The NBA draft has come and gone, and the Bulls came away with their starting center and small forward for next season.
The Bulls new center is Wendell Carter Jr. from Duke.
By The Numbers: @wendellcarter34 #NBADraft pic.twitter.com/DSOqfmXSGj
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) June 22, 2018
The fan reaction to the pick was… less than good, and that’s an unfair reaction driven by misled anger.
The point of last night was to get a player that could someday be a top-3 player on a championship team. It’s extremely unlikely that he turns out to be that type of player. The two best pros he’s been comped to are Al Horford and Carlos Boozer. Those two guys have combined for 7 all-star games and several conference finals appearances, but neither one was/is a top-3 player on a champion caliber team.
So why should you, the fan, be less angry than you probably are? Becuase there was maybe one player left on the board with a ceiling higher than Carter’s.
Michael Porter Jr. is a polarizing talent, but his spine doesn’t work. Having a spine is pretty important in the NBA. For all of his self-comparisons to Kevin Durant, it’s much, much more likely he ends up as the next Greg Oden.
That leaves Kevin Knox. Knox is an exceptional athlete who has shown plenty of signs that his basketball skills could one day catch up to his athleticism. He could very well be better than Carter down the road. Personally, I wanted them to take a swing at Knox.
However, there are three things about the Carter pick that should put things in perspective for you.
- The reason the Bulls were unable to grab a potential future star last night was that they didn’t lose enough games in their tank last season. Stars don’t slip past the top-3 picks very often, and most that do get scooped up by the fifth pick.
- Don’t get me wrong, Wendell Carter is definitely a high-floor, lower ceiling type prospect. But… it’s not like they drafted a fifth-year senior here. He just turned 19 in April. Teenagers are typically unfinished products.
- This is the list of the best #7 picks of all time:
If the Bulls stick at 7 tonight, here are the top 20 No. 7 picks in NBA Draft history according to win shares. pic.twitter.com/kdET3ONXFj
— 🇺🇾 Tom Fornelli 🇺🇾 (@TomFornelli) June 21, 2018
if Carter does translate his do-it-all-well, do-nothing-great skillset to the NBA a la Al Horford, you’re looking at a hell of a pick.
Look, the pick is boring, but boring isn’t always bad.
GRADE: B+
Now, onto the Bulls second pick of the night, Chandler Hutchinson.
Chandler Hutchison is the pick at 22. Welcome to #BullsNation, Chandler! #GrowWithUs pic.twitter.com/7sgtAmfAF3
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) June 22, 2018
I am all on board with the pick in theory. A polished, accomplished college player that you know what you’re getting. In this case, a small forward with a prototypical NBA body who has the skill set to be a successful 3-and-D wing.
In theory, they would have drafted somebody better at those things than Chandler Hutchison.
Hutchison played in the Mountain West Conference. He averaged 20 points a game his senior season, but it takes one trip to Youtube to see that he scored all of his points in the paint and off the drive below the rim. How is that going to translate to the NBA? Probably not well.
His three-point shooting was a pedestrian 35.3% over his collegiate career. Again, that’s with a shorter three-point line against far inferior defenders. Defensively, Boise State primarily plays zone. So apparently he’s going to have to learn how to guard at the NBA level as well.
Want some icing on the cake? Hutchison shut down his workouts last month because the Bulls promised they’d draft him. Did the Bulls just promise the first wing they liked and then stop scouting other late-first round wing prospects? With the smallest scouting department in the league, would that surprise you?
GRADE: D