Bulls vs. Bucks Preseason #1 Game Thread

[dougthonus]

Did like a lot of Gaff's and Coby's energy, they're gonna be great. It's only one practice game so not going to go read too much about it, overall. Arcie was Arcie (so okay as usually, nothing flashy but good overall, reliable stuff), Kris had some good but still doesn't look like a starting guard we need. For me our starting guard has to be four quarters reliable decision making in both ends, and at this point i don't see better option than Sato, as he will be the better man feeding Lauri and Wendell, he really has great arsenal of pasisng and knows the game so well in both ends. Dunn has some use off the bench and will work fine with some rotations, but still don't see Zach and Dunn back-court to work.

Nothing about Dunn's performance made me say "he's the future starting PG", but nothing about Sato, White, or Arci's night made me say that either.

[Dominator83]

Admittedly, I didn't see much of the 2nd half, but i notice that you guys seem to all be raving over Coby White. He went 3-10 from the field and 3-6 from the line. Also had only 1 assist and 2 TO's. What am i missing?

Yah he shot poorly again. But he played and looked faster than basically everyone out there. He looked good in transition. Attacked the rim. And showed quick feet on D.

I think hes more of a 2 and coach did admit he didnt know whether he is a pg or sg.
Think he needs to be groomed as a combo.

I must've missed a lot in the 2nd half. From where I was watching, sure he was fast, but fast doesn't equal good and I didn't see him making any sorta big impact

[NWIBullsFan]

I still don't get Boylen's offensive system. It doesn't produce many open shots.

I know it's preseason but this looks like a poorly coached team in all facets of the game. Offensively, defensively. Everybody looks lost on both ends.

Agreed with the observation, but I'm not the least bit surprised - 119 of the 240 minutes were played by guys who weren't on the team last year.

That includes Val, because he's barely played with most of the roster.

But if the team looks the same by mid-season, I can easily see Boylen fired. It certainly seems like the FO expects this team to make the playoffs, and if we're 10-15 games under .500 at the All-Star break, I can see them letting him go right after the break. (Since the ASG is in Chicago).

Of course, the same FO has fired a coach on Xmas Eve, so you never know.

[nomorezorro]

Nothing about Dunn's performance made me say "he's the future starting PG", but nothing about Sato, White, or Arci's night made me say that either.

dunn was very bad in the first half and alright in the second, but in neither half did his game mesh with the starters at all.

i agree that satoransky didn't really stand out. part of that is because he missed a bunch of shots, part of it was because he was pretty passive, but i think the biggest reason is that his game doesn't really mesh with the reserve unit. he made a handful of very sensible passes in some two-man action that ended up going nowhere, but he made ~the right plays~. i think that would be much more valuable with the starting unit — you need a guy who can crisply initiate the offense, who's going to keep things moving and who will keep defenses honest from three when zach or lauri or someone else is going to work. i don't think that's ever going to be kris dunn's game.

kris dunn's offensive value has basically always been predicated on him creating his own scoring opportunities and shooting better than 50% from the field. he can do that in individual games and look good, but he hasn't ever been able to keep that up over the course of an entire season. i don't think he's gonna start now

[beeshma]

And this is the team you think will make 8th seed in the east?? Another long season ahead.

Until we learn to pass the ball, and to play defense, we can only be favored to win games against scrub teams.

Maybe 27-28 wins this year?

[RedBulls23]

This bit is going to be fun all season.

Read on Twitter

[nomorezorro]

i think the main things that mattered for tonight are

1) we're actually going to shoot a bunch of threes and play with pace
2) defense is a work in progress at best

other takeaways: lauri and zach look like they could be good, rookies had good spirit/energy but are rookies, no clear winner in the PG competition, denzel valentine isn't a total lost cause

[Hold That]

Did like a lot of Gaff's and Coby's energy, they're gonna be great. It's only one practice game so not going to go read too much about it, overall. Arcie was Arcie (so okay as usually, nothing flashy but good overall, reliable stuff), Kris had some good but still doesn't look like a starting guard we need. For me our starting guard has to be four quarters reliable decision making in both ends, and at this point i don't see better option than Sato, as he will be the better man feeding Lauri and Wendell, he really has great arsenal of pasisng and knows the game so well in both ends. Dunn has some use off the bench and will work fine with some rotations, but still don't see Zach and Dunn back-court to work.

Nothing about Dunn's performance made me say "he's the future starting PG", but nothing about Sato, White, or Arci's night made me say that either.

And this is exactly why I say the starting PG role should be open competition until someone separates from the pack by there play.

[Hold That]

He won't give you that type of performance regularly, thats kind of the point.

Probably not. However, complaining about him when he had a decent game, and probably a better game than the majority of our players is pretty nonsensical too.

It was a response to Stacey King's commentary. Dunn is not the key to our season like he said. Not even close to it. I think we can all agree on that outside of maybe Stacey.

Honestly getting consistent production out of Dunn can be a key to a turn around season. I don’t see how difficult that is to understand? Especially considering we haven’t gotten much out of him or out of that position in general.

People hate Dunn this much? My goodness.

[kodo]

I didn't think Coby White was inefficient scoring. He scored 12 points on 10 attempts, which isn't bad at all.
Last year everyone raved about SGA as one of the brightest young PGs coming up, and he averaged 10.8 ppg on 8.7 FGA per game.

I also assume when he settles down he'll shoot better than 60% from the FT line since he was 80% in college.

Both the rooks drawing 8 FTs speaks well to how aggressive they were attacking their defenders and the basket. I doubt people would have guessed White would have drawn more FTs than Zion. If White's talent in this league is to blow by his defenders and draw FTs from the help defenders, he's going to have a solid to great career in the future.

