(670 The Score) The Bulls recently hired former DePaul star Peter Patton as their director of player development, and they’re counting on him to make a difference, notably with their youngsters.
Patton played at DePaul from 1992-’96. He shot 54.7% on 3-pointers in the 1994-’95 season and ranks among the program’s all-time leaders in several statistical categories. Patton previously worked as a shooting coach for the Mavericks and Timberwolves.
“As a team, our shooting needs to improve,” general manager Marc Eversley said Thursday night after the NBA Draft concluded. “We sat as a group and talked about what are the things that we need to do? And one of them we thought about was we needed to hire a shooting coach. Peter comes to us not only as a shooting coach but somebody who can actually oversee our player development function. We thought we needed a fresh look. We thought we needed to look a different approach, and he brings a wealth of experience to that position. We’re excited about having him here in our building working with our coaching staff, working with our players, and we feel like he can help the overall look and feel of how we play the game and shoot the ball.”
The Bulls ranked last in the NBA in 3-point volume last season, attempting just 28.9 per game. They shot 36.1% from 3-point range, which ranked 16th in the league.
Two of the players that Patton will be tasked with helping are second-year guard Dalen Terry and rookie forward Julian Phillips, whom the Bulls selected at No. 35 overall Thursday. Terry shot 25.9% from 3-point range in limited action as a rookie, and Phillips shot 23.9% on 3-pointers last season in college.
“When we both showed up here a few years ago, we talked a lot about player development and internal growth,” Eversley said. “We recently hired a new director of player development to focus just on that – shooting. And being shot ready and being ready to shoot the ball when you’re open. It’s something that’s very important to us. We’ll continue to work on it every single day and again, we’ve addressed it in terms of our coaching staff and hiring somebody recently.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
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