Chicago Bulls point guards Jerian Grant and Kris Dunn have shown glimpses of promise, but neither has been able to play well consistently.
The Chicago Bulls are off to a horrendous start this season. In fact, they have produced just two victories through their first 12 games.
Sure, some of the blame can be attributed to several players being out with injuries. However, lack of talent and just awful play are the primary culprits behind the Bulls’ 2-10 record.
One area that continues to be an issue is inconsistent play at the point guard position. Dating back to the start of the 2015-16 season, when Derrick Rose was holding down the lead guard spot, he didn’t always play with the kind of pace Fred Hoiberg desired.
Last season was even worse, as five different players took turns starting at the position, but without much success until Rajon Rondo emerged down the stretch and through the first two games of the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, the trend hasn’t gone away. Thanks to Kris Dunn sustaining a finger injury during the preseason, Jerian Grant was named as the team’s starting point guard and he has done a decent job for the most part.
He has reached double figures four times; is averaging six assists per contest and has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.8, which proves he is a capable distributor.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is Grant’s outside shooting leaves a lot to be desired. Overall, he is knocking down just 35 percent of his attempts while shooting a horrific 17 percent from 3-point range — not the kind of numbers to be overly excited about by any stretch of the imagination.
Meanwhile, Dunn, who was included in the draft-night trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, has had a few nice moments as well. After missing the first four games of the season, Dunn has reached double figures five times.
This includes a respectable outing against the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 10. In that contest, Dunn dropped 16 points, handed out five assists and grabbed four rebounds. For good measure, Dunn also recorded three steals and shot 8-for-14 from the field — marking his best performance of the young season.
As is the case with his teammate, Dunn has his shortcomings as well. While Dunn is certainly the better defender of the two point guards, his outside shot hasn’t improved much from last season.
During his rookie campaign with the Timberwolves, Dunn’s recorded shooting splits of .377/.288/.610. This season, the numbers very similar, as the second year guard is shooting 39 percent overall and 29 percent from beyond the arc.
On top of that, there are instances in which Dunn has proven to be a liability as far as his ball-handling skills are concerned. This assertion is supported by the fact he is averaging over three turnovers per contest.
Keeping that in mind, while Dunn has more than likely closed the gap between himself and Grant in the ever-changing point guard competition, there is certainly room for improvement.
"“He makes two plays that make you really excited, getting into the paint, high-fly dunks,” Fred Hoiberg told CBS Chicago. “Then he has a couple really careless turnovers. That’s what we got to fix. We got to keep taking steps in the right direction with Kris. He’s certainly shown flashes of being an excellent basketball player, but we got to eliminate those careless turnovers. There’s too many of them. Again, that leads to fast-break basketball on the other end when you turn the ball over like that.”"
From a positive perspective, both players have shown flashes of solid play. On the other side of the coin, neither of the two has proven he can consistently play well.
Next: 2017-18 Week 5 NBA Power Rankings
If the Bulls are going to have any measure of success in what will be a long season, this trend has to change, considering the point guard spot is one of the most important positions within the team’s offense.