(670 The Score) It hasn’t taken big man Daniel Theis long to fit in with the Bulls.
Acquired by Chicago from Boston in a trade deadline day deal on March 25, Theis has played 16 games for the Bulls and started the last seven. After a few initial growing pains, he has become more comfortable, a development that was on full display in his 23-point, 12-rebound, five-assist effort as Chicago won 110-102 at Miami on Monday night.
Theis and fellow All-Star center Nikola Vucevic (24 points, 11 rebounds) dominated the paint, helping the Bulls climb within one game of the 10th-place Wizards in the East. The Bulls (26-35) are 4-3 since inserting Theis into the starting lineup, a stretch in which star guard Zach LaVine has been out after landing in the health and safety protocols.
“Our chemistry, I think it’s been really good,” Vucevic said. “We haven’t played that much together, but you can already see a lot of things that we do well. He hits me on a lot of high-lows throughout the game. I try to hit him as well. And we play inside-out. I think that’s been very effective for us, especially with Zach out. We miss some of that outside scoring, so we try to find different ways to make up for it. It’s been good. Since him and I have been in the starting lineup, I think we’ve been having some success.”
The 6-foot-8 Theis has endeared himself to the Bulls coaching staff and teammates alike because of his tough-minded play. He fits well for the Bulls at power forward because he brings elements the team has otherwise been missing. Theis provides more rim protection than fellow big men Vucevic, Thad Young and Lauri Markkanen. He boxes out fiercely – sometimes with a savvy stiff arm into his enemy – and closes out on shooters vociferously.
Those around him have taken notice.
“He was actually always one of the toughest matchups I faced,” Vucevic said, referencing when his former Magic team used to play Theis’ Celtics. “He’s a very, very good defender. Very smart. He doesn’t give you anything easy. He makes you work for everything. He does his work early. It’s hard to play against him. And he’s a great teammate. You see a lot of things that he did in Boston that people don’t necessarily see because it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet or if you don’t watch games regularly, you won’t see it. But he just does so much stuff for us.”
Theis is averaging 9.4 points and 5.4 rebounds with Chicago while playing just shy of 24 minutes per game – not that he cares about those numbers.
“You guys know already, I care about the winning part,” said Theis, who will be a free agent this offseason. “Stats don't matter for me, I want to win. I'm just frustrated with myself when we lose games like last game (in Miami on Saturday), like we showed in the fourth quarter we can play, but we didn't do it in the first three quarters. The same when we played in Cleveland. Like, we came from Boston, we played a great game defensively. We go to Cleveland, we get our ass beat. And then in the second half of the back-to-back in Charlotte, we play defense again. I think for us it's about we gotta find our consistency, especially on the defensive end. That's where I see my job, especially. I'm a defensive anchor, I take defense really personal. So for me it's about getting stops.”
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.