Chicago Bulls: 5 storylines to watch during second half of season

5. Here comes Mr. Payne

The Bulls acquired Cameron Payne in the Taj Gibson–Doug McDermott trade last February. Unfortunately for Payne, things didn’t go as many hoped. In 11 appearances for the Bulls — including a total of just four minutes of playing time in his last two games of the regular season — Payne didn’t exactly instill confidence about his ability to effectively play the point guard position.

In those 11 games, Payne averaged 4.9 points and 1.4 assists on shooting splits of .333/.324/.250. Let’s also keep in mind during the course of his young career; Payne is shooting 37.7 percent overall and just 31.7 percent from 3-point range.

Throw in the fact he has broken his right foot three times and it is reasonable to wonder whether he is capable of carving out a spot in the rotation.

If you ask Payne, though, he confident that his skill-set is a good match with this year’s Bulls team.

"“I like to play fast,” Payne told the Chicago Tribune. “In college [at Murray State], I played fast. OKC, we played real fast. I feel like this scheme we have going fits me perfectly. Just be a good playmaker, get my teammates involved and flow into the offense. Just play my game.”"

The Bulls are hoping Payne makes the grade being that he is the lone remaining piece from last year’s trade. He had a decent return against the Philadelphia 76ers, finishing with a stat line of seven points, seven assists and two rebounds. I’m still not totally sold on Payne yet, as the outside shooting leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully he will continue to improve during the remaining 24 games.