The Importance of Good Point Guards, Conley’s Non-Fit, Second-Round Draft Talk, and Other Bullets

The NBA Finals start tonight!

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this series yet. I defintiely think the Warriors can sweep this thing, but with no Kevin Durant and playoff Kawhi Leonard on the other side for Game 1, things could end up being pretty fun to watch.

Also, probably even more exciting, the NBA apparently talked to the Raptors about controlling Drake while he sits court-side. I have no personal vendetta against Drake, but I feel like him keeping his hands off Nick Nurse is the normal-fan thing to do. If I touched the man I’d be probably be tackled by The Raptor.

  • Yesterday, we posted a story about what the Bulls could do on draft night if a point guard isn’t sitting there at No. 7 – you should give it a read. Thanks to our friend Finger on Twitter (interesting name choice, man), we got a pretty interesting thought in the comment thread, that I want to dissect a little bit:
  • Now, I can definitely see where Finger is coming from – I mean we have seen Giannis take the ball up this year – but I do think recent winning-history tells a different story. Below this bullet is a quick list at the point guards who’ve experienced the most playing time for their respective teams over the last decade’s championship runs. The asterisk marks the eventual winner.

  • Curry/Lowry
  • *Curry/Hill
  • *Curry/Irving
  • Curry/*Irving
  • *Curry/Irving
  • Parker/*Bibby & Chalmers
  • *Parker/Chalmers
  • Westbrook/*Chalmers
  • *Jason Kidd/Chalmers
  • *Fisher/Rondo
  • First of all, I very much do not like Mario Chalmers, perhaps that’s because in NBA 2k11 I would always end up on the Heat in the My Player mode and have to split minutes with him. Moving on, I would argue those Heat years are an exception in this discussion because, you know, the whole LeBron, Wade and Bosh thing. You could make a case for last year’s finals as proof that you don’t need a top-notch PG, but the team also had LeBron put up one of the best playoff-runs ever and the team also got swept in the finals. Otherwise, we are seeing some very talented and true-point guard material here.
  • All of this to say, I think it’s hard to imagine the Bulls heading toward contention without a true-PG as the facilitator. I totally understand the approach of taking the best player available in the draft this year, but a sizable hole still sits at the top of the Bulls lineup. Ultimately, the Bulls have potential scorers, but someone needs to be there to dish it out and guide the team offensively. Considering this year’s draft situation, the Bulls could be fine without landing a point guard, but when the team wants to finally be in true contention, it will need an answer at that position.
  • (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

  • Honestly, even look at the Warriors, the team is 32-4 when Curry plays and Durant doesn’t vs. 28-18 when Durant plays and Curry doesn’t. For arguably the greatest team ever, the absence of a true-point guard seems to still have some weight to it.
  • Well, he played in the 90s, so sometimes these younger folks do forget.
  • https://twitter.com/IQ_GodSon/status/1133800073748463618?s=20

  • Aside from all the other reasons that Conley doesn’t make sense for the Bulls (about which we talked briefly yesterday), it looks like the Bulls might not make sense for Conley, either. In a recent article at The Athletic, Conley states: “I want to be an impact player on a championship team… that’s what I dream of doing… I’ve told Marc (Gasol) plenty of times how jealous I am of him, how excited I am for him, I’d love to be competing where he is now, with the opportunity to play for a championship.” Conley might not be entitled to decide where he’s going, but I think we can agree this just isn’t going to be the best fit.
  • I’ve seen this idea come up a couple of times now, so it’s at least worth some attention.
  • The pick could certainly add some nice depth to the bench at the forward/center position, and forward is specifically a reasonable place to look with the second pick of the draft (that video does a good job demonstrating his versatility and you can also check out the bigger article here).
  • With that said, this would be kind of an odd pick if the Bulls wanted to play him at center, considering, you know, Wendall Carter Jr. And that’s not to mention the risk of having another 19-year-old as the back-up who missed the entire 2018-19 season after tearing his ACL and MCL. Then again, sometimes the diamond-in-the-rough strategy is the best way to get early-round talent later in the draft.
  • Mark Strotman of NBC Chicago Sports wrote an interesting article where he outlines specific team stats from this year’s Bulls team and displayed how particular players in the draft could help improve that. He even goes over guys like Zion Williamson and Ja Morant which is pretty fun, so you should go give it a read.
  • Here is some Thursday motivation courtesy of Draymond Green to push through the remainder of this week!
  • Also, while you’re here…
  • written by

    Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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