It wasn\u2019t an indictment of jersey No. 25 at all.<\/p>\n
If anything, Bulls swingman Dalen Terry wore that number proudly to honor Chicago high school legend Benji Wilson.<\/p>\n
The indictment was on the player Terry thought he was as No. 25. More specifically, on the player a lot of people around him wanted him to be.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s free.<\/p>\n
Wearing lucky No. 7 is a part of that.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018The last two years, I wasn\u2019t being myself,\u2019\u2019 Terry said. \u2018\u2018I was trying to be what people wanted me to be, and it\u2019s time for me to be myself. That\u2019s why I changed my number. Man, we\u2019re going to leave that in the past. I\u2019m trying to do what\u2019s best for the team and not worry about pleasing everybody.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a fine line Terry will walk this season: He might not have to please everybody, but he has to impress somebody.<\/p>\n
There have been no serious discussions about a contract extension between the Bulls and Terry, whom they selected with the No. 18 overall pick in the 2022 draft. That means Terry will play out the season and go through restricted free agency. And a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow isn\u2019t promised in this NBA landscape.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s up to Terry to catch the attention of the Bulls so they want to stay invested and showcase his skills for the 29 other NBA teams.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Hell, yeah, it\u2019s a big year for me,\u2019\u2019 Terry said without hesitation.<\/p>\n
He also has a pretty good player to try to model himself after in turning a \u2018\u2018big year\u2019\u2019 into a successful one.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018This is how I think everybody views it,\u2019\u2019 Terry said. \u2018\u2018They view it as I\u2019m not a guy that scores 20, 30 points. Well, I got drafted to be like [former Bulls guard] Alex Caruso: \u2018OK, he can guard, he can do all the little things, he can be a connector.\u2019 That\u2019s what I strive to be this year.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Like, even [in the Bulls\u2019 preseason victory Thursday against the Cavaliers], in my eyes, I played like [expletive]. But you look at the box score, and I\u2019m guarding Donovan Mitchell. I was tough on him. Guarding De\u2019Andre Hunter. I was tough on him. I have to live like that, you know?<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018I remember being in the locker room [when] AC was still here, and some days he would have six points and some days he would have 20 points. That\u2019s just the way it\u2019s going to be. I have to hang my hat on the defensive end. So when people try to put pressure on what I should be, I\u2019m just going to be myself.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The sample size is small through the first week or two of camp and two preseason games, but Terry has been running in the second unit and had a game-saving block in the preseason opener.<\/p>\n
He also knows that the Bulls want depth on the roster, so the playing time is going to be there as long as he performs.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018It\u2019s like everybody wants to be a star and score their 20, but, bro, just be a star in your role,\u2019\u2019 Terry said. \u2018\u2018That gets paid. Teams want depth. I\u2019m 6-7 [and] 23 years old, and I know that\u2019s what teams are leaning toward. So you\u2019ve got to understand that all the other [expletive] is plus. Everything else is plus. Scoring is plus.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018If I\u2019m hitting a three, getting downhill and dunking, it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, now we\u2019re going to start having some different conversations.\u2019 But if I\u2019m in here and guarding the best guy, gaining the coach\u2019s trust, I mean, we\u2019ll be going in a positive direction if you ask me.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t an indictment of jersey No. 25 at all. If anything, Bulls swingman Dalen Terry wore that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-207843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}