Go ahead and file the numbers under the category of startling.
This is also the point where the Bulls front office of vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman might want to stop reading.
Even with the win over Washington on Wednesday, the Bulls are a dismal 63-142 (30.7 winning percentage) since trading Jimmy Butler.
All Butler has done since his Bulls jersey was stripped off his back in a 2017 draft-night trade? How about a 100-59 (62.8 winning percentage) in the games he’s played with Minnesota, Philadelphia and Miami, as well as taking three different teams to the postseason for three straight seasons, and likely carrying a fourth with Miami sitting in the No. 2 seed as of Thursday.
So to even mention Chandler Hutchison’s name in the same breath as Butler’s would seem to border on blasphemy.
Obviously, the Bulls aren’t much into sacrilege.
“It’s very dangerous to compare player to player,’’ Bulls coach Jim Boylen said of the Butler-Hutchison talk. “What I’ve experienced in this league is coaching Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Jimmy Butler, they came in and established themselves at the defensive end of the floor. A little different all of them, but they established themselves, they bought in that, ‘To get on the floor, I’ve got to guard.’ … So those dirty work, those toughness parts of the game, they locked into, which gave them a chance to be on the floor.
“Now they get minutes on the floor and now offensively they get more comfortable and they realize maybe what they don’t do well offensively and they work on that and they keep that foundation of defensive intensity and skill level and competitiveness. That’s what that comparison [with Hutchison] is about and I think he understands what I want. I try to be real clear with that. So we’ll see if he can keep moving forward.’’
At least the 22nd overall pick from the 2018 draft is moving as of Thursday.
Hutchison was slowed at the start of the season with a hamstring, came back and injured his right shoulder. Almost six weeks of rehabbing it, Hutchison finally returned to the rotation in Dallas on Jan. 6, but left late in the Wizards game, falling awkwardly and re-injuring the shoulder.
“When it happened I felt kind of like a pop, so in dealing with my shoulder that wasn’t a great. … it’s something you don’t want to hear,’’ Hutchison said after practice. “It locked up a little bit and I had trouble lifting it above my shoulders, above my head.’’
His hope is he will be available in Philadelphia on Friday, and considering he’s coming off one of his better games of the season — scoring 11 points in 12 minutes in the win — it’s about time for Hutchison to build on some momentum.
As for walking the same path that Butler did for the Bulls, well, Hutchison is a lot more confident that it’s doable than maybe he should be. Especially with so little evidence to support his case.
Just don’t tell the forward that.
“Yeah, 100 percent,’’ Hutchison said, when asked if he can be an elite defender. “Just from the time I’ve been out there I’ve had flashes of that. Now whether that’s a role I’m going to be given or not, whatever it’s going to be, I never take defensive possessions off. That’s not me.’’
Hutchison wasn’t the only one with that opinion, either.
“Yes, he has shown flashes that he can lock a guy down,’’ Boylen said. “We need more of those moments.’’
To come close to catching what Butler did for the Bulls, a lot more of those moments.
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January 17, 2020 at 04:49AM
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Bulls’ Chandler Hutchison follows Jimmy Butler’s path - Chicago Sun-Times
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