Wouldn’t this be a bittersweet result for the Bulls? On one hand, Chicago would have avoided moving down in the new draft format and walked away with a top four selection. On the other hand, the Bulls would have to settle just short of the player they had their hearts set on.
At fourth overall, the possibility still remains to trade up for Ja Morant, or potentially even a trade down for a player like Darius Garland. However, if the Chicago Bulls can’t find any suitors in the trade market and must settle for fourth, they could do much worse than Jarrett Culver.
While Culver did struggle mightily in the latter half of the NCAA tournament, only so much merit can be placed on the shoulders of a three game performance. Jumping to conclusions from a small sample size is how players like Cristiano Felicio get 32 million dollar deals.
At Texas Tech, Culver did just about everything. Culver led his national championship caliber team in points, assists and rebounds. While shooting is the biggest concern in his scouting report, Culver shot 38.2 percent from deep his freshman season so perhaps the higher workload at Texas Tech affected his output.
As Otto Porter proved for the Bulls this year, there’s immense value in versatile players. Chicago already has a first and second option on offense, while Wendell Carter and Porter make up the defensive backbone of the team. This would allow Culver to come into his own, playing comfortably as a transition player who can do a little bit of everything and help tip the win column in Chicago’s favor. This is somewhat of a bold prediction for a 2019 NBA Mock Draft at this point.