The Las Vegas Summer League: Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that summer league's wrapped up and we've had our first glance at current and potential additions to the bottom of the roster, let's talk about who should and shouldn't make the roster, and what their roles should be.

Here's my take.....

Tony Snell

For the most part I think our two draft picks played well and helped solidify their spots on the team. Snell wasn't a world beater but I thought his tools were clearly demonstrated and after watching him 3 times I'm confident he's not the kind of guy who's meant to dominate summer league.

I like his instinctive, heady play and innate ability to play off of others. With a world-class on the ball point guard and well executed offense that moves the ball side to side very well he'll have a lot of opportunities to contribute offensively. I think his statistical contributions will be meager and will mostly ride the bench to begin the season, but I think we'll see Jimmy-like signs throughout the year and when someone goes down due to injury he'll hold the fort down and make fans glad that we drafted him. Thibs talks as if he plans on playing him this year.

Erik Murphy

Erik Murphy's place on the team isn't as clearly defined, but I believe he greatly helped his cause after a disastrous start. He had one of the worst performances I've ever seen from anyone, ever, in a professional basketball game. But at the end of the tournament he came out shooting 55% from the field, 50% from three, and an eFG of 67%. If you subtract his first game the numbers become an eye-popping 61%, 71%, and 76%, respectively. He's clearly not an athletic player who'll have problems on defense and creating his own shot, but he moves very well without the ball and is a dead-eye shooter with his feet set.

Rumor has it the Bulls signed him to a 2 year deal with a team option for a third, and he's been mentioned by the FO and Thibs when talking about the rotation, so it sounds like for now the Bulls have him in their plans, even if it's as a replacement for Vlad.

Marquis Teague

Marquis Teague looked much better than last year, but it's not clear to me if he'll see much more playing time because of it He ran the offense well, but he still plays too fast and gets disoriented easily. His shot looks a lot better, but I'm still not sure I trust it to go in against NBA defenses. It still seems like he thinks about it a lot before he takes it.

The good news is that Teague definitely looks to have worked on his weaknesses extensively since the beginning of last year. That's big. However, right now I predict it won't be until year 3 when the Bulls see their investment in him come to fruition. Kirk's contract will be up, he'll have an additional year of experience under his belt, and the Bulls may have an Eric Bledsoe/Avery Bradley situaiton on their hands......which would be great.

Andrew Goudelock

Goudelock has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that he's very prolific at putting up shots. It's not as clear how effective he'll be if he has to do this on a regular basis against against NBA defenses. He doesn't strike me as an outstanding athlete, and at the end of the day is a guy who's going to be shooting lots of floaters and step back jumpers. So there's going to be a lot of 6-8 shooting nights and a lot of 1-8 shooting nights.

He'll have a small role if the Bulls sign him, but I hope they do. If he plays it'll probably be because we're in desperate need of scoring anyway so we probably won't have any better options than him calling his own number. He really reminds me a lot of Jannero Pargo and Eddie House. This is just a hunch, but he seems to have a lot of confidence and a chip on his shoulder, and hence is not the kind of guy who'll cave in big minutes. He's like Nate in that way.

Malcolm Thomas

Malcolm Thomas is a good defender and prolific rebounder, but damn, he sure seems to replicate Taj. As is, he doesn't offer anything the Bulls don't already have and so will probably be the loser at the end-of-roster game of musical chairs the Bulls are playing. He'll probably be the first guy they call if a big man goes down, but I doubt the Bulls will see a need for him at the beginning of the season and will look to save themselves a little bit of cash.

My closing will be that the one guy who impressed me that didn't get a lot of mention is Dion Thompson. He's not a particularly explosive player but he's got a big, wide body and knows how to position it well on offense and defense. He looks to be about Nazr's size. I highly doubt he gets a contract, but I think he might be someone the Bulls call up if they get hit by the injury bug again and bodies are dropping left and right.

 

Nice recap, Rosen. I didn't see every game, but your observations match mine. Murphy is definitely intriguing. The more I think about it, the more I believe that it was Thibs non-use of Vlad Rad that frustrated the FO this past year. The FO thought they had identified a need and found a solution...Murphy seems to have been drafted with the lesson from last year's frustration in mind. He could really help, or ... not. I don't know. By the way, did you guys know about that situation in Florida where Murphy was caught drinking and charged with stealing a car? It was in Sam's article for today. This guy could have some punk to him

I think Snell contributes this year. So will Teague. Again according to Sam, everybody agrees that Teague will be more effective next to Rose than Nate would, indicating they see him on the court with Derrick. If that works, Teague will play a lot.

 

Teague looks much better than last year, no doubt. To me his issue is learning not to be over-reliant on his speed when he wants to get things done. It's great that he has it, but he still needs to turn the corner and master when he ought to use it and when he ought to let things come to him.

I'd have no problem with Malcolm Thomas on the team, I'm just guessing the Bulls don't want 15 players on the team. Maybe they're comfortable with Nazr being the only "true" C besides Noah and feel comfortable with MT playing backup PF/C if need be. If that's the case then I wouldn't be surprised if he makes the team.

Boozer/Taj/Noah will get the lion's share of the minutes regardless, and maybe Murphy/Thomas/Nazr will be a 3-headed monster depending on what the team needs.

