The Bulls closed out the preseason on Friday with a 4-0 record and a +19.8 net rating. They lost their throne as best preseason team in NBA history, but it was still the ninth-best showing of the last 15 years. Not too shabby.
Here’s what caught my eye in their final warmup, a 118-105 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies that was pretty much a dead lock while the main rotation players were in.
Patrick Williams as a small ball center
We only got 72 seconds of Williams playing center, just enough to pique curiosity. Williams was matched up against Jaren Jackson Jr., and almost immediately annihilated his layup attempt.
The Grizzlies quickly checked more physical big man Steven Adams in for Jackson Jr. Donovan, who coached Adams for a number of years, said after the game that he subbed in Vucevic because he wanted to get Williams out of that matchup. But I thought that Williams held up extremely well.
Williams at center is vital for the Bulls because the rest of their bigs are relatively immobile. Nikola Vucevic, Tony Bradley, and Alize Johnson all primarily guard ball screens in drop coverage, staying below the level of the screen. That is an okay defensive coverage, but certain types of teams (those with good popping big men and point guards with a good floater game and/or pull-up 3) will absolutely shred it. If you think this sounds exactly like the Atlanta Hawks, then you understand why the Bulls got blown out in their season opener against them last season.
Good defensive teams are able to employ multiple types of coverages, and a lot of that is based on having the right kind of personnel. Williams can allow the Bulls to play more aggressive pick-and-roll coverage if he can hold up against bigger players.
Donovan was using Williams to hard hedge ballscreens (if you’ve been watching the Chicago Sky, this has been their signature defense as well).
Williams was meeting the ballhandler up high, above the level of the screen. That technique forces the ball out of the ballhandler’s hands, but it leaves the roll man wide open and the rest of the team has to rotate. The key to this defense is having a hedge defender that is able to recover quickly and get the defense out of rotation, which Williams can do.
Williams also held up nicely on the defensive glass, getting a solid body on Adams. That will be vital if this defensive alignment can work. Here’s a video of the full play:
Donovan said after the game that he was just throwing Williams out there at center to experiment and see what would happen. It’s not totally clear if he’s ready for that role, but if he can do it during the regular season then it will be a huge help for the team.
Vucevic playing at the level
If Williams isn’t ready to battle the NBA’s behemoths, there are other options for defensive scheme versatility.
While I just said that Vucevic plays primarily drop coverage, he’s not the total stiff that he’s perceived as. He can mix it up once in a while and get up at the level of the screen. The rotations behind him have to be perfect to make it work, because his recovery time is way longer than Williams’.
Overall, the strategy had mixed success (video link). The Bulls gave it a go to end the second half, and they forced Ja Morant into a turnover on his drive. But the scheme also showed its limitations after Morant split the hedge in the third quarter for a straight-line dunk.
Lonzo Ball in two places at once
Stunting is a valuable part of help defense. A two-way stunt is a quick fake towards a player, then a recovery to your man. It allows you to look like you’re in two places at once, closing off space for offensive players to operate.
Two-way stunts are fairly aggressive. A one-way stunt would be starting near a player you have no intention of guarding, and going one direction in recovering to your man. That’s a more common stunt with the speed and athleticism of NBA athletes, and a much easier recovery to the player you’re guarding. But Ball plays a hyper-aggressive form of defense, allowing him to get a ton of deflections and steals. Here he is executing multiple two-way stunts to perfection:
The Bulls, who were supposed to be a horrendous defensive team, finished with the best defense in the preseason. Yeah, it’s just preseason. But for a team that was projected by “experts” to be a lock for a bottom-of-the-league defense, it means something that they were the polar opposite. They might not be a top-tier defense, but they won’t be the worst.
On the whole, the Bulls finished with some very impressive preseason statistics.
Alex Caruso’s communication
Another big benefit to the Bulls’ defense has been Caruso’s intelligence and willingness to speak up defensively to direct teammates. The Bulls’ social media team captured a fanstastic example of Caruso teaching his teammates better communication on their x-outs, which are a very common defensive rotation where teammates switch assignments, crossing paths in an “x” shape. If the rotation gets screwed up, two players will guard one guy and the offense will get a wide open 3-pointer.
Caruso’s intelligence was on display against the Grizzlies as well. Out of bounds plays are well-scouted during the regular season, but knowing exactly what a team is running in a preseason game is more unusual. I don’t know if Caruso heard the play call or just recognized the setup that the Grizzlies were in from last season, but this was impressive to me.
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