Ranking the Chicago Bulls' Offseason Acquisitions
The Chicago Bulls didn’t get Carmelo Anthony this summer. But they were hell-bent on making sure they upgraded their roster in one way or another.
By adding Pau Gasol, Doug McDermott, Cameron Bairstow, Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks while only losing one rotation player (D.J. Augustin, who’s now with the Detroit Pistons), the Bulls indubitably did that.
The Bulls gained depth at every position. Some of their pickups pertain more to the future than the present, but all of them were smart. Everyone they added brings something needed to the table.
Let’s take a closer look at each new Bull.
5. Cameron Bairstow
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Cameron Bairstow makes it two summers in a row that the Bulls have drafted talent from the University of New Mexico. Last year, it was forward Tony Snell.
Bairstow is a big, bruising Australian power forward. His role in 2014-15 will be primarily as a practice player, as the Bulls are facing a bit of a logjam in their frontcourt. He feasted in college, averaging 20.4 points as a senior, and not just as a finisher near the rim; his mid-range jump shot was also a top weapon.
It’s too soon to tell if Bairstow will ever be a rotation man for the Bulls will even last as an NBA player. But if the Bulls drafted him, it means Bairstow passed through the stringent personality screening the team’s front office has been using since at least the arrival of Tom Thibodeau.
Bairstow is a level-headed, team-first player who can make a contribution to a winning culture, in-game or not.
4. Aaron Brooks
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Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has garnered a reputation for rehabilitating forgotten NBA point guards. C.J. Watson, John Lucas III, D.J. Augustin and Nate Robinson have all flourished under him.
Aaron Brooks is arguably more talented than any of those players. On the 2009-10 Houston Rockets, Brooks was the second scoring option, averaging 19.6 points per game on 43 percent shooting from the floor. He also collectd 5.3 assists per contest.
Brooks has bounced around since then—most recently playing for the Denver Nuggets—but his movement around the league is less about his skills than his injuries, as well as the exponentially increasing point guard depth across the league.
Brooks is a quick, creative driver and also shoots the three well enough to make defenses work, shooting 37 percent from beyond the arc for his career. As a backup for Rose and Kirk Hinrich, Brooks should be a huge luxury for the Bulls, carrying reps through the dog days of the season to let those aging (Hinrich) and brittle (Rose) guards sit more and stay healthy for the playoffs.
3. Nikola Mirotic
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Nikola Mirotic probably won’t play much in 2014-15. Getting minutes behind Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson will prove difficult, especially for a 23-year-old largely unfamiliar with the tenets of Thibodeau’s exacting defense.
But Mirotic is an extremely valuable piece going forward. It's no accident that he's a growing legend among Bulls fans since they acquired his contract rights in 2011 (after he was drafted 23rd overall by the Houston Rockets, then traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves). Now he's finally here after a long stint with Real Madrid.
ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla went so far as to tell ESPN 1000's Waddle and Silvy Show (h/t ESPN.com) that he would’ve been a top-four pick in this summer’s NBA draft, largely believed to be one of the deepest in years:
"Given the way the flow of the league is going with spacing, really a lack of quality inside scorers, the game has become a driving game. And where it fits for the Bulls, especially and particularly if D. Rose is healthy and back to form, is he is a 6-[foot-]10, young floor spacer who can really shoot it. But also has enough skill to be able to drive it on occasion.
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Mirotic’s combination of size, mobility and shooting makes him an ideal big man for the future in an NBA less and less concerned with traditional frontcourt production. And learning the nuances of his position from Gasol, Noah and Gibson surely bodes well for the Bulls’ long-term outlook.
2. Doug McDermott
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The Bulls won a surprising 48 games last year. But throughout the season—and especially against the Washington Wizards in the playoffs—they had one glaring, massive weakness: offense.
Doug McDermott’s production on that end was literally historic in the NCAA. He’s the fifth all-time college scorer and was the National Player of the Year as a senior. A sweet, calm shooter with a quick release at every spot on the floor, there’s little confusion as to why he earned the nickname “Dougie McBuckets.”
Whether McDermott can create shots for himself in the NBA like he did at Creighton University remains to be seen. He’ll undoubtedly be able to make defenses pay as a floor-spacer, though. He’s an almost automatic scorer if he’s left alone away from the rim.
McDermott is likely ready to step in and stretch the opposition right away. Derrick Rose hasn’t had this kind of a shooter on hand since Kyle Korver left town. The extra room he has to work into the lane will not go unnoticed.
1. Pau Gasol
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This man needs little introduction. A future Hall of Famer and two-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, Pau Gasol just had a terrific summer playing with his Spanish national team at the FIBA World Cup tournament.
Spain fell in a stunning, disappointing upset at the hands of Boris Diaw and France, but Bulls fans still got an ample peek at the brilliant big man before he suits up in Chicago. Gasol averaged 20 points on 63.5 percent shooting, with 5.9 boards, 2.1 assists and 2.3 blocks per game. He impacted the game at every level and was arguably the tournament’s best player before Spain was eliminated.
He won’t be quite at the center of the action for the Bulls as he was in FIBA. And that’s a good thing—Gasol can develop chemistry with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah for the kind of multifaceted offensive action the Bulls will need to get through the strategic attrition game that is the NBA playoffs.
But in the event that Chicago needs Gasol to put the team on his shoulders, he’s just shown us that he has plenty of that type of production left in him. Gasol looks ecstatic to be out of the purgatory of a sagging Lakers organization, thrilled by the opportunity to fight for another title. He’s the best free-agency get of the Thibodeau era.
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