Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan applauded the high IQ of rookie Julian Phillips following this past weekend’s 104-96 road win vs. the Portland Trail Blazers (11 points/2 rebounds/1 assist/1 block/4-7 FG/1-3 3-PT/2-4 FT/+4 +/-).
(via Optimistic Bulls Fan):
“I think for myself, and I don’t mean this critically of him, but he plays in a very, very small box for himself. He’s a really good cutter. He’s really good athletically on the glass. He does things he knows he can do. He’s obviously a terrific athlete. I think the thing that I’ve been most impressed with from summer league to now has been his ability to pick things up very quickly. He’s got a very, very high IQ. He instinctively knows where to cut. He just finds plays, like that tip-dunk. He had that one play I think maybe towards the end of the half, he almost reverse layuped, or end of the third quarter. He just has a knack of where to cut and do those things. I give him a lot of credit because he’d been back and forth to the G League, didn’t get to play necessarily a lot, and then he gets an opportunity tonight… and I thought he was a big, big boost for us and made a lot of really good positive plays.”
