LAS VEGAS — It was visible on his face, in the redness surrounding his eyes as if he’d teared up after a wretched Summer League debut. In the reads he made and the shots he missed in Las Vegas.Dailyn Swain fell victim to overthinking.The Chicago Bulls’ No. 15 pick stumbled in his transition from Texas to the NBA. His strengths were suddenly sapped and his weaknesses were amplified. Summer League became a sweltering circus of overreaction, frantic and unorganized. Swain got lost inside it.“I think I’ve definitely been overthinking,” Swain told The Athletic after his first couple games in Vegas. “As a basketball player, no matter what the circumstances are, whether it’s a transition to the league or the same thing happened from high school to college — you want to perform, but that’s not always what the story is. You gotta appreciate stuff like that because coming into high school, being a guy, you go to college, kind of reset. And then getting drafted, playing the season that I had, sometimes you need stuff like these last two games to keep you grounded.”In Vegas, Swain was deployed as lead ballhandler on a roster devoid of point guards. Beyond letting top pick Caleb Wilson roam free, getting a look at Swain’s upside felt paramount. No one, though, could truly propel this poorly constructed Bulls offense.Watch This: Caleb Wilson shows off the athleticism on both ends In Game 1, Memphis’ big wings and multi-year pros hounded Swain. Wilson emerged as the safety valve that kept Chicago watchable.Bulls coach Tiago Splitter, who coached the team’s first couple games, diagnosed Swain’s struggles early. The hesitation is loud at Thomas & Mack Center. Swain paused when he caught the ball in the corners. His processing fell behind. Point guard Swain, or even secondary ballhandler Swain, needed time.That bled into his game. At Texas, he was a crafty slasher with a fluid handle for someone who stands 6 feet 8. He toyed with defenders on islands and ate at the end of shot clocks. He built his reputation on creating for himself.In four summer league games, he shot 4-of-31. At one point, he missed 18 consecutive shots and went two games without a field goal. Only nine of his attempts came outside the paint, all misses. He came up short on layup attempts that seemed routine mere months ago.How does one evaluate a prospect when the largest issue seems intangible?Swain will tell you he badly wants to succeed, that his desire to leapfrog his peers burns so fiercely it weighs him down.“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 said. “ 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.”Swain’s summer league performance is rooted in something nearly impossible to project. Confidence is a fickle thing. So far, it’s sustenance for Wilson, who is audacious and versatile, and is showing things unseen on his college tape. On the same floor, a lack of confidence sank Swain, robbing him of his best qualities.Taking a crafty player who more likely projects as a secondary ballhandler and giving him more on-ball reps in a lower-pressure setting isn’t a new concept. That the experiment with Swain delivered unfavorable results isn’t either.Chicago’s summer league slate affirmed the safety of Wilson as Bryson Graham’s first pick. Swain remains a swing at upside, a statement about the type of player Graham thinks his team will need when it’s ready for the playoffs. He’s similar to another player Graham saw up close while learning the inner workings of team building: Naji Marshall.The vision for Swain can be a version of Marshall who operates more frequently in the pick-and-roll, a versatile, multi-position defender who can score when a defense is tilted or when the clock is blinking.Swain’s jumper, and his indecision before shooting it, makes him an easier cover and delays his decision-making. Whether his shooting becomes reliable will swing his development.Processing speed and bending pick-and-roll defenders to his size are crucial in the short term. His game is not built on burst. It should rely on angles and craft, handle and processing.Swain should be pluggable at several positions, most notably next to players like Wilson and Matas Buzelis. He is not Josh Giddey, nor his replacement. Swain knows the duties of a point guard. He knows ballhandling doesn’t equate to setting the table, or that decisions made against a single defender don’t free you from the focus of everyone else.The Bulls used their time at Las Vegas Summer League to experiment with how best to use No. 15 pick Dailyn Swain. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)Vegas was hardly an audition to become Chicago’s big guard of the future. He embraced what it signaled anyway.“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.”His choices stick with him. On the bench, on the trip down after a turnover, in the locker room at halftime. He hopes the obsession is carefully funneled.“(Graham) played the game, Tiago played the game. They all understand what it’s like to have ups and downs, but they just want me to handle it better,” Swain said. “Still enjoying the game, being on the bench, continuing to cheer on my teammates when the game’s not going my way. And just finding ways to impact … when stuff’s not going your way.”All Swain has at this level is routine. He’ll return to it, even after four consecutive uncharacteristic games — especially Monday’s, which he called “the worst game I’ve ever played.”“In college, I had the same exact workout every single day after a bad game,” Swain said. “You obviously want to go harder, watch the film. But stick to that same thing. You don’t want to veer off onto a different path and that might take you down to unfamiliar things that you just don’t want. I’m just trying to stick to what I know.”Swain knows the places he once went with the ball in his hands. How easy it felt. How recently he felt that. It will require time and resources to get back to that point.Before that, he’ll need to get out of his own head.