Player breakdowns: Bulls guard Kris Dunn has finally embraced a role

Maybe it’s the wingspan.

After all, 6-3 guards aren’t supposed to go 6-9½ fingertip to fingertip.

Then there are the quick hands. “DB hands,” as Bulls guard Kris Dunn likes to joke, reaching back to his football days.

Throw in the self-proclaimed “dawg mentality” that Dunn has lived by, and, of course, he’s one of the toughest defenders — not named Patrick Beverley — opposing guards have to deal with.

What’s even tougher?

Assessing Dunn’s career since he was acquired as part of the Jimmy Butler trade in 2017.

Is he more injury-prone or just riddled with bad luck? Is he the poster boy for overcoming the odds, or is he more of a Greek tragedy?

Or maybe he’s all of the above.

What’s disheartening about how Dunn’s 2019-20 season went, though, was that he finally found his place in the NBA. He’s mostly a defensive stopper. Yes, he can play the point and be a lead guard for a couple of minutes each game, along with being an average facilitator, but embracing the mentality of a stopper above everything else is what likely will keep him in the league for years to come.

That was Dunn’s attitude this year — finally.

And before an injury to his right medial collateral ligament ended his season last month, Dunn was gaining accolades for playing to his strength and was well on his way to all-defensive-team honors.

When the NBA shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Dunn led the league in deflections per 36 minutes with 5.4, was fourth in steals with 101 and was second in steals per game with two.

Ask Hawks All-Star point guard Trae Young how much of a defensive stopper Dunn was this season.

Young was averaging 29.6 points and hitting 36.1 percent of his three-point shots in his second season. In two meetings against Dunn, though, Young averaged only 12 points while shooting 7-for-26 from the field and 1-for-14 from three-point range (7.1 percent).

And he wasn’t the only elite scorer Dunn was a headache for this season.

The Situation: Dunn’s future with the Bulls is less about money than it is about philosophy.

He’ll be a restricted free agent this offseason, and coach Jim Boylen wants him back. But with a front office makeover in the works, Boylen could be out.

Dunn makes Boylen’s defense work and allows the offense to get out and run in transition because he’s able to create turnovers.

If there’s a coaching change, though, especially with someone who values offense and three-point shooting over defense, Dunn becomes expendable.

The Bulls will allow the market to set the price on Dunn either way, but there’s no question his future with the team is based more on what happens in the coaching seat.

The Resolution: The Clippers were interested in Dunn last summer, but that was before his latest knee injury. In Dunn’s three seasons with the Bulls, the most games he has played in a season is 52.

Yes, he could be a key reserve on a playoff team, ideally sent in to disrupt a game for 20 minutes, along with playing some minutes as the lead guard against second units. But his ability to stay healthy is a concern, along with his liabilities on the offensive end.

That could hurt his value, which would benefit the Bulls.

Bold Prediction: Like the drama with Nikola Mirotic in the 2017 offseason, the market never came calling for the stretch four. The Bulls ended up taking advantage of the situation, giving Mirotic a two-year, $27 million deal. Dunn will meet the same fate, signing a two-year deal for $18 million coming off the bench for new coach Kenny Atkinson.