Chicago Bulls: 5 takeaways from 2018 NBA Summer League

4. 3-point defense

With the way the NBA has changed in the importance of the 3-point shot, if teams want to win they must be able to defend and take away that shot at a high level.

Excluding an Atlanta Hawks squad that shot 40 percent from distance, the next closest Bulls opponent shot 28.6 percent from beyond the arc — a testament to Chicago’s swarming perimeter defense.

Their success in that department was due in large part to the defensive abilities of Wendell Carter Jr., whose versatility on the defensive end allowed him to switch pick-and-rolls while containing his matchup and not allowing him to drive and kick to shooters.

Players these days pretty much must be able to take away the outside shot if they want to get consistent minutes in the pros. Otherwise, they’ll get torched and put their team in a sizable deficit they’re unlikely to recover from.

The defensive effort Chicago put forth in Summer League can’t be credited to just a single person. Rather, it shows that the Bulls’ roster is littered with guys willing to play hard at the less glamorous end of the court if it will help pick up a win.