The Chicago Bulls have Zero 2023 Draft Picks

The Chicago Bulls have Zero 2023 Draft Picks

Time Stamp: May 18, 2023 9:45 AM
Source Node: 2660189

The 2023 NBA Draft Lottery happened on Tuesday night. Here are some visuals below:

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As shown, many teams, especially the Spurs, got chances to draft young talent. Unfortunately, the Chicago Bulls don’t have that luxury. But how did they end up with zero picks? Well, to be frank, they were extremely unlucky this year.

NBA.com provides a layout for every draft pick from one to 58. In addition, it displays who they got their draft pick(s) from. Therefore, it’s straightforward to follow who has each of the Bulls’ former picks.

The First Missed Pick

The first pick the Bulls missed out on was the pick they traded to get Nikola Vucevic in 2021. To go over that trade, prosportstransactions displays the details were as follows:

-Bulls received Nikola Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu

-Magic received Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., 2021 first-round pick (Franz Wagner), and a 2023 first round pick

The interesting thing about this 2023 pick, as stated by The Sporting News recent article, was the details within it. Essentially, if the Bulls got lucky enough for the pick to reach the top four, the Bulls keep it. However, if the pick landed outside of the top four, it goes to the Magic.

Since the Bulls were competing for a play-in spot that year, it was highly unlikely. Unfortunately, that assumption was correct. The pick fell all the way to the 11th spot, meaning that Chicago’s pick will officially go to Orlando.

The Second Missed Pick

The second pick the Bulls lost to another organization was a second-round pick. Prosportstransactions states that the Wizards get that pick as compensation for the previous trade they made on July 7, 2019. Basketball Reference shows that trade was follows:

-Bulls received Tomas Satoransky and a 2022 second-round pick (Kennedy Chandler)

-Wizards received a 2020 second-round pick (Vit Krejci) and a 2022 second-round pick (Christian Koloko)

It seems that the Bulls promised for the Wizards so they would also give up their 2023 second-round pick. Therefore, the Bulls lost yet another pick due to past trades.

The Final Missed Pick

The Final pick the Bulls lost has the most interesting situation. Basketball Reference showed that the Bulls originally got the pick through 3-team trade with the Cavaliers and Trail Blazers on Aug. 28, 2021. It was as follows:

-Bulls received CLE 2023 second-round pick, POR 2022 first-round pick, and Derrick Jones Jr.

-Trail Blazers received Larry Nance Jr.

-Cavaliers received Lauri Markkanen

What makes this trade interesting? Well, the concept of tampering makes it interesting. As defined by Mark Deeks of Forbes.com, tampering is “the act of a team’s representatives speaking to players on rival teams to attempt to lure them to join their team.” Apparently, Chicago was guilty of this.

Specifically, during their times of restructuring during the DeRozan and Ball trades, they got caught tampering with Lonzo Ball. Therefore, their punishment was to forfeit their pick to the Nuggets.

It’s an unfortunate circumstance for the Bulls but it seems to be the new policy the NBA is taking for teams caught tampering. But some may ask, why does this matter?

Why This is Important

This matters for the Bulls as an organization because, whether picks are used or not, they are essential pieces to building a good/great team.

As shown by the trades above, they can be pieces other teams are interested in to get NBA all-stars, legends, or effective veterans. Or they can be players molded into whatever the organization needs.

For example, one of the promising young players the Bulls have is Patrick Williams. Of course, he’s dealt with quite a few injuries, but he’s pushed through enough to become a decent young defender. Here are some of his defensive plays over his short career as shown by the image and videos below:

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Without the fourth overall pick in the 2020 draft, they wouldn’t have gotten him.

Of course, he isn’t the only player with promise the Bulls have. They have others like Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, etc.

But, again, the Bulls won’t have them without having at least a pick in those drafts. Therefore, with zero picks in the 2023 draft, they will miss all possible talent that would’ve been essential to improving their 2023 roster.

Stay tuned for more NBA content, including midseason moves, contract updates, and more pieces about every team.

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