Chicago Bulls: 3 takeaways from Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn missing rest of season

2. Bench unit will continue to shine

Injuries are an unfortunate reality in any sport. The upside is the fact that role players are given the chance to prove their worth. One such example of this sentiment is David Nwaba, who the Bulls claimed off waivers during the offseason.

He is averaging a shade under eight points per contest on 49.6 percent shooting from the field and 35.6 percent from 3-point range.

Cameron Payne — who was all but written off following a second extended stint on the shelf due to a foot injury — is starting to come around a bit. He is averaging 8.7 points per contest and has scored in double figures in five of the last seven outings.

Although there is still much room for improvement in terms of his outside shooting (41.5 percent), Payne has made the most of his opportunity thus far.

The same can be said about Noah Vonleh (7.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per outing) and Sean Kilpatrick (11.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game). Both are performing reasonably well considering they didn’t join the team until the latter part of the season.

Behind the contributions of these players, as well as Bobby Portis (13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per contest), the Bulls’ second unit is ranked seventh in the NBA, averaging 41.0 points per game, including 47.5 points per outing over the last 10 games, per Hoopstats.com.

With that in mind, look for this group of guys to continue to give an all-out effort each night because not only are they auditioning for a roster spot with the Bulls, they are also hoping to draw interest from the other teams around the league as well.