Changing the “shot profile’’ was a high priority for Arturas Karnisovas this offseason, and on Monday the Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations continued giving it a facelift.
Four days after adding Javon Carter to help stretch the floor, the Bulls agreed on a two-year deal with forward Torrey Craig.
Like Carter, Craig is an aggressive defender, as well as an outside presence that on paper should make life a bit rougher for the teams that threw frequent double teams at Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, with little fear of the Bulls having a counter move.
Meet the counter moves: Carter shot 42.1% from three last season, while Craig had his best career-shooting season in 2022-23 with the Suns, hitting 39.5% from long range.
Big picture in adding the 6-foot-7, 32-year-old Craig? The hope is the Bulls will no longer dwell in the basement in three-point attempts per game.
Last season, they were dead last in that category with 28.9 per game – the only roster in the NBA that didn’t get up at least 30 three-pointers per contest. It didn’t help that they also finished 16th in three-point percentage (36.1%) on the ones they did hit on. That scoring discrepancy reared its ugly head, especially on nights that the Bulls didn’t defend well in the first half of the season.
That’s why the 112.2 defensive efficiency rating last year felt so empty. The Bulls finished fifth in that category, joining New Orleans as the only other team in the top 10 defensively that sat home for the playoffs.
A big factor in that was an inability to keep up with teams from the outside.
While Patrick Williams finished with a team-best 41.5% from three-point range, Carter would have ranked second, and Craig would have been third. The next best three-point shooter after Williams was Zach LaVine (37.5%) and Coby White (37.2%), who they just extended to a three-year deal last week.
The additions of Carter and Craig also allows coach Billy Donovan to keep the same defensive schemes in place, disrupting the opposition in the backcourt and points of attack on pick-and-roll, covering up the weakness the Bulls have at protecting the rim.
