Of the players selected in the first round, Bulls guard/forward Dailyn Swain had one of the more disappointing showings in Summer League, writes Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic.
Chicago selected Swain with the 15th pick in June’s draft and asked him to be the primary offensive initiator in Las Vegas. The 21-year-old struggled with his confidence though, averaging 4.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 28.0 minutes per game while shooting just 4-of-31 from the field (12.9%), including missing all seven of his three-point attempts.
Swain admitted he had “definitely been overthinking” in his four Summer League games, according to Lorenzi.
“I think it’s really easy to notice when I’m in my own head and kind of putting pressure on myself. I just try to stick with what I know that works,” Swain told The Athletic. “ Obviously having a routine is not gonna save you every game; you’re gonna have bad games. But I just try to stick to what I know and not get too discouraged and not feed into what people are saying in the media and stuff like that. All my teammates have been nothing but encouraging.
“All the older guys are like, ‘Listen, you can’t have the weight of the world on your shoulders.’ They’ve made it so much easier to keep my head up.”
We have more on the Bulls:
- Despite his struggles in Las Vegas, Swain said he was thankful for the opportunity he was given, Lorenzi adds. “Whenever a coach gives a young guy an opportunity, draft position, first round or not, you gotta be grateful for that,” Swain said. “You got to go into it and embrace it, embrace the journey. Those dips, they make you grow up. They develop you, they prepare you for the worst.”
- Aside from his poor free throw shooting (4-of-12) and turnovers (5.2 per game), No. 4 overall pick Caleb Wilson flashed star-level upside in his four games in Vegas, per Jeff Agrest and Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. The former North Carolina forward averaged 23.5 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 2.5 BPG and 1.2 SPG in 27.7 MPG and converted 41.9% of his threes on high volume (7.8 attempts). “I enjoy basketball,” he said. “I love this [expletive]. I’m going to play as much as I can, as much as my team will let me. I’m not the type to go away from a game because I don’t feel good because I know in the NBA, I’m not going to feel good some games. As long as I don’t have an injury or something that’s wrong with me, I’m gonna play every time. People come from all over the world to see me play, so I don’t want to let them down.”
- While 2025 lottery pick Noa Essengue was impressive defensively at times in Summer League, he failed to make an impact on the offensive end, according to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. Two-way guard Jaylin Sellers, meanwhile, showed he isn’t shy about getting shots up, but he’ll have to learn how to play in a lower-usage role if he wants to earn NBA minutes, Poe notes.
Not taking summer league stats into determining if a guy can hoop. This is how we got stuck with Polio highlights when he dribbled between his legs and did a cold eye 3 in summer league a few years back, and got rewarded 90M lmao.
Swain has been awful to start but playing him as a PG is dumb. This is like when GarPax drafted WCJ and played him at the 4 or Markkanen at the 4. Stop playing guys out of their skill set or size. Why isn’t Rob playing in Summer league???
Not worried about Caleb. FT shooting and turnover aside, those things take time to read defenses and etc. Still hyped for him.
Dont forget,danzel valentine.mvp of summer league
How can I? He was primed to breakout for GarPax lmao
Denzel Washington would have been a better pick.
Thank you for your common sense. Summer League means nothing. The people who are putting tons of stock in the Summer League box scores are insane. There is no correlation between Summer League success/failure and NBA success/failure.
Dailyn Swain will be fine. He was definitely nervous and overthinking things. He was one of the top isolation players in the country last season. He’s going to be just fine. People acting like he shouldn’t have nerves or should’ve been balling start to finish are unreasonable and likely wanted the Bulls to take someone else (like Cam Carr) at 15, so they’re going to take every opportunity to dump on Dailyn Swain. Sad behavior from “Bulls fans” who do this.
Swain can still go back to college Haha
Bryson Graham is not looking to good at this point. The Caleb Wilson pick was a blessing to him, and the Bulls. Drafting at 15 was where scouting skills come into play, and Grahams skills are looking non existent at this point. No one saw Swain going until mid 20s. Graham took him at 15. He better pray Swain plays better than this. He passed on a lot of good talent.
This is false.
Plenty of outlets had Swain going right around where the Chicago Bulls chose. Most had him going by Pick 20.
One respectable outlet that I frequent had Dailyn Swain ranked 11th on their big board.
Furthermore, reports after the draft said that Sam Presti was extremely likely to take Dailyn Swain at 16 if we passed on him. Bennett Stirtz was a backup plan. I think we all respect Sam Presti enough at this point to accept that if he likes someone, it means something.
Summer League play means absolutely nothing. It is glorified pickup basketball. Michael Beasley averaged 28 PPG in 2008 after we picked Derrick Rose in front of him. Meanwhile, Derrick Rose didn’t even average 10 (9 PPG), and he averaged 1 more assist (5) than turnovers (4) per game. Rose shot 64% from the free throw line as well.
I think we know how that played out.
Swain led Texas in Points, Rebounds, Assists and Steals. He can play ball. He was clearly overthinking and nervous during SL, which makes sense because he was played out of position.
Give him time.
Also, it’s not fair to give Bryson Graham zero credit for Caleb Wilson. There were definitely people out there who thought Caleb Wilson was a project player, an athlete with no jumper. Nobody thought Wilson would be this polished at shooting the ball already. There were definitely people who thought Keaton Wagler, Darius Acuff or even Aday Mara were more worthy selections than Wilson.
The majority definitely thought Wilson was the guy, but there are countless instances of one GM falling in love with someone and thus they go against the grain. It just happened to us with AKME and Patrick Williams. Thankfully, Bryson Graham seen what the majority did and he took the right player.
But as excited as I am for him, I will again reiterate – taking anything serious from Summer League is a big mistake. There is no correlation between Summer League success/failure and NBA success/failure. Give Dailyn Swain time. We aren’t meant to contend this season. It does not matter how these players play in Year 1. It matters how they play in Year 3.
Go Bulls.
Nobody says DS is a bad player,but Bulls have different needs,they need outside shot and they need a dog C.I’m not sure about this Bryson guy,have a feeling he can end up below AK achievements.Drafting DS,he’s got plenty of slashers and giving up on second round prospects,two red flags already
Not to read too much into Summer League but Swain reminds me so much of Dalen Terry it’s not funny. It’s what happens when you get hooked on Wing Span and physical attributes instead of actual ability to play basketball. At 15 you need to pick a guy with one skill you can hone in on. Defense, Shooting, Handle the rock. Swain does none of it well. In fact he was poor to horrible at everything. Cenac or Carr would have been much better picks. After waiting years for that pick it would be a real shame to have whiffed on it. Carr would have( Should have) been the pick.