Chicago Bulls: 2020 NBA Mock Draft 1.0
The 2020 NBA Draft lottery is only a few days away and the Chicago Bulls have two picks this year.
August 20th is quickly approaching, and this year’s draft lottery has slotted itself to be huge for the rebuilding Chicago Bulls.
The draft and the lottery will be held virtually, thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but the firing of head coach Jim Boylen means that all eyes are locked on EVP of basketball operations, Arturas Karnisovas.
For those of you who have yet to listen to the 15-ish minute official press conference held after Boylen was relieved of his coaching duties, you can take a listen here.
Not sure about all of you, but hearing AK speak about basketball operations around the team makes me deliriously happy. It’s impossible for fans to really understand and hear everything that is going on with a team, especially in the case of a coach getting let go, but Karnisovas shot as straight as he could while keeping some things close to the vest.
Just after the announcement about ol’ JimBo, the Bulls notified their fans that AK would be representing the team during the virtual draft process, which will be held at 7:30 CT on August 20th. The class of 2020 is remarked by most experts as a very weak class, but Karnisovas had different thoughts via Bulls Twitter:
AK on the draft: I disagree that it's a weak class. I like the players, I like a lot of players in our range. We've done a lot of work studying and that's where a lot of the excitement comes from: interviewing them and looking at the video. We'll add a good player to our roster.
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) June 6, 2020
Another snag in the drafting plan is the whole pandemic situation. College basketball was shut down before the NCAA Tournament could take place. Without the tournament, there are pieces of scouting reports missing from a lot of domestic players. The cancelation of March Madness also affects draft stock, giving a higher chance for a team to grab a dud prospect.
(There is also a greater chance that a team could grab a sleeper, to be fair.)
An even scarier thought would be that some of the overseas prospects could decline to come to the United States straight away due to coronavirus concerns.
Yikes.
So there is a lot at stake between now and draft night in October, doubly so if you’re in charge of a miserable franchise like the Bulls.
However, with his experience in drafting and player development, fans should wholeheartedly place their hope in Karnisovas, no matter where the Bulls land in the lottery Thursday night.
For this Bulls mock draft, the hypothetical will be that the lottery remains unchanged and the Bulls are stuck at pick 7 (AGAIN) in the first round and 44 in the second.
More mock drafts will come post-lottery so stay tuned for those as well! And now…