Chicago Bulls: Trae Young rocketing onto Bulls’ draft radar?

Seemingly out of nowhere, Oklahoma freshman Trae Young is decimating college basketball. Could he play his way into the Chicago Bulls’ draft plans?

I had no idea who in the world Trae Young was until a few days ago. Admittedly, I don’t watch nearly as much college basketball as I probably ought to.

But after people started raving about his ridiculous 31-point, 12-assist performance against Northwestern last night, I just had to get a look.

And, well…Young is really, really, really good at basketball.

Like, he’s so good right now that it looks like he doesn’t even realize he’s playing Division-I college basketball against some of the best athletes in the nation.

Truthfully, Young might as well be playing whatever high school teams he was playing last year for as much resistance as people have been putting up against him.

Right now, this man is averaging 28.7 points and 10.4 assists per game, both of which lead the nation. If you’re wondering when the last time was that a freshman led the nation in both categories, you’d have to go all the way back to…never.

And he does it with complete control, shooting, passing and handling the ball better than everyone else without effort.

I mean, people are throwing out Stephen Curry comparisons for him right now with straight faces. That’s how real he is.

So while the likes of Marvin Bagley, Luka Doncic and Michael Porter Jr. will get the majority of hype as lottery picks, Chicago Bulls fans might also want to keep an eye on Young’s development.

Now, those aforementioned players still rank above Young in terms of their NBA projections for a couple of reasons.

More from Da Windy City

• 3 takeaways from Chicago Blackhawks shootout loss to Nashville
• Chicago Cubs in the middle of chaos that is Shohei Ohtani’s free agency
• The Chicago Cubs are on a roller coaster of emotions chasing Shohei Ohtani
• Chicago Bears quietly compiling list of head coaching candidates
• Chicago White Sox News: Erick Fedde signs two-year deal

For one thing, Bagley, Doncic and Porter all boast good size combined with overall skill at their positions. On the other hand, Young is slightly, though not fatally, undersized at 6’2″.

Also, though he’s a tremendous player with beyond-NBA range, he’s also not a remarkable athlete at the point guard spot. As such, he might struggle to guard some of the hyper-athletic guards in the pros.

But if Young continues his remarkable onslaught throughout the rest of this college basketball season and rises to National Player of the Year status, who’s to say that the Chicago Bulls might find him very intriguing if they miss out on one of the top prospects?

After all, even if you have Kris Dunn slotted as your starting point guard, adding another scoring guard can’t hurt. Even if Young came off the bench to provide scoring or played alongside Dunn in small lineups with Zach LaVine playing at the three, his shooting and playmaking ability could be very useful.

Next: Could Nikola Mirotic mess up the tanking plans?

I don’t know if the Chicago Bulls were watching Young closely before, but my guess is that they are now. He wouldn’t go to the Bulls if they got the first-overall pick, of course. But if they slipped down a few spots, he’d be there if they were interested.