The Chicago Bulls have selected Wendell Carter Jr. out of Duke with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and fans are pissed.
They should be too.
This is nothing against Carter and I’m sure every Bulls fan hopes he becomes a star one day, but right now this pick screams boring. Again, Carter might end up being a good, solid pro, but the expectations and projections for him doesn’t give Bulls fans much confidence that he’ll be an elite player on a championship team.
And that’s what this is all about. The Bulls started their rebuild last draft season in hopes of building a roster that could some day compete for titles. They couldn’t even tank correctly and ended up with the seventh pick.
It’s pretty simple math. You have a higher rate of success hitting on draft picks higher in the lottery. The Bulls failed to accomplish that and the result is Wendell Carter Jr.
Mo Bamba had fallen past the fifth pick and despite reports of the Bulls trying to trade up for the Texas center, the Orlando Magic took him with the sixth pick.
You can say whatever you want about Bears GM Ryan Pace, but at least he was aggressive when trading up for Mitch Trubisky two years ago. That was his guy and he went for it.
The Bulls on the other hand? They once again played it safe and Bulls fans are pissed.
— Jamison Lawrence (@Jjlaw829) June 22, 2018
It goes on and on and on.
Here’s the thing, I get not taking Michael Porter Jr. because his back injury is pretty serious and there are obviously concerns about his health. That’s why he’s slipping in the draft. Yet, how about not playing it safe? Make a fucking bold move for once.
Right now, best case scenario with this core is what? Maybe some 50-win seasons, a 3-5 seed in the East in a couple years? That’s the reality of it and you can’t change my mind otherwise.
Now, if the Bulls have a plan to go out and trade for superstar like Kawhi Leonard, or have plans to go out and sign a big free agent in the next few years, then OK, I like the direction.
If this is the core the Bulls are trying to win with, though, then it’s just the mid-2000s all over again. Maybe they win a series or two in the playoffs, but that’s the ceiling.
Welcome back to basketball hell, Bulls fans.
