The Bulls’ roster is looking thin right now with Kris Dunn still recovering from his concussion and Lauri Markkanen out due to personal reasons. The team could use an offensive punch, so why not look to Windy City Bulls shooting guard Antonio Blakeney?

According to the armchair GMs that fill my Twitter mentions, Blakeney deserves a call-up. He’s certainly having an astounding G-League season in terms of scoring the ball and although his two-way contract allows him to spend only 45 days with the Bulls, he hasn’t met that threshold yet. Plus, the Bulls always have the option of converting that into a regular NBA deal.

Blakeney could definitely help the Bulls’ offense, currently ranked 29th in the league. His 46 points on Dec. 6 set a Windy City Bulls franchise record and he’s dropped 40 or more in six of his 22 games this season. He’s showed he can fill it up in the NBA too, scoring 11 points in a less-than-three-minute stretch against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 21.

Blakeney got a chance for some real rotational minutes after that burst, but shot just 12-of-41 in the next six games and was sent back to the Windy City Bulls, where he’s been lighting it up ever since.

The 21-year-old is set to break all sorts of single-season scoring records for the G-League. Along with being the league’s top scorer and best free throw shooter, he’s hitting 37 percent of his 3-pointers on very high volume and 47 percent of his shots overall. He will likely end up as the owner of the best offensive season in G-League history.

Blakeney G-League record PPG 33.7 31.6 PER 25.18 28.65 Total points 1,415 (projected) 1,300

Blakeney hasn’t gotten a lot of attention for what he’s been doing at Hoffman Estates, but the people who have watched him have been impressed. Bulls Point guard Ryan Arcidiacono, who’s also on a two-way contract, raves about what he’s seen.

“He’s just a natural gifted scorer. The way he gets into the paint, he can get to his spot anytime and elevate over anyone,” Arcidiacono told The Athletic. “I’ve never seen anyone score the ball in the way he does and how efficiently he does.”

Blakeney did show scoring burst in the NBA, but it was clear he needed to fine-tune other aspects of his game. Coach Fred Hoiberg offered this dry evaluation of Blakeney’s game earlier in the year when Blakeney was called up to assist in Zach LaVine’s rehab during Bulls practices.

Fred Hoiberg on part of reason #Bulls chose Antonio Blakeney to play Zach LaVine 1-on-1: "A very talented 1-on-1 player that sometimes doesn't understand the other four people that are on the floor anyway. So he's good 1-on-1." — Cody Westerlund (@CodyWesterlund) November 28, 2017

Blakeney’s weaknesses are no secret. He needs to improve his court vision, shot selection and defense. But those flaws shouldn’t overshadow his brilliant strengths like an amazing first step, fearless driving, and what is looking like elite isolation scoring.

Arcidiacono said Blakeney is making strides in his all-around game, as well.

“He’s doing well. He’s not just a scorer. He can rebound, he can defend, he’s improving on coming off ball screens,” he said. “He’s so aggressive, it’s just in his DNA to score. But now he’s really learning how to read the defense, how they’re playing him, how to draw two and make other plays for others.”

The stats back up Arcidiacono’s evaluation to some degree. Blakeney is averaging seven rebounds and 4.5 assists to go along with his ridiculous scoring bursts.

The Bulls are excited about Blakeney’s future but are also realistic about the improvements he will need to make before he can become a real contributor at the NBA level. Hoiberg discussed what he’s seen from Blakeney with Sam Smith of Bulls.com earlier in January.

“Obviously, he’s in a featured role at that level, but he did get some really good experience when he was up,” Hoiberg said. “We still think he has a tremendous future at this level. So continue to work on the things he hasn’t had a lot of work on in his career and continue to get him ready at some point to make a big impact.”

Hoiberg is right about that featured role — Blakeney leads the G-League in usage percentage at 34.4 percent. For comparison’s sake, that is exceeded in the NBA only by James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and D’Angelo Russell.

Blakeney’s not going to have that type of offensive freedom when he gets to the NBA, which is why it’s so important he’s able to contribute via other aspects of his game.

But with the team so thin, why did Arcidiacono get the call before Blakeney? Hoiberg cited a positional crunch as the main reason.

“Well, right now with Kris out, we really need a point guard in our lineup and that was the decision with bringing Arch up,” he said. “Obviously, we have a lot of depth with our wings right now and we’re having trouble finding enough minutes for those guys, especially with Denzel playing as good a stretch of the season as he’s had, Justin being a guy we’ve relied a lot on, playing the most minutes. Obviously with Zach back in the fold, having to find the minutes with Nwaba. So it’s really just a positional thing for us right now.”

Blakeney will get another look at some point. He’s playing too well not to and the Bulls made a smart move by signing him for two years on that two-way deal. He may still end up needing more time to get better at the fundamentals, but he’ll always be ready to shoot his shot.

(Top Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports)