Fan reactions are still circulating the internet about the Bulls playing it safe and selecting Wendell Carter Jr. with the seventh pick of the draft. They are overwhelmingly negative. The NBA is a superstars league, the Bulls have maybe one player on their roster who can become one in the future, and Carter Jr. doesn’t really profile as one himself.
For that reason, many people wanted Michael Porter Jr. The top-ranked high schooler from the class of 2017 was the odds-on favorite to be this year’s #1 pick heading into last season. Back surgery in the fall changed things.
Leading up to the draft, I wasn’t as enamored with the idea of the Bulls drafting him as many others were, but I was certainly open to the Bulls adding the 6’10 scorer if he fell to #7.
Then the medicals started leaking. Porter’s doctors didn’t release his medical information until the last possible second, which usually means a player has something to hide regarding their health. It’s not like the Bulls passed on Porter with a top-3 pick and he went fourth. The Bulls were the seventh team to pass on him, and five more teams passed on him before he was finally selected. Back surgery is no joke. There might not be a worse injury for a basketball player could have.
Apparently, his injury is so severe that he may not play a single game next season.
This was Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) on @929espn today talking Michael Porter Jr.: "The sense I'm hearing among teams in the top 10 is there's a very strong likelihood he's going to have to redshirt his rookie year."
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) June 19, 2018
ESPN’s Ryen Russillo joined his old co-host Scott Van Pelt after the draft last night to discuss what his sources had been telling him about Porter. Russillo said that he spoke with an executive of a team drafting in the 20’s that said they wouldn’t have drafted Porter if he fell to them.
Players as talented as Michael Porter Jr. don’t get passed over by teams drafting 25th unless they have a seriously messed up injury. As boring as Wendell Carter Jr. may seem, at least his spine is intact.
If Porter miraculously stays healthy and has a great career, John Paxson and Gar Forman will never hear the end of it. It would be one of the rare instances of criticism for the Bulls’ front office that would be undeserved, they got this one right. A boring player is better than a broken one, that’s just the unfortunate truth.