I think Goudelock will be fine as an end of the bench heat-check kind of guy. No complaints from me if we sign him.

 

Like Snell, I think Teague will start the year slowly and eventually get his chance when either Derrick or Kirk need to sit out due to injury. I'm still not sure how well his improvement in summer league will translate to the NBA, but I feel sanguine knowing that he's come a long way from this point last year. Good for him.

 

I also think Jimmy has a legitimate chance to make another jump this year and really become a good player. Hell, if you judge him by his playoff series against Miami last year he's already there.

I'll be especially curious to see how well his shooting holds up. He didn't have a reputation as a good one coming into the league, but managed to shoot over 40% once he was given a lot of minutes. Thatd be huge if it stuck.

I don't like Snell's ability to create space for himself off the dribble, but I do like his ability to move off the ball. I think he'll do well finding spots for himself playing off of Derrick and our interior passing whenever he gets a chance to play.

I share Denny skepticism about Teague this year. By the numbers he was one of the worst players in the NBA. PG is a difficult position to master, and pushing around the other summer league PG's doesn't indicate very much. Especially when he can still use his superior athleticism as a crutch. I'll remain a skeptic until I see it in an NBA game.

This might sound weird, but Murphy is a real wild card to me. It seems clear that he's really an outstanding shooter. He shot 45% last year on almost 7 attempts/game as a PF/C! He's also very fundamentally sound both on offense and defense. It's just a matter of whether or not he'll be athletic enough to put any of it to use....including his shooting.

If he has enough pop to get his shot off and play off of others he could be a serious X-factor because you've got to play out on him and it's a dynamic this team has never had while Derrick's been here. Derrick with a nasty stretch 4 creates some extremely interesting scenarios.

But he's clearly got white man's disease. At this point I'm completely 50/50 on whether or not he'll pan out or end up in Europe.

 

It's where they should have stayed, to be honest

I'm more hopeful than you on Snell. I think he's a real, live, ball-handling 2/3. He'll do what he should. He won't hurt you, and he has ways to help, from the get go.

Murphy is a wild card. But he's a gamer, and he has a real skill. So, we'll see!

Teague? I believe. I believe because Thibs believes. I think somehow Jimmy warmed the cockles of Thibs' heart. If you listened to thibs last year, he downplayed Jimmy hard, in spite of all the ways he had shown improvement, and he wasn't so willing to let Jimmy play, except that Rip and Kirk and even Luol got hurt. But Jimmy won thibs over, and now Thibs believes that Jimmy has laid down the path for the other rookies to follow, and he sees how Marquis has done it.

Thibs has had a change of heart -- think about it (can't you see it?) -- and Jimmy is the man who melted that heart of stone.

Now, if Teague bombs on him -- look out!

 

I'm optimistic about Snell, I just don't see him as an ISO player....at least not yet. I think he's a good ballhandler, just not a guy who's great at creating space. To his credit he's very smart with his dribbles and doesn't use a lot of wasted motion in the way he plays. I thin he'll be alright. What's more difficult to predict is the "when."

I wouldn't be surprised to see Murphy get off to a faster start than Snell. His skillset is so unique on this team and his role so clearly defined I imagine there will be more scenarios from the get go where it makes sense to play him.

Hell, he *might* even be the best shooting big man in the league. I'm a believer in the guy's capability as a spot-up shooter. I'm just mum on whether or not everything else will drag him down. I'll be following his development in earnest this season.

I find Erik Murphy intriguing because if you want to spread the floor for Derrick Rose he becomes our most useful player *if* he can get his shot off in the NBA. I'll be waiting with anticipation.

I don't view Teague and Jimmy on an equal plane. It was clear from the outset that Jimmy had poise, even when he wasn't getting minutes. It was equally clear that Marquis didn't have it his rookie year. He looks much better right now, but it's very fuzzy to me how his summer league performance will carry over into the regular season.

I consider it a foregone conclusion that one of Rose or Kirk will be down for extended periods of time this year so we'll no doubt get a chance to find out how far he's really come.

 

It's a good question, transplant.

The minutes won't be regular, but Thibs rides guys who are hot, and if Snell and Murphy start raining threes, they might see significant minutes in spurts, averaging maybe 10 to 15 in games they play (knowing that they won't play in every game). Also, if Teague is able to keep the pressure on the second units of other teams, that gives Rose a break and I could see him getting close to 15 or 20 in games he plays (assuming he also plays with Rose some).

Is that enough enthusiasm for ya?

 

I don't think the question to ask is "how much are they going to play this year?" but instead "are they good enough to be valuable rotation players?"

Taj, Jimmy, and Omer were all footnotes at the end of the roster when they arrived and it didn't seem like the team had any intentions of playing them regularly when they began their careers. But something always happens and if they provide some sort of comparative advantage then Thibs won't have much choice but to give them playing time.

Again, I like Murphy's chances to see playing time right away due to his shooting. What does Marquis Teague do that Derrick Rose can't? Ditto for Snell and Jimmy/Deng.

But I get the vibe the Bulls are really jonesing for shooting in a big way and Murphy can do it in a way that Boozer, Noah, and Gibson can't.

And as much as it gets mocked, the Vlad signing was the first one the Bulls made in FA. It was a total strikeout, but I'm guessing the Bulls had something in mind for him when they gave him a contract.