Antonio Blakeney reminds everyone of the chip on his shoulder        

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Antonio Blakeney has been one of the more exciting developments in what has already been an intriguing Bulls season, despite the losses piling up. He has come a long way and seems to be finiding his groove as a combo guard with the Bulls.

In Blakeney’s freshman year at LSU, he played well as a secondary scoring option but did not do enough to distinguish himself from similar score-first players like Tim Quarterman and Craig Victor. That season Blakeney also played with (then) fellow freshman Ben Simmons, whose potential once-in-a-generation skill set makes it hard to properly evaluate the other guys on his team.

Determined to prove he could a leading man, Blakeney came back for his sophomore season and improved considerably. He led the team with 17 points per game on a solid 55 percent true shooting percentage but struggled mightily trying to take over the playmaking duties.

All of this led to him acquiring the dreaded “gunner” label from scouts--used to categorize inefficient, high-volume scorers--and going unselected in the 2017 NBA Draft. But he didn’t let that shut down his NBA hopes.

While still possessing some of the same flaws, things have (mostly) changed for the better for Blakeney in the pro ranks. He  has been absolutely “sniping it” from 3-point range, hitting an astonishing 45.9 percent of his 3-pointers. It is astonishing not because Blakeney is a bad shooter but because of the sheer difficulty of some his field goal attempts.

Overall his scoring profile has shown enough to prove that his hot start to the season is much more than a flash in a pan. Perimeter shooting numbers can be volatile, so the fact that he went from under 30 percent to over 40 percent as a 3-point shooter definitely should be taken with a grain of salt. Some regression is expected in this area. But despite shooting so well from 3-point range, Blakeney is actually taking less of his shots from deep. The biggest reason for the improvement of his offensive efficiency has been his finishing around the basket.

Blakeney converted a paltry 17 percent of his shots between 3-to-10 feet from the basket in 2017-18. So far in the 2018-19 season, he is converting on 75 percent of his shots in the 3--to-10 foot range. The dramatic 58 percent improvement in field goal percentage on these short range shots are a reflection of all the work that Blakeney put in over the summer.

Going into every game, Blakeney stated that “no matter how good I do the game before or how bad. I gotta prove myself every time.” And if he keeps that chip on his shoulder throughout the season, he will definitely get to prove himself more often.

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