2021 NBA DRAFT

Owned Draft Picks: NOP 2021 2nd Round Pick (Pick #38)

As mentioned before, the Chicago Bulls traded away their first-round pick this year to the Orlando Magic in the trade that sent Nikola Vucevic to Chicago, but this pick is not necessarily gone yet. The Bulls traded this pick with Top-4 protection on it, meaning that they could retain the pick this year and would send their 2022 first-round pick to Orlando Top-3 in 2022 instead. 

With Chicago finishing with the 8th worst record in the league this year, they have a 20.2% chance of their pick falling inside the Top-4 and a 4.5% chance of their pick being the #1 overall pick in the draft, meaning that they would keep their pick this year. 

If the Bulls are able to keep this pick, not only would they have a first-round pick in this year’s draft, but they would be getting one of the top prospects available and a player that has All-Star potential written all over him. 

READ MORE: NBA Rumors: This Bulls-Celtics trade is focused on Kemba Walker to Chicago

Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Jalen Suggs, Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga are expected to be the Top-5 picks in this year’s draft, in no particular order yet, and each one of them possesses franchise-altering potential in their own ways. Drafting any of these guys would help the Bulls tremendously, especially since they now had a need in their backcourt for a high-level guard and three of these Top-5 guys are guards. 

Quite honestly, I am not really sure if Chicago would have a preference on who they would want out of these five guys because right now, their focus is praying to the basketball gods that they can keep their pick this year and send next year’s first-round pick instead. With Coby White now being out all of the offseason and into the start of next season, things are a little more complicated talent wise on the Bulls’ roster, which is why they need this Top-4 protected pick that they traded away. 

READ MORE: NBA Rumors: This Bulls-Cavs offseason trade features Collin Sexton to Chicago

If the Bulls do not end up with their first-round pick this year though, then they will have one lone second-round pick at 38th overall. If this is the case for the Bulls, then it would be hard for them to try and trade up into the first-round to get a draft pick of value this year because they do not really have many assets that they can trade. 

Player-wise, Thad Young and Tomas Satoransky could draw some interest, but not enough for the Bulls to trade them outright for a new first-round pick. As a result, the Bulls would likely have to leverage some future assets and first-round picks to move back into the first-round in this year’s draft, which is something they may not be interested in doing, as well as the teams they may be talking with on draft night. 

The 2021 NBA Draft is going to be very “hit-or-miss” for the Chicago Bulls this year and it all depends on if their ping pong ball is picked during the Draft Lottery on June 22. Whether or not they keep their first-round pick this year could have major implications on what they plan to do when free agency begins in August.