The future of the Bulls just CHANGED forever...

On Wednesday night, Caleb Wilson was a minus 45. In his first NBA game, he turned the ball over nine times and the Bulls lost by 43. Saturday night, he scored 30 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and didn't turn it over once for his first career double-double. The Bulls still lost that game, but I think this is the most important thing that's happened to this franchise in years. Over the next few minutes, I'm going to tell you five numbers of why Caleb Wilson is the future of the Chicago Bulls and one that could slow him down. Let's start with the shape of the three games because the shape matters more than dropping 30 points. And we're going to dive into the heavy analytics on why this guy is the future. We're not just going to go off highlights here. 16 points in his debut, 21 in Milwaukee and 30 against Washington, every game higher than the one before. Through three games, he's averaging 22.3 points, eight rebounds and two steals a game. and he's shooting 78.9% for the free throw line. Now look underneath the points. His turnovers went 9, then 3, then 0. His free throw attempts went from 2, then 6, then 11. That 9 wasn't only him. Chicago turned it over 27 times that night, and in two games since, Wilson has three turnovers in 71 minutes. That's pretty good. A young player that stops turning over the ball and is getting to the free throw line more consistency is him learning the NBA game speed in real time. And that's not something that's just luck. He's actually adjusting his game to be better. Per 36 minutes, that's 23.4 points and 8.4 rebounds. He also has six steals and four blocks, 10 disruptions in three games, 3.3 a game. At North Carolina, it was only 2.9. His minutes went 32, 33, 38. His plus minus went from minus 45 to minus three to plus 14. And on Saturday, that was the best number on the Bulls. So how does a 20-year-old get 30 points against an NBA team in just his third game? He goes where the defense couldn't stop him. Of the 67 points he scored in the NBA, 55 came on two-pointers and free throws. Inside the arc, he's 20 for 36. That's 55.6% on two-pointers. And on Saturday, it was 9 for 15. Sports Illustrated had him attempting eight dunks in the first half alone. Five went in and the other three rimmed out, but still sent him to the line. Here is how he explained it after the game, quote, I'm just being aggressive. They're a team that's really big and our opportunities are in transition because they have too much size. So I was just using that to my advantage to try to get downhill and create opportunities for myself. Chicago scored 34 fast break points that night and the Digest Sports scouting report tags him as a transition first player. And the 14 rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass, tell you the motor is real in this player. The easiest shot in basketball is the one he lives on, and that's why I trust him getting 30 points. And none of this should shock you, because we've seen this from Caleb Wilson last year at North Carolina. In 24 games as a freshman, he averaged 19.8 points, 9 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 1.4 blocks, and shot 57.8% from the field. Sports reference has his player efficiency rating at 31.4, floor and ceiling had usage rates at 28.8%, and box plus minus at 12.7. Usage rate is a team's possession that ended with Caleb Wilson either shooting, getting to the line, or turning it over. Last year at North Carolina, he was at 28.8%. That's over a quarter with every single possession ending with Caleb Wilson with the ball in his hand. The defense side traveled too. At North Carolina, it was 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks a game. In the NBA, it's 2 steals and 1.3 blocks. The free throw rate is just free throw attempts for every shot he takes. At North Carolina, it was 61.6%. Through three NBA games, it's at 32.2%. and on Saturday, it was 45.8%. And that's what you want out of a rookie. Everything that happened in college that made him a great player is now transitioning over to the NBA, and he's getting better every single night. His free throw percentage is up from 71.3% at North Carolina to 78.9% in the NBA on 19 attempts. It's a small sample, but it's in the right direction. Quickly, before we get into the rest of the video, if you're enjoying this style of content here on Bulls Digest and you want more of it every single day, We're here at home for Bulls content here on YouTube. Sky below, hit that subscribe button. It's completely free to do so. We're on the road for 6,000 subscribers here. Now the comparison everyone's making. I'm going to handle it very carefully. Yeah, we're talking about MJ. Michael Jordan scored 74 points in his first three NBA games. Caleb is at 67, the second most by any player in Bulls history. Different era, different game, different pace, but the one thing that does transition is a young player who knows how to get to the line. Jordan scored 16 and 21 in his first two games, so did Caleb. For perspective, Jordan finished that rookie season with 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists a game. That's the bar for the comparison, and it's exactly why I'm not making it. In Game 3, Jordan scored 37 on 24 shots with 13 free throw attempts. Caleb scored 30 on 24 shots with 