Really quick feet on defense. Rare to see offensive minded PGs use their speed on both ends.

Rooks looked good. Our 2 stars looked good. The rest of the team, yeesh.

[Repeat 3-peat]

I'll just say that I sure hope WCJ can stay healthy, this team will need his defense.

[FriedRise]

Denzel looked good to start, but he was pretty gassed towards the end. His shots were all coming up short - airball even. It'll take some time to get that game endurance back up. I think they should play him 18-20 mpg in the preseason to get that conditioning back up.

Defense: I thought I generally saw more effort with guys at least putting in the effort to stop and cover somebody. We're also obviously poking the ball from behind and playing the passing lanes a lot more to disrupt the offense. Thad, Otto, and Sato (5 steals!) rotated well and covered a lot of spots that would've ended in a wide open shot the last two seasons. These guys are gonna be huge for us defensively. It did get worse in the second half though, especially when Boylen put the no D, 0-veteran lineup of Coby / LaVine / Denzel / Felicio / Gafford for a stretch in the 3rd. That was brutal, and it was when the Bucks blew the game open.

PG - who should start:
- Coby looks more like a scoring guard (10 FGAs, 8 FTs) than a playmaker (1 assist) to me. I think he'd just be a bad fit with the starting lineup especially this early in his career.
- Dunn looked more or less the same as the last couple years. He was more efficient than usual (11pts on 8 FGAs), but he still didn't get to the line once considering he was mostly scoring in the paint.
- Sato shot the ball the worst out of the three, but he did all the other things better. He rebounded (7 boards, led the team), played solid defense (even had 2 more steals than Dunn), and ran the team well. Him and Thad somehow have a positive +/- in a game where we were down 90% of the time. I hope they try him with the starters next game.

Rebounding: the Bucks started The BroRo Bros - two 7-footers - so they have the obvious size and rebounding advantage. When RoLo seals our center and Brook stretches out Lauri, we're essentially relying on our guards and Otto to grab the boards. This is how Sterling Brown was able to get 9 boards. Having Wendell instead of Felicio should help, but he's still pretty undersized at 6'10. We need all the size we can get, which is another reason why starting Sato makes sense.

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

I miss seeing WCJ play. When is he back?

[MrSparkle]

Denzel looked good to start, but he was pretty gassed towards the end. His shots were all coming up short - airball even. It'll take some time to get that game endurance back up. I think they should play him 18-20 mpg in the preseason to get that conditioning back up.

Defense: I thought I generally saw more effort with guys at least putting in the effort to stop and cover somebody. We're also obviously poking the ball from behind and playing the passing lanes a lot more to disrupt the offense. Thad, Otto, and Sato (5 steals!) rotated well and covered a lot of spots that would've ended in a wide open shot the last two seasons. These guys are gonna be huge for us defensively. It did get worse in the second half though, especially when Boylen put the no D, 0-veteran lineup of Coby / LaVine / Denzel / Felicio / Gafford for a stretch in the 3rd. That was brutal, and it was when the Bucks blew the game open.

I didn’t watch the game but good lord that sounds brutal. Zach and Val on the wings are as bad it gets at defense.

[Repeat 3-peat]

Watch on YouTube

;t=56s

Watch on YouTube

[keloms]

Have the slightest bit of optimism that this team is going to do better than another #7 pick, watch game 1 to see the turnaround...

[beeshma]

I'll just say that I sure hope WCJ can stay healthy, this team will need his defense.

and his passing and floor awareness.

[drosereturn]

I didn't think Coby White was inefficient scoring. He scored 12 points on 10 attempts, which isn't bad at all.
Last year everyone raved about SGA as one of the brightest young PGs coming up, and he averaged 10.8 ppg on 8.7 FGA per game.

I also assume when he settles down he'll shoot better than 60% from the FT line since he was 80% in college.

Both the rooks drawing 8 FTs speaks well to how aggressive they were attacking their defenders and the basket. I doubt people would have guessed White would have drawn more FTs than Zion. If White's talent in this league is to blow by his defenders and draw FTs from the help defenders, he's going to have a solid to great career in the future.

Really quick feet on defense. Rare to see offensive minded PGs use their speed on both ends.

Rooks looked good. Our 2 stars looked good. The rest of the team, yeesh.

SGA is one of the elite defenders and good passer so him scoring is a bonus.
Lonzo which we could have theoretically traded for has mastered his 3pt shot over the summer and looks like he can shoot 38%.
Coby is more of a one trick pony who should generate value from instant scoring and combo. But not a stud or anything.

[drosereturn]

Did like a lot of Gaff's and Coby's energy, they're gonna be great. It's only one practice game so not going to go read too much about it, overall. Arcie was Arcie (so okay as usually, nothing flashy but good overall, reliable stuff), Kris had some good but still doesn't look like a starting guard we need. For me our starting guard has to be four quarters reliable decision making in both ends, and at this point i don't see better option than Sato, as he will be the better man feeding Lauri and Wendell, he really has great arsenal of pasisng and knows the game so well in both ends. Dunn has some use off the bench and will work fine with some rotations, but still don't see Zach and Dunn back-court to work.

Nothing about Dunn's performance made me say "he's the future starting PG", but nothing about Sato, White, or Arci's night made me say that either.

I will concede if they keep playing this way for months but still Sato is our best bet. I mean theres a chance Dunn breaks out but thats like gambling given how poorly he performed over the past couple of years. Track record does matter a lot when evaluating young talent and few preseason games shouldnt determine who gets to start or not.

[Repeat 3-peat]

I'll just say that I sure hope WCJ can stay healthy, this team will need his defense.

and his passing and floor awareness.

*not being Felicio.