?
With Robinson, the problem's kind of the same as with Snell and Murphy...playing time. With Rose back and Hinrich backing him up, I don't see Thibodeau playing Robinson much more than Teague-type minutes. I'd rather have Korver than Belinelli both because of Korver's superior shooting accuracy and the fact that he can play either wing position. This said, if i couldn't get Korver or another 3-point-shooting wing who is more accurate than Belinelli, I'd welcome Marco's return.
My problem with Korver is the same issue I have with Boozer. When defenses are really played hard and executed quick rotations, his shooting percentage fell off a cliff. Korver is one of the greatest shooters of all time when he has space and receives the ball in rhythm but everything falls apart when things aren't right. He was great in February and awful in May. As far as Marco Belinelli, the Bulls are relying on Butler improving his game. Butler shot well from behind the line in the playoffs and really throughout the whole second half of the season. So far it hasn't been pretty for Butler this season but it's still early. I think the returns are decent thus far on Dunleavy -- I want to see where he's at when this offense comes around. I agree with you, Transplant, that the roster has to improve its shooting. But I think the improvements have to come internally. Noah is a starting center, and has to hit that free throw line jumper. Butler, Deng and, well, Rose are all starting caliber players who have to hit consistently from behind the line. The shooting from the power forward position has been exemplary this season but neither Gibson or Boozer have three point range. You could argue it's time to make a move to acquire more shooting from the position, but it appears that Mirotic is going to provide better range next season.
True enough, but when Hinrich was healthy, Thibodeau showed a clear preference for him over Robinson. My guess is that Robinson would struggle to get more than 10mpg on this team.
I wouldn't dare to guess, other than when Thibs would look to his bench for a shooter to bring in, Nate isn't an option anymore.
I agree that a lack of outside shooting is likely to be the most persistent problem the team has to deal with. I'm pretty sanguine about all the other issues the team is facing right now. If history is any indication our rotation players will pick up their level of play to respectable levels. (In fact as of now most of them already have). Derrick Rose is coming around, and we've been a great defensive team three consecutive years. All in all I think we'll be fine. I'm also enthusiastic about our new offense. The implementation looked ugly at the beginning of the season, but I think the basic idea is clear to see: The team wants to make things less predictable about where and when Rose gets the ball so they can't gang up on him when things get tight. It also takes advantage of the fact that our team is very savvy and everyone in our top eight is a proficient passer and ball mover, which compensates for our lack of shooting. But inevitably there will come a time when we'll need long range proficiency and to me it's kind of murky whether or not we'll be able to pull through in these situations.
FWIW, the team is shooting .433 overall and Kirk is our 2nd leading 3pt shooter at .346. Boozer is our only .500+ shooter. Deng, Taj, and Nazer are shooting better than .450. Dunleavy is shooting a remarkable .545 from 3, but his 2pt shooting is a poor .344. The unicorn is shooting .344. We obviously need him to be the unicorn again instead of... worse than Kirk.