11. And the comparison is crazy, because Jordan went to North Carolina as well. He was 21 when he made his debut on opening night, Caleb was 20, and Jordan went third overall in the draft in 84, and Caleb Wilson just went fourth. I mean, the comparison is right there. The Chicago Sun-Times also has him as the third youngest player in NBA history to put up 30 points, 14 rebounds, and two steals in the game, joining John Drew and Victor Wembanyama. Now, I'm not saying Caleb Wilson is the next Michael Jordan, that is crazy, but through three games, it is enough to see that the Bulls have something to build around here, and it's very exciting now the part that you didn't see in the highlights from the games through three games Caleb Wilson is four for 23 from the three that's 17.4 percent on Saturday he missed his first seven threes and finished one for nine think about that seven misses in a row and he kept shooting that is a player who has a lot of confidence in his shot from beyond the arc and eventually they're going to start falling but it is going to be a tough conversation that Tiago Splitter and coaching staff are going to have to have with them is you know if you're playing more consistent from the mid-range, maybe you should shoot more middies, but I think Caleb Wilson has a lot of confidence in his three-point shot, and eventually it's going to straighten out and they're going to go in. At North Carolina, he took 1.13s a game and made 25.9% of them. In the NBA, he's taking seven a game at this point. 39% of his shots have been threes. At North Carolina, it was only 9%. Here's the math that matters. His 36 attempts from inside the arc have produced 40 points. That's 1.1 points a shot. His 23 attempts from the three have produced 12 points. That's 0.52 points a shot. Right now, every three he takes is worth about 0.6 points less than a two. Put it together, and his true shooting percentage is at 49.7% through three games. On Saturday, it was 52%. The two-pointers are carrying him, and the three-pointers are dragging him down. True shooting is made up by doubling his shot attempts and how many times he gets to the line. So right now, it's really judging on his threes and free throws very heavily. So really what we're saying here is he's taking more three-point shots, more shots from beyond the arc that he didn't take in college. So he's still trying to figure that out on his end, and I think they will eventually fall for it. Take those threes away, and the picture looks very different. 20 for 36 on twos and 15 for 19 at the free throw line. If that three-point shot and the jumper looks good, he's going to become a star. But if you take that away, he's still going to be a 20-point player a night, And that's a good floor to have for a future star like this. So why do we call him the future and not just a really good rookie? Because of what's around him. Josh Giddey had 10 assists on Saturday, and Bucelis scored 21 on 7 of 13 shooting. Saturday, the Bulls turned it over 12 times as a team, down from 27 on opening night. Giddey had 10 assists with no turnovers, and Wilson had none either. That's an offense starting to work. Wilson is the second leading rookie scorer in the league, behind Darius Acuff Jr. of Sacramento, who is at 22.5 points a game at this point. The number one pick, A.J. Dibaba, has missed all three of Washington's games with a sprained left ankle, so the rookie matchup everyone wants still hasn't happened yet. The Bulls are 1-2, and a team that's 1-2 doesn't need a savior in Game 3. They just need someone to work around, and that's what's happening here, and we're going to get better as the season goes on. And new head coach, Tiago Splitter, has a lot of faith in Caleb Wilson. He's been playing him a lot of minutes, more minutes than any other person on the team throughout the first three games, so I think he got a lot of faith in him, and this is the coach that really wants to work this offense through Caleb Wilson. Turnovers, 9-3-0, free throws 2-6-11, .16-21-30, those aren't one hot night, those are habits. Over the next 10 games, if we can see him start to limit these turnovers, be better shooting at the line, start knocking down more shots from beyond the arc, I think we're going to be talking about the Caleb Wilson we've seen in North Carolina. I think he maybe even has surpassed that at this point in the NBA. So we need to see Caleb Wilson stay consistent over a 10-game span, and then we're kind of looking at, hey, this guy's a real star, and I think he's going to get there. So here's my answer. It isn't really just a player who had one 30-point night. It's a player who's got better over every single game, and I think we're going to see him improve as he gets more reps here in the NBA. And I know it's only three games. That's why I gave you guys the lines that are against my point. But I really do believe that he is going to be the future of this team and really going to help us get the Bulls back into winning form and become the dynasty that we once were. Tell me what you guys think in the comments. Do you think our future just changed forever with Caleb Wilson? Do you think he's going to keep this up? What do you think about the Bulls? Can he be the guy that we need? I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts down below in the comments as well.