Chicago Bulls: 30 greatest players in franchise history

Ben Gordon was initially thought to be the prize of the 2004 NBA Draft for the Bulls, but they acquired a second top-10 pick that year, Luol Deng, and he proceeded to have one of the most productive careers in team history.

Deng earned a spot on the All-Rookie first team and became a key cog in the Bulls’ lineup for a decade. While he wouldn’t make his first All-Star Game until 2012, he had arguably his best season in 2006-07 when he averaged 18.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 37.5 minutes per game. The Bulls won 49 games that season and made it to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the Jordan era.

When Tom Thibodeau came around, Deng became an iron man of sorts. He played over 39 minutes per game in Thibodeau’s first season in Chicago, and then led the league in minutes per game the next two years, both All-Star campaigns. Deng’s tenure in Chicago ended in 2014 when he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. His 637 games are sixth in Bulls history.

While Deng was never an elite offensive player, he was a steady contributor and finished his Bulls career with 10,286 points, the fourth-most in franchise history. He was a terrific player on the defensive end and is fourth in Defensive Win Shares, per Basketball-Reference.com. His quiet leadership was also important in the locker room, and he won the Sportsmanship Award in 2007 and the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2014.