Chicago Bulls: Five takeaways from the team’s first six games

3. They need a real point guard

In today’s NBA, you aren’t going to go far without a player who can create easy opportunities for their teammates and possesses the skills to take advantage of those openings.

In lieu of drafting guards like Killian Hayes or Tyrese Haliburton, the Bulls took a wing and hoped that giving Coby White increased point guard responsibilities would address the issue. It hasn’t.

As mentioned in the previous slide, the Bulls have struggled with turnovers, and their middling-at best-facilitating (19th in assists per 100) hasn’t made up for those follies. This, of course, is the byproduct of placing your offense in the hands of two players who continuously struggle to make the right plays in the pick and roll.

Both White and Zach LaVine have two of the 50 highest turnover rates per 100 possession in the league thus far, which is a problem when those two have the ball in their hands as much as they do (Tomas Satoransky, the backup point guard, would rank among the 30 highest if he qualified). Far too often, Bulls’ possessions end like this (White should’ve easily recognized that Giannis Antetokoumpo was too close for this to work)

Or like this (LaVine should’ve led Porter to the basket with this pass):

If the Bulls believed that none of the point guards available in the draft were an obvious upgrade, then they made the right choice getting an athletic wing instead. However, the need for a natural playmaker will remain as long as their guards continue to produce these underwhelming results.