It appears that Chicago Bulls rookie Dalen Terry isn’t satisfied with how his rookie season turned out either.
“Ok bet,” the 20-year-old swingman tweeted on May 8.
The voting results were officially released after Terry’s tweet was sent, though it’s possible he caught wind of the results before that. Fans in the comments immediately took this to be a response to the announcement of the 2023 KIA NBA All-Rookie teams. Either way, the full voting results showed the No. 18 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft failed to garner a single vote for either of the two teams.
Terry was considered at least a small project coming out of college. He finished with just 214 total minutes in the regular season; just the 34th top-20 pick to see 215 minutes or fewer in a season, per Stathead, and the first since Zhaire Smith of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018.
The energetic 20-year-old averaged 2.2 points and 1.0 rebounds in 38 games which were the second-most appearances of the aforementioned group.
He admitted that it could be difficult not playing but noted that he just had to trust the plan.
“Sometimes it’s harder than others,” Terry told Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. “But you’ve just got to know everybody goes through it. If you’re not a top-10 pick then you’ve got to go through it. And that’s what I would tell the next kid that’s in my position next year or the year after that. This is stuff that they don’t tell you when you get drafted.”
In the G League Showcase Cup, Terry posted 12.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.3 steals while shooting 46.4% from the floor and an encouraging 39.3% from beyond the arc. But Terry also had some issues with the speed of the game.
“The game just has to slow down,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said per Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune in December. “He’s got a really, really good energy and he’s got a good motor but things have got to slow down for him a little bit in terms of reading screens and making decisions. He innately is a very, very good passer, but even in practice you can tell there’s things defensively where he just doesn’t have enough under his belt.”
DeMar DeRozan Follows Through on Offseason Mandate
Six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan is following through with his mandate that his younger teammates would have to join him to work out this offseason in California.
“Anyone under 24 [years old],” DeRozan said when asked which teammates would be training with him this summer during his exit interview via the team’s official YouTube channel on April 15. “Anybody under 24, it’s mandatory.”
DeRozan looks to have popped in on Terry as he worked with trainer Dash Lavell at Dashletics.
It is unclear if the two got in any work together. But if there’s one thing DeRozan is good at, it is moving at his own pace.
A very deliberate technician when working the mid-range area, DeRozan’s discipline would be great for Terry. The 11-year-veteran took deliberate technician under his wing last summer and, if nothing else, the youngster came away prepared to deal with the adversity of this season, noting he did not live up to his expectations.
Dalen Terry Never Got Down
Despite not playing much, Terry never let that take away his infectious energy, something Donovan warned him about after he was drafted.
“The one thing I told him is…he cannot lose is his enthusiasm and his energy and his passion, his love for the game,” Donovan said at Terry’s introductory press conference in June of 2022 via the Bulls’ YouTube channel. “The hardest thing a lot of times, over 82 games, is to one game you don’t play, one game you do play. You play poorly…can you come back every day and be the same guy each and every day? That’s how guys get better.”
Terry was a constant source of positivity for his teammates from what became his familiar post on the bench.
MOOD
Dalen Terry
The Bulls and Terry certainly hope to see that energy on the floor much more next season.
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Bulls’ Dalen Terry Sends Message in Wake of All-Rookie Absence