The two best players from the 2020 NBA Draft thus far are Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton. At the time of the draft, Edwards was properly appraised, as the Minnesota Timberwolves used the No. 1 overall pick to snag him. Haliburton, however, had to hear another 10 names called before the Sacramento Kings eventually took him.
Since then, there have been no shortage of rumors about which teams almost pulled the trigger on the star point guard. Most famously, there was the story about Haliburton wanting to play for the Detroit Pistons, only for the organization to go with Killian Hayes at No. 7 instead.
At least for the Pistons' sake, they were able to recover and draft a player who may arguably be better than Haliburton in Cade Cunningham the following year. Another Midwest organization, however, has had no such luck.
The Chicago Bulls whiffed on Tyrese Haliburton
On Sunday, in a discussion of the poor talent evaluation of former Chicago Bulls vice president Artūras Karnišovas, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times mentioned how many people internally viewed Haliburton as the right pick at No. 4 overall in the 2020 draft. But those opinions were not heard, as Karnišovas preferred Patrick Williams instead.
Most of the Bulls scouts and draft room wanted to pick Tyrese Haliburton but Arturas Karnisovas was fixated on Patrick Williams, per @JCowleyHoops
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) August 30, 2026
“Karnisovas didn’t even think Haliburton would be a top-four talent on the Bulls’ roster at the time.”
(https://t.co/TYPVIsQKBf) pic.twitter.com/goh6TjiUD8
In the six seasons since, Haliburton has earned two All-Star appearances, two All-NBA nominations, an assist title and came within one win of the NBA championship in 2025. On the flip side, Williams' career has been in a downward spiral since he shared an All-Rookie Team selection with Haliburton. Now, he owns one of the worst contracts in the Association.
To make matters worse, not only did Karnišovas think Williams was better than Haliburton, but he also didn't view Haliburton as a serious prospect. As mentioned in the tweet above, Karnišovas thought Haliburton wasn't capable of being a top four talent on the Bulls' roster.
In addition to beng a weird way to decide who to draft — why do they need to be a top-four player on your roster? What kind of arbitrary metric is that? — this is also dead wrong. Outside of Williams, Chicago's five leaders in total minutes played during the 2020-21 NBA season were Coby White, Zach LaVine, Thaddeus Young, Garrett Temple and Lauri Markkanen. (Nikola Vučević was also on the team, but he arrived during the trade deadline.)
If you want to argue that LaVine, Markkanen and White were perceived to be more talented than Haliburton at the time, be my guest. But Temple? Young? We haven't even gotten into the Tomáš Satoranský, Denzel Valentine and Ryan Arcidiacono of it all. Even before Haliburton lit the basketball world on fire, you could argue he was at least as talented as those guys.
Fortunately for the Bulls, the days of Karnišovas misevaluating talent are over, as the franchise entered a new era this offseason with the hiring of Bryson Graham. Chicago has some talented new building blocks in Caleb Wilson, Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey, and is looking at a bright new future.
But one can't wonder how much better off they'd be in the present if Karnišovas hadn't overlooked Haliburton way back when.
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