Early Lessons from Doug McDermotts Preseason with Chicago Bulls: Doug McDermott lit up TV screens at Creighton University as one of the best shooters in NCAA history. And while he owes his new career as a pro with the Chicago Bulls to that singular scoring ability, he’s also got a lot to learn if he expects major rotation minutes. Especially in Tom Thibodeau’s demanding system. When asked about McDermott’s progress before the Bulls’ 85-84 preseason victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday (the second of two exhibition games McDermott has started), Thibodeau said per Mark Strotman of CSN Chicago, “The most important thing is that the team functions well when he’s on the floor.” Thibodeau, like many NBA coaches, is more concerned with a total skill set than with one specialty. “Dougie McBuckets” will have to stay tight on defensive strings and exercise correct spacing within Thibodeau’s offensive playbook. He’ll have to shoot when he’s supposed to shoot and pass when he’s supposed to pass. He has to be aware. Whether he can become an efficient chess piece in the complex stratagem of the NBA is what will determine McDermott’s success. Thibodeau is confident that he can. “He has a great approach,” the coach said. “He strives for improvement each and every day. He’ll continue to get better.” McDermott’s head does seem to be in the right place. He hasn’t found his shooting touch much—he’s just 40 percent from the field in the preseason—but he has been able to get his open shots and release the ball quickly. Perhaps most importantly, hes been able to gain the respect of defenses and stretch the floor, opening up the lane for Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol. Hes also been committed to contributing in other areas. He collected nine rebounds against Atlanta, and eight against both the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons. “The rebounding is good. You’re not going to shoot the ball great every night in this league, and when you don’t, you’ve got to do other things, and that’s what he showed he can do,” Thibodeau said. Whether McDermott can stand up to his coach’s defensive standards is another question. He hasn’t been exactly a sieve thus far, but he hasn’t been good enough to earn significant minutes, either. McDermott’s concepts and intentions seem to be fine, but he’s definitely still adjusting to the intensity of the NBA trenches. As Blog a Bull’s Kevin Ferrigan puts it, “McDermott has a pretty tough time navigating screens at this stage of his career… The speed of the game is new for McDermott, so he might just not be used to big men who move as quickly as NBA big men.” McDermott doesn’t have the foot speed or power to likely ever be a terrific defender on the wings, but in time he can learn the body tricks that teammates like Kirk Hinrich use to consistently frustrate the opposition—Hinrich is infamously difficult to screen. It’s that kind of mettle the rookie must build in order to be a rotation player, and earn the respect of teammates like Aaron Brooks, who has taken to a sort of hazing by calling McDermott “Ray.” Beyond the myriad gritty details of NBA performance, though, McDermott’s renowned scoring still has a ways to go before it translates to the next level. Although he’s been able to get his open jumpers off the ball—and it should only be a matter of time before they start falling at a greater rate—McBuckets has not yet shown the capacity to create shots for himself. McDermott hasn’t exactly been looking for those opportunities, either. He seems more eager to fit into his team’s mission statement than to chisel out his own imprint on games. Self-creation (which he did at a wunderkind level at Creighton) was one of the more doubtful aspects of McDermott’s game as he was being vetted for the draft, as he lacks the elite athleticism typically associated with the NBAs best. McDermott has not been a dynamic isolation player, but he also hasn’t had much of a chance to prove himself as one yet, either. He hasn’t had a chance to prove himself as much of anything, in fact. But through McBuckets’ small sample size we have seen that he’s a natural addition to his team. Willing, docile, hard-working and eager to adopt his coachs obsessive attention to detail, McDermott will be an integral Bull—perhaps even a starter—by season’s end. Read more NBA news on BleacherReport #Basketball #NBA #NBACentral #ChicagoBulls #fantasybasketball
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:33:27 +0000
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