Villanova forward Mikal Bridges and Duke center Wendell Carter Jr. will be working out for the Bulls at the Advocate Center today. These pre-draft workouts only tell us so much, but at the bare minimum, they tell us that there’s interest in the players from the organization.
Wendell Carter and Mikal Bridges workouts today for the Bulls, Lonnie Walkers is also in Chicago. Not sure if he simply never left or if he’s back for a workout himself. #BullsNation
— Bulls Scripted (@BullScripted) June 4, 2018
So, there’s interest in Bridges and Carter on the Bulls end, but how much? If the answer is “a lot” should we be excited or upset?
I don’t think excitement or anger would be the proper reaction to the Bulls drafting either player. I just think it would be boring.
Bridges busted on to the scene for the national champion Villanova Wildcats last season, but he’ll turn 22 later this summer.
Bridges profiles as a pretty darn good 3&D guy, which is a role becoming more important every year. But, at 22, you’d hope he’d be more developed offensively. Here is what Sports Illustrated’s Rob Mahoney had this to say about Bridges’ offensive game:
The big question: How effective could he be as a secondary ball-handler? Bridges can do a little of everything against college competition, but in the pros he’ll encounter more opponents his size (or bigger), and more athletes at his level (or better). There will be even less room for error when it comes to creating offense—something Bridges doesn’t appear fully comfortable doing as it stands.
It’s no secret that the older the prospect, the less likely they are to take their game to the next level in the NBA. Bridges seems to fit that finished product mode, and that’s boring.
As far as Wendell Carter Jr., well, he did have a solid freshman season averaging 13.5 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks a game.
However, he was just fourth on his team in field goal attempts per game. The hope with this pick is for the Bulls to find a top-3 player for next year’s team, how likely is Carter to be that guy if he wasn’t even a top-3 player on his college team?
Also, how many big men are we supposed to be excited about in this draft? Deandre Ayton, Mo Bamba, Jarren Jackson Jr. and Carter’s former teammate Marvin Bagley are all considered to be better prospects. With how guard heavy the NBA is now, how much value does the 5th best center in the NBA have? Could the casual fan even name five centers?
With Carter, we aren’t talking about a future top-5 center in the league. We’re talking about a top-5 center of this class. That’s boring.
