The Chicago Bulls assembled a team of Zach LaVine, Nikola Vučević, and DeMar DeRozan in hopes of competing in the East. This took place in 2021. They had Lonzo Ball on the team, uninjured, playing super well. The four had them near the top of the Eastern Conference.
Then Lonzo Ball endured his injury saga. To keep it brief, the Bulls have not approached those heights again. They’ve topped out in the play-in over and over. With the same guys until this year. Just a constant cycle generally meaning nothing.
And now they’re out of the play-in. Their season is over. And since they didn’t make the playoffs, they get to be in the NBA Draft Lottery now.
Oh boy! I bet they have a really good chance at drafting a franchise altering player like Cooper Flagg! Well, maybe not. But then again, maybe! Oh gosh it’s just so exciting.
It’s nice to be excited. Anyway, it’s time to stop.
It’s worth taking a look at the lottery odds all laid out here at Tankathon.
To summarize for those who may not want to click a link, the Bulls have a chance at six picks. They have a 92.0 percent chance at the 13th pick, a 2.3 percent chance at the 14th pick, a 1.7 percent chance at the fourth pick, a 1.5 percent chance at the third pick, a 1.3 percent chance at the second pick, and then a 1.2 percent chance at pick number one. The pick that in any reasonable universe would land you Cooper Flagg.
Basically, they’re 94.3 percent likely to be picking at the very back of the lottery. You can find franchise altering players with later picks, but, you know, it’s just harder. And they’ve done this so many times already. It’s just kind of frustrating.
The Bulls appear to (maybe?) be in rebuild mode now. They’ve moved on from Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. They do have solid pieces there they can move or grow with. But with so many Bulls fans wanting it to finally be torn down to start over, seeing Cooper Flagg right in your vision but so far away…
Who knows. Maybe they get him.