Cameron Payne hasn’t spent a very long time in the Chicago Bulls organization. He came over in February as a highly-regarded prospect whom the Bulls traded Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott to the Oklahoma City Thunder in order to acquire.
Apparently, though, it took just two short practices for Bulls coaches to determine he wasn’t NBA caliber, as one source told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley.
“We knew the second practice [after he was acquired] that he couldn’t play at [an NBA] level,’’ the source said. “The only reason it took two practices was because we thought maybe it was nerves in the first one… Any [Bulls] coach who says differently is lying.’’
Payne, who was drafted No. 14 overall from Murray State in 2015, certainly hasn’t lived up to his lottery status during his limited time in the league. He’s averaged 5.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists on 38 percent shooting in 88 games over two years.
Perhaps Payne never really was an NBA-caliber player as his being from a small college suggested. Or maybe the Jones fracture which he suffered back in 2016 played a part in his inability to perform on an NBA level. If it did, then the most recent foot injury he suffered will only worsen matters for the young guard.
Unless Payne makes a drastic improvement from his current career trajectory, he’s likely to go down as yet another miss for the Bulls front office that once called him the “point guard of the future.”
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