How Important Was Toni Kukoc For The Chicago Bulls?

In this video we take a look at toni kukoc and how good he was with the chicago bulls.
he played with michael jordan and scottie pippen and dennis rodman.
Now I am pretty sure you know that when toni kukoc entered the nba, michael jordan just had retired. so this changed the entire dymanic of the bulls team.
Now with Michael Jordan being done, this would open a lot more playing time and responsibilty for rookie toni kukoc.
This also would mean that even though kukoc was 6ft11, he and scottie pippen would get a lot of ballhandling duties and often would play the point guard
position. In the 1993/1994 season kukoc just turned 25 and after gaining a lot of confidence in europe he had to adjust defensively to way quicker and more athletic players. This would be tonis biggest weakness at the beginning of his nba career. Offensively toni was ready from the get go.
For NBA defenders Kukoc was a very rare speciment. Players werent used to a guy of his size with this kind of skillset. He could shoot, pass, run the floor and be. missmatch for many defenders. If we look back at his rookie season we can clearly say it was a success. Kukoc avg almost 11 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists.


In his second season kukoc became a starter in most games and also improved a lot.before michael jordan had his comeback kukoc became the second leading scorer of the bulls team, and also showed some progress in his defensive efforts. the one thing that many people overlooked was that toni was super clutch which he would prove many times in his first 2 seasons.
Starting from the 95/96 season kukoc was come off the bench and be the bullies 6th man providing instant offence and playmaking.

This would be a major deal, since overtime pippin or jordan would sit on the bench, the bulls would have a player on the floor who could carry the team.

Another thing that kind of gets lost in history is, that kukoc also was a player that helped the bulls to win many brutal games in the playoffs.





Now lets take a look at tonis stats.

as you can see those are numbers of a well rounded basketball player.

a guy that on offence can do anything.

at that time he would have started on any other team in the nab




Now when we talk about the second 3 peat bulls the first 3 names that come to mind are michael jordan , scottie pippen and dennis rodman.
but objectively speaking, with toni kukoc they had a potential 4th nba all star on their team. with all the great qualities toni kukoc had, we are talking about a guy who can play almost 5 positions, and who had exceptional courtvision.

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