The Chicago Bulls made some noise during the 2023 NBA Draft despite not having any selections heading into the night. Their first-rounder belonged to the Orlando Magic, and they lost both of their second-round picks for different reasons – they traded one and had the other stripped from them after they broke tampering rules when signing Lonzo Ball.
However, when the time came for it, the Bulls traded into the second round, snagging the 34th pick from the Sacramento Kings and selecting Tennessee forward Julian Phillips – a defensive-minded prospect. He’ll give the team some nice forward depth and a solid piece to develop moving forward.
During their post-NBA Draft press conference, Mark Eversley and Arturas Karnisovas spoke about Phillips, and both seemed very excited to welcome him aboard.
“Our group liked him – he’s an excellent balance, you know, all-American freshman, 19 years old, multi-positional defender,” Karnisovas said via Matt Zahn of CBS News Chicago. “He can step in right now, you know, probably can defend on our level. But he has a lot of things obviously to improve. But we’re looking forward to – he’s very young, and he’s very talented.”
Meanwhile, Eversley spoke about how he compares to Derrick Jones Jr.
“Julian fits a lot of those same attributes, and you know, as we sat there and went through it, and figured out who was available and who wasn’t, it played a little bit of a part,” Eversley said. “You know, again, they’re both very similar in terms of the way they play and the style of play, and you know, we’re excited about bringing him into the fold.”
At 19 years old, Phillips has plenty of time to develop into a top-notch player.
