It's the Chicago Bulls Podcast 35 with Marcus Couch, Wyse Black and Kenyatta Wright and we've got our NBA Lottery Results Roundtable and the current “State of the Bulls Fan”.
Welcome to the Bulls Podcast, coming to you from BullsPodcast.com. This is where we bring you the latest news, reviews, rants, rumors and opinions on the players, coaches and front office of the Chicago Bulls.
And we’ve chosen our most frequent guest to drown our sorrows with. It’s Friend of the Show – Kenyatta Wright. He’s a columnist for Hypefresh.co and administrator of the Bullseye Facebook group. Kenyatta, Welcome once again to the show!
We’ve got several topics for this episode. Including:
NBA Lottery Results Roundtable
State of the Bulls Fan right now
NBA Draft Lottery Breakdown
In a somehow unrealistic turn of events, the Chicago Bulls fell 3 slots in the NBA Draft Lottery and will receive the 7th pick in the draft for the 3rd year in a row.
John Paxson didn’t need to be talked off a ledge on Tuesday night.
There was no cursing from the Bulls vice president of basketball operations, no screams of conspiracy, not even an ounce of panic. Rather, Paxson was very calm just minutes after the 2019 NBA Draft lottery, in which the Bulls fell to No. 7 after finishing with the league’s fourth-worst record.
“First of all, it’s not catastrophic,’’ Paxson said. “It starts with what the league did last year in changing the odds. You look at what happened [Tuesday], I mean seven, eight and 11 jumped into the top four spots, and New York, who had the worst record ended up third. I think the league is probably pleased with why they went this route and how it turned out, but for us you always hope you get lucky, but again it wasn’t our turn to get lucky.
“I’m very convinced we will get another really good player at seven. We do our work, we’re going to try and find a guy that does what we like.’’
That’s not all they’re going to try, though.
For the first time in a while, the Bulls’ brain trust will keep a very open mind with this pick. That could mean trading it for a proven player, specifically a point guard.
In the past, the Bulls have been very confident in their scouting, so have relied on the best-available-player mentality.
The Sun-Times reported last month that one scenario the Bulls would explore, and had a dialogue about during the season, involves Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball.
The Lakers were one of the big winners in the lottery, moving up to No. 4, but Murray State point guard Ja Morant, expected to be picked second, will no longer be around to make Ball expendable. Giving the Lakers No. 4 and 7, however, does give them options, whether it’s packaging for a trade or building with youth around LeBron James.
Paxson wasn’t ruling out any scenario.
“I always talk about looking for the best available player, but we’re going to keep a real open mind with this pick in terms of going whatever direction it takes us,’’ Paxson said. “Whether it’s a fit, whether it’s best player, talk about possibly moving it for an established player if that makes sense, so there’s a lot of things we can do, and we’ll explore everything.’’
That’s not what Bulls fans wanted to hear, considering their dreams of Zion Williamson and the No. 1 pick were crushed quickly. Now, a trade or free agency is basically the only path for a change at point guard, especially if the stock of Vanderbilt point guard Darius Garland continues to rise.
Either way, the conversation about what to do with this consolation prize of pick #7 will be a continual debate for Bulls fans from now until draft day on June 20th.
State of the Bulls Fan:
Let’s face it. It’s really tough to be a Bulls Fan these days. Coming off a horrible 20 win season, the Chicago Bulls could not cash in with all the efforts of the tanking that we had to e…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
