The culprits are many.
When a player is selected in the second round of the draft that means that most of the NBA found holes in the game. In the case of Daniel Gafford, that also includes the team that selected him 38th overall.
But Gafford also knows which teams showed real “interest’’ in him, yet still passed on the 6-foot-10 big man from Arkansas.
“I don’t put [that chip] on my shoulder,’’ Gafford said on Saturday. “I just let my game do the talking. I don’t do too much talking where it’s like, ‘Oh, a bunch of teams could have picked me before …’ I know the teams that had interest in me, and when we play those teams that slipped up on me I just show them. Simple as that. No reason to talk or anything like that. I keep it to myself and let my game do the talking.’’
It’s talking. And the Bulls were listening.
They listened enough to go from having big plans for free-agent acquisition Luke Kornet at the start of the season, to now making Kornet a permanent fixture on the end of the bench.
So is it a Kornet problem or what Gafford has shown?
According to coach Jim Boylen, both.
“It’s a combination of things,’’ Boylen said. “[Kornet], with the sinus surgery and the way he felt early physically, and the emergence of Daniel Gafford and his single-mindedness, his athleticism, and his energy. Our intentions [in signing Kornet] were good. You don’t know what you have sometimes with a draft pick. You hope they can learn and grow, and I think he’s done a heck of a job, so you have to credit him more than critique Luke.’’
It isn’t like the Bulls threw a heavy check in Kornet’s direction. It was just two years, $4.5 million. Heck, Cristiano Felicio is getting $8.1 million this season alone to play for the G-League Windy City club a few times a week, and pass the flu around.
But the Bulls did say when they signed Kornet that he graded out well from an analytics perspective. Not so much now.
Gafford has given the second unit some much-needed toughness and physicality around the rim, especially from a rim protection standpoint.
“Really just played the basketball that I’ve always played,’’ Gafford said, when asked how he’s opened his team’s eyes into giving him more playing time. “Come out and be real energetic, high-energy guy. Block shots and grab rebounds, and just catch what comes off the rim. Just do all the little things. Be the guy that’s out there, trying to keep everyone into the game, try do as much as I can to help the team win.’’
The Hutch dilemma
Chandler Hutchison was healthy enough to play just under 40 minutes for the Windy City Bulls on Friday night, but remained inactive on Saturday.
So what gives for the second-year forward, who has been dealing with a sore right shoulder for six weeks now? Call it being overly-cautious.
“I’m happy with what he did [Friday] night, the minutes he played,’’ Boylen said. “We’re not going to take a chance with him. I like his progression. We’ll re-evaluate him [Sunday] as far as practicing with us. For the coming week, we’ll re-evaluate where he’s at.’’
In that G-League game, Hutchison scored 14 points on 6-for-20 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds.
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January 05, 2020 at 09:16AM
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The Bulls have a Luke Kornet problem thanks to a second-round rookie - Chicago Sun-Times
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