The Chicago Bulls have a lot of great pieces on their squad, one of them being veteran wing Luol Deng. Deng has one of the longer tenures of any players on the Bulls' roster and, consequently, most Bulls fans have already developed a pretty firm opinion on him.
One of the more-respected opinions when it comes to the Bulls belongs to the brilliant minds of those behind SB Nation's Blog a Bull. So, when they went about doing their previews for the upcoming season, it seemed to make sense to check in for their thoughts on Deng.
Not surprisingly, they (mostly) like him. JayPatt writes:
I admire what Deng brings to the table. He's tough as hell, can play multiple positions relatively well and plays balls to the wall for 40 minutes a night. His minutes are a running gag at this point, and I doubt they'll be diminishing anytime soon. With small-ball being somewhat en vogue these days, Hollinger notes that we may be seeing more Deng at power forward, especially with Omer Asik making now making bank in Houston.
But despite all this, I have major questions about whether Deng can improve upon the rather weak efficiency numbers he posted last year. Based on Hollinger's projections, he has those questions as well.
It'll definitely be interesting to see if Deng makes the transition to small-ball power forward on a more regular basis and -- as has been pointed out previously -- what that does for his averages heading into next season.
For more on the Chicago Bulls, check out Blog a Bull. You can also check out professional basketball news from around the league over at SB Nation's NBA page.