CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Affable and wise, new Bulls big man Tristan Thompson wasted no time Wednesday evening endearing himself to the team and fans after his first practice with Chicago. He did so with a simple comment.
He called Bulls star DeMar DeRozan the league MVP.
“He’s playing out of this world,” Thompson said.
That he is, and Thompson is here to help provide reinforcement for DeRozan and the first-place Bulls (38-21), who host the Hawks (28-30) on Thursday in their first game out of the All-Star break.
The 6-foot-9 Thompson, 30, officially signed with the Bulls on the buyout market Saturday after being waived by the Pacers, for whom he played just four games after being traded by the Kings. Thompson is averaging 6.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in 15.3 minutes per game while shooting 50.9% this season.
In Chicago, Thompson is expected to back up Bulls center Nikola Vucevic and provide help for a Bulls team whose defense has dipped to 20th in the NBA and which has at times struggled to rebound with Vucevic off the court.
“Do whatever it takes to win, whether it’s set screens, dive for loose balls, finish around the rim,” Thompson said of his role. “Whatever my team needs to win, that’s all that matters. So I think I’ll mesh pretty well with this group. I think it’s an area that this team could definitely benefit with my energy each and every night. So I’m excited.”
A veteran with 83 career playoff games, four NBA Finals appearances and one championship under his belt, Thompson is also known as a vocal leader, and he certainly plans to bring that trait to the Bulls.
“I’m going to say what’s best for the team, because I’ve been part of championship-level teams, won a championship, been with Hall of Fame players,” Thompson said. “I took stuff I learned from them, and I think it’s only fair and right in this game of basketball, you got to pay it forward.
“The more honest and the more transparent we are with each other as a ball club, especially with a team that’s trying to make a deep run, it can only just benefit us.”
Bulls coach Billy Donovan called the addition of Thompson “really helpful” from an on-court and leadership standpoint.
“He has a wealth of experience if you look at his career,” Donovan said of what Thompson adds to the Bulls. “He’s also got a good way about him as well. The vocal part is just even more defensively, his communication, his presence, him on the backboard rebounding, those kinds of things.
"The size and physicality and the presence of him in that second unit is going to really help ... Tristan, I think for his career, has been a really good rim protector. He's been a really, really good rebounder. He's really been a really good pick-and-roll defender. He's been a good screen-and-roller, and he does what he does at a really high level."
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.