Marco Belinelli needs to learn Bulls defence fast if he wants decent playing time – NBA Feature
The Chicago Bulls had one of the most talked about off-seasons among all teams in the NBA. With Derrick Rose out due to ACL injury for much of the next season, Bulls fans expected them to sign a point guard who can hold the fort
till Rose returns and then play as a back up when he returns. The Bulls fans were also expecting the team to do an upgrade on their front court, possibly adding a scoring option to the team.
However, the Bulls parted ways with most of their bench, which had been so successful the past two seasons and was dubbed “the bench mob”. In return, the Bulls signed new players to fill out the benches. And one of those players
was Marco Belinelli.
Belinelli has been brought into the Bulls squad to replace Kyle Korver, the shooting guard who helped Chicago from the bench with his shooting skills. Belinelli is also well known for his shooting, and averaged 41.7 percent from
the field and 37.7 percent from the three point line last season for the New Orleans Hornets. Moreover, these averages are just below his career averages of 42.4 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from the distance.
With averages like that, Belinelli brings the shooting skills required to replace Korver and take over his role of spacing the defence and shooting the odd open shot.
Belinelli, 26, has been in the NBA for five years and has already made a name for him as a great shooter. Although the Bulls have been criticized for not doing enough in the offseason to make them championship contenders, the addition
of Belinelli for Korver makes complete sense. Belinelli has also played the 1 position over the course of his career and although the Bulls are set in that position with Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson, it goes to show that Belinelli is a good ball handler
apart from being a great shooter and wingman.
The weak side of Belinelli is that he is not a great defender. Although the guard is only 26 and has many years ahead of him to grow as a player and improve his defence, he is playing on the Bulls roster now, under Coach Tom Thibodeau.
And if anyone knows Thibodeau, they know that he does not take his defence for granted, and expects his players to give a consistent effort on that end of the floor night in and night out.
The real challenge for Belinelli will be to get himself used to the Bulls defence as quickly as possible, and play decent enough for Thibodeau to be able to put him on the floor during games without weakening the overall team defence.
Belinelli’s main role in the team is to shoot open shots and spread the floor, something he is quite good at. But he needs to improve his defence if he wants good minutes under Tom Thibodeau.
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