What Does Dailyn Swain Need To Do To Bounce Back?

It's quite simple, to bounce back to the best version of Dailyn Swain, he needs to focus on what got him to the NBA in the first place: getting downhill. 

Of course, that is easier said than done when all eyes are on you in a new role in your first NBA Summer League action. The jitters of playing in a professional setting, a long with the big expectations lauded onto Swain and No. 4 overall pick Caleb Wilson clearly bothered Swain a bit during Summer league. 

So much of the game is basketball is mental. Starting to doubt yourself or your role is the quickest route to being stuck in NBA purgatory: good enough to hang around the league but not good enough to play a real rotational role on a team. That is, of course, not the worst outcome in the world, but not something I expect out of the Bulls No. 15 overall pick. 

Swain averaged a paltry 4.2 PPG over his four SL games, shooting an honestly, impressively abysmal 12.9% from the field and failing to knockdown any of his seven attempts from 3-point range. 

So much was made of Swain's unorthodox looking jumpshot, but we didn't see much of that....or anything during Swain's brief run. 

Swain has since discussed how much pressure he was putting on himself to perform. And while I think it is a bit overblown, the pressure of handling point guard duties did seem to bother him. Swain had an impressive handle at Texas, but looked shaky and unsure dribbling against mostly G-League level defenders. 

Preseason will be of tremendous importance for Swain, who needs some solid performances for his confidence more than anything. He simply needs to remember what made him such an interesting prospect in the first place, which was being fearless when attacking a defender one-on-one. The NBA preseason will provide even more floor-spacing than summer league, and that is despite the Bulls not being a necessarily strong shooting team. Even if Swain gets unlimited open 3-point looks in preseason, I think he needs to convert most of those into drives into the paint. It may be forcing the issue, but at this stage focusing on drawing contact and getting to the free throw line should be of more importance than working on a 3-point shot that will take a very long time to get where it needs to be.