Here’s the latest Chicago Bulls news for Dec. 9 following a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, including where Matas Buzelis’ key improvement is coming from and a Lonzo Ball-Josh Giddey debate that has to start happening.
Dalen Terry suffers knee injury
Dalen Terry has improved statistically for the Bulls in his third NBA season, though his averages of 4.2 points and 1.4 rebounds won’t jump off the page.
The 6-foot-7 guard has begun to show why Chicago grabbed him with the No. 18 selection in the 2022 draft, however.
Terry’s defensive rating of 113.6 is fourth on the team for any player who’s appeared in more than 20 games, and although he doesn’t shoot much, he’s become more efficient when he does.
The 22-year-old is shooting a career-best 37.0 percent from three on 1.1 attempts – up from 23.0 last season on 1.3 attempts – and is blowing past his career highs in true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage.
Terry exited Chicago’s loss to the Sixers with a knee injury. Further tests will determine the extent.
But the Arizona alum has carved out a spot in head coach Billy Donovan’s rotation and Terry’s physical profile and steady improvement point to a young player who needs to continue getting minutes this season. Hopefully, his injury isn’t too serious.
Matas Buzelis is taking and making threes
Matas Buzelis shot a dreadful 22.9 percent from three last year with the G League Ignite, understandably raising concerns about his NBA scoring potential.
The 6-foot-10 forward already had the size, athleticism and explosiveness necessary to become a matchup nightmare, but if defenses didn’t have to guard him at the three-point line, all that would be for naught.
Through his first 10 NBA games, Buzelis averaged 1.2 three-point attempts and shot them at a 25.0 percent clip.
Excluding last night’s 0-for-5 clunker (a game in which Buzelis still finished a team-high +13), the 20-year-old is shooting 47.4 percent from three on 3.2 attempts a night since Nov. 22. That includes an 8-for-11 run in the Bulls’ three contests before the loss to Philadelphia.
Buzelis is improving exponentially, and Donovan, who kept the rookie glued to the bench because of defensive lapses and rebounding woes, is playing him almost 20 minutes per game in Chicago’s last eight.
Should the Bulls keep Lonzo Ball instead of Josh Giddey long term?
It’s time to start having this conversation.
Giddey has had his moments this season, like his 20-point, 13-rebound, 11-assist effort in a win over the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 2.
Despite a fresh start in Chicago on a team geared toward his skill set, the 22-year-old has struggled in the same areas he did in Oklahoma City.
Giddey is still a sieve defensively and a wildly inefficient scorer with shooting splits of 44/32/69. Those issues forced Thunder coach Mark Daigneault to remove Giddey from his closing lineup in OKC, and they’re beginning to have the same effect on Donovan.
Ball, meanwhile, has arguably been the Bulls’ best player when healthy. He leads the team in offensive rating, has a 5.4 assist-to-turnover ratio and leads Chicago’s most productive five-man lineup.
His counting stats are average at best, he’s only played in eight games and his minutes restriction just rose to 20. What Ball is doing doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
Before the season, Giddey was reportedly aiming for a long-term contract extension worth around $30 million per year. Ball, like his point guard counterpart, is on an expiring deal.
It’s time for Chicago’s front office to decide what’s a better long-term play for the organization: handing a new, cheaper contract to an injury-prone 26-year-old or a more expensive one to a 22-year-old with far more upside.
The way Ball has played so far this season when he’s been on the floor makes this a legitimate conversation.
