It wasn’t the type of splashy organizational decision that warranted the NBA commissioner to take the podium on Thursday.
After all, Adam Silver isn’t in the practice of announcing, “With no picks in the first round, the Chicago Bulls instead select continuity.’’
But on a night in which the Bulls arrived at yet another crossroads with this current roster build, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley opted to stay pat through round one, before making a trade with Washington and selecting Tennessee wing Julian Phillips with the 35th overall pick in the second round.
Phillips doesn’t solve the outside shooting issue – only hitting 24% from that range last season – but is another weapon off the bench that brings athleticism and defense.
Another piece in the mix, but far from the piece.
“He can step in right now, and probably can defend on our level, but he has a lot of things obviously to improve,’’ Karnisovas said of Phillips. “He’s very young and very talented.’’
Karnisovas did admit that they did look to get into the first round, but nothing broke their way. That meant a few hours of inactivity.
Not a real surprise, especially after the Bulls front office kept the roster intact at the February trade deadline, despite underachieving at the time, and then Karnisovas himself came out in the post-season media session and praised the direction this team was headed.
Over two months later, that was still the mindset, with the focus on changing the shooting profile to more three-pointers.
“That’s been thrown around all this season … ‘Blow up, rebuild’ … It’s not on our minds,’’ Karnisovas insisted on that April afternoon. “I think the moment we changed our minds in 2021 season to kind of focus on winning and try to build a sustainable program here, I think that’s what we’re focused right now on.
“How we can help this group and how we can improve from this year, and that’s what our offseason goal is going to look like. We’re going to consider everything and how we can compete with the top teams.’’
Obviously, “considering everything’’ didn’t entail trading two-time All-Star Zach LaVine or veteran scorer DeMar DeRozan for a package that included a high draft pick.
A source indicated that both players were discussed with multiple organizations, but it was more due diligence than reaching a point where any of those talks got serious.
Like they did at the deadline, Karnisovas & Co. have placed a very high value on both LaVine and DeRozan, and there was outside opinion by several in the know that it was a price that has remained somewhat overinflated.
Gamesmanship for the free-agent frenzy in July or next February’s trade deadline? Maybe. Or the bigger concern – this front office over evaluates its own assets.
That all remained to be seen.
What was apparent on draft night was the Bulls went into the festivities without a first-round pick, and couldn’t maneuver their way back in until Round 2.
All the while, they watched Orlando complete the 2021 Nikola Vucevic trade by taking the 11th overall pick the Bulls gave to them as part of the compensation package, and drafting Michigan’s Jett Howard.
That meant it was Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu for Otto Porter Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., Franz Wagner and Howard. While there’s no predicting if the Bulls would have selected Wagner and Howard, the Magic did with the Bulls’ picks.
And the Magic weren’t the only franchise to come out of the draft lottery feeling like they improved.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, with the first overall pick, San Antonio selected 7-foot-4 unicorn Victor Wembanyama.
The French import was widely considered to be the best prospect since LeBron James.
Charlotte then grabbed forward Brandon Miller, leaving Portland quite the consolation prize in guard Scoot Henderson. The Thompson Twins – Amen and Ausar – then made NBA history becoming the first brothers selected in the top five of the same draft.
There were rumors leading up to the draft that the Bulls could try and parlay LaVine into a package that would get them the No. 2 or No. 3 pick, but a source said that was never a reality for Charlotte and Portland to even explore.
The draft wasn’t the only NBA news of the day, either. Like the Bulls the past few seasons, Washington was trapped in NBA mediocrity. Unlike the Bulls, however, they did something about it, sending Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis out in trades, and then turning Chris Paul into Jordan Poole.
While they didn’t get back the draft assets some thought they should, what the Wizards did do was clear the books for the pending new CBA that will change the landscape.
Meanwhile, what the Bulls were doing was either running the core mostly back, or really good at playing the slow game.
The Sun-Times reported that they were in discussions with Vucevic on a three-year extension, so the hope was to get that done sooner than later. Karnisovas will then turn his attention to the free-agent market, where the trade activity was expected to again pick up.
As he did late last year, Karnisovas reiterated that Lonzo Ball was expected to miss this entire upcoming season after a third left knee surgery, which also meant addressing the point guard position in some capacity next month.
