The Chicago Bulls draft strategy has been a mystery across the league. There have been countless rumors about the Bulls trading the 4th pick in this year’s draft. Many prospects have been “linked” to this team throughout the offseason. However, it appears that no one has a clue what the Bulls plan to do in the 2020 NBA Draft on November 18th.
According to @ZachLowe_NBA, teams are confused about what the Chicago Bulls are going to do in next week's draft because nothing is getting leaked from the Bulls.@DraftExpress: "Agents have no idea where their players stand with Chicago."
(Via the Lowe Podcast)
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) November 9, 2020
Under new management, this front office hasn’t revealed a whole lot of information since they came on board. Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas and General Manager Marc Eversley had little to say when it came to the head coaching search. They also were quiet when it came to previous coach Jim Boylen’s future. They appear to be keeping things behind closed doors ahead of the draft. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it is just frustrating for fans. Especially in this case where rumors have been all over the place with this team.
All in on LaMelo
The biggest rumor ahead of the draft is that the Bulls have a strong interest in Illawara PG LaMelo Ball.
According to @DraftExpress, he hears that the Chicago Bulls are “fans of LaMelo.”
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) November 9, 2020
News also came out recently that among NBA executives the Bulls are considered a team that would make the move to trade up to the 1st pick in the draft.
"Some popular picks among executives to make such a move for LaMelo Ball at No. 1 include the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder." 👀👀👀
– Jonathan Givony
(Via ESPN / h/t @TopBallCoverage ) pic.twitter.com/r89OiHYevT— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) November 9, 2020
This is just the opinions of executives within the league and there hasn’t been anything official from the Bulls front office. But it is telling of the type of front office leader that Karnišovas is if executive wouldn’t be surprised by a move like this. I previously reviewed LaMelo Ball and don’t believe he is a great fit with this team. However, if Karnišovas and Eversley believe this is their guy I have to trust their judgment. LaMelo isn’t the only rumored player to the Bulls in the upcoming draft.
The Bulls stay at the #4 spot
In a lot of early mock drafts, the Bulls were projected to pick Israeli Forward Deni Avdija.
Could Deni Avdija end up being the best player in the 2020 NBA Draft?@SamSmithHoops opens his mailbag.@ATT | #NBADraft
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 7, 2020
The reviews on Avdija have been on either end of the spectrum. People either love him and think he will be the next international star or they don’t think he will amount to much in the league. Avdija has been a popular pick among mock drafts for the Bulls throughout this offseason. He makes sense based on the positional needs for the Bulls. However, that thought quickly shifted amongst mock draft creators.
Bulls looking to grab a PG?
A lot of mock drafts started projecting the Bulls grabbing a PG with their 1st round draft pick. There has been speculation that Bulls PG Coby White won’t be able to truly play the PG position and is more of a shooting guard. That created a shift in mock draft projections and had the Bulls going PG in most. Point guards that have been projected to the Bulls include LaMelo Ball, Ratiopharm Ulm PG Killian Hayes, and Iowa St. PG Tyrese Haliburton. At this stage, we still are unsure what new head coach Billy Donovan thinks of Coby White from a positional standpoint. This makes it difficult to predict who the Bulls will target in the draft.
We may not know anything
At this stage all Bulls fans need to realize we may not know anything going into draft night. This new Bulls regime is keeping everything quiet. They must have their reasons behind that and they should reveal themselves on draft night. NBA rumors will be flying over the next 8 days. Try to keep yourself grounded and we will do the work to see if the rumors have any merit. We will be sure to keep everyone updated with any and all Bulls rumors over the next 8 days.
