Torrey Craig is a lot like the rest of us. You know, except for the part of being 6-foot-7 and an NBA player who has been a teammate of Nikola Jokić, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant and who has played in the NBA Finals for the Phoenix Suns, who played for the Milwaukee Bucks the season they won the NBA championship and started for a contending, 54-win Denver Nuggets playoff team.
The part of being like us is he never quite has been able to understand the last few years why a Bulls team with All-Stars like DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević hasn’t been better than, well, it has been.
It’s not bragging, and he didn’t say it quite that way, but perhaps those Bulls just need a little bit Torrey Craig.
“I’m new here, so I’m learning as well,” Craig told reporters Wednesday morning in Nashville where the Bulls continued preseason practices. “But at the same time, I’ve been on some really good teams and played in a lot of (big) games. So any advice I can give, I’m going to feel free to do that and not shy away from that because I think that’s what this team is missing, a little bit of toughness, a little bit of (an) edge, the raw emotion to say how they feel and where they are emotionally.
“Playing against them a couple of times and seeing the amount of talent they had on the team…I told coach (Billy Donovan) the amount of games they would be in and not finish, just that little bit of edge you’ve got to have, that competitive edge you’ve got to have to finish out games and get over the hump. That was one of the reasons I wanted to come here,” Craig said. “Because I knew I could bring that extra edge and try to help win some of those close games or help motivate teammates to get over the hump.
“I assessed the roster and the type of team they were and what I bring to the table and I felt it was the best fit (for me) to come here and try to do what I do and to push the guys to do what I do,” Craig added. “They call it the extra effort plays, offensive rebounding, the little things that go into winning. Not just scoring and being talented guys.”
That’s mostly what the NBA is about, or at least the way the NBA and its television partners market the league.
But there’s always more a team needs to be successful, and Craig in his six years in the NBA with very modest statistics — averaging six points, four rebounds and an assist in about 20 minutes a game — has been called the kind of player you want around stars.
The Bulls believe they have stocked up on enough star talent.
Maybe the addition of Craig, along with fellow free agent guard Jevon Carter to pair with the likes of Alex Caruso is what will, despite outside doubts, ignite that star turn for the Bulls this season.
“Even with Denver and Phoenix, there were a lot of different things to impact winning,” Craig said about two of his former employers. “I always tell people that there are a million things you can do, get deflections, offensive rebounding, blocking shots, getting steals, making threes, making the hustle plays, 50/50 plays, being a good teammate on the bench, being a locker room guy. There are so many things you can do to impact winning that go unnoticed because this league is based off talent and big number guys. But all the good teams have guys that do the little things that contribute to winning.”
We’ll see if that’s been the missing piece or the correct formula that finally makes that big difference for the Bulls, and enables them to puff their chests out about having a Big Three. Instead of the disappointing sigh of the last two seasons.
That’s been something of the mystery with these Bulls.
Sure, the Lonzo Ball injury was devastating. But he was at most the fourth-best talent on the team. And he wasn’t a first-team all-league defender like Caruso. Meanwhile, DeRozan was becoming a miracle shot maker and All-NBA, LaVine an Olympic gold medal winner and multiple time All-Star, Vučević a double-double machine and iron man not missing a game.
Not even the playoffs?
Torrey Craig has been in the playoffs with teams that often have gone deep just about every season of his late-starting NBA career.
And now the Bulls?
Perhaps since Craig also knows about being overlooked.
He was a 27-year-old NBA rookie and turns 33 in December after what seemed like what was going to be a nice run with the Australian national team.
Craig comes from a small, rural town in South Carolina and went to a satellite part of the University of South Carolina system in Spartanburg, now called USC Upstate. The NBA scouting train doesn’t stop there long. Craig was an adequate scorer, though not exceptional, a relatively poor three-point shooter and undersized for inside where he played. Forget about being drafted in 2014 when he finished college eligibility. He didn’t even get an invite to Summer League.
So he went off to play in Australia and New Zealand and life was pretty, pretty, pretty good. He had a place with a fine view of the ocean, he began raising a family and embracing the league’s physical style of play, named its top defensive player. You almost couldn’t curb his enthusiasm for Oceania.
It seemed like a life.
By then Craig was getting past his mid 20s, seemingly too old to start in the NBA. And he was on the verge of citizenship and a role with the national team. Where’s he going now? National health insurance guaranteed, plenty of Fosters, the Outback isn’t a steakhouse and you can explain there’s no shrimp on the barbie. But then the Nuggets came calling, an invite to Summer League, and Torrey Craig never has done comfortable too well.
He impressed in Las Vegas with his relentless style, had a brief G League sojourn and then hit Denver on the way to Milwaukee, Phoenix and now the Bulls. It’s not like Craig saved those teams or was primarily responsible for their success. But perhaps it’s also not a coincidence that teams with All-Stars and Torrey Craig fit well together.
Are the Bulls next?
“I’ve been in every situation to starting to not playing,” Craig noted. "No matter, I’ll bring the same Torrey to whatever team I'm on or whatever the situation is, a level of toughness, a level of grit. All teams need players who bring that amount of toughness and grit and competitive edge to win the games and be in these situations. You don’t make it deep in the playoffs without those kinds of guys to compete at a high level and with that level of toughness.
“For me,” says Craig, “it comes with the balance of knowing you are blessed to be in the situation you are in and also not being satisfied, always wanting more and wanting to win at a high level. Not being OK to win a certain number of games, or 40 games or whatever, but wanting to win every time you play and knowing you are giving your all and giving yourself a chance to win. See what happens after that.”
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