Chicago Bulls: Coby White completely changes team’s contention picture
Another North Carolina Tar Heels guard winds up with the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Draft, with Coby White selected at No. 7.
The Chicago Bulls looked to be a potential team that would want to move out of their current slotting in the 2019 NBA Draft. Entering the NBA Draft Lottery, the Bulls had the fourth best odds to get the top overall pick, and get to win the Zion Williamson sweepstakes. Instead, the Bulls dropped all the way to the seventh overall pick. With that pick at seven, the Bulls picked the North Carolina Tar Heels freshman standout point guard Coby White.
This was the third straight year that the Bulls were set to pick seventh in the draft. The past two draft picks for the Bulls at seven included center Wendell Carter Jr. and power forward Lauri Markkanen. White fills a need for the Bulls and was one of the best player left on the board.
The beginning of this year’s draft started off with a bang, including numerous trades near the top of the order. An expected move from the New Orleans Pelicans to dish out the No. 4 overall pick went to an unlikely source, to the Atlanta Hawks. At six, the Phoenix Suns were expected to go with one of the top three point guards in this draft class. Instead, the Suns dished out their No. 6 overall pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Moreover, the Bulls were the only team to keep their pick in the order between 6-8 in the first round. The Bulls could still make moves, even with this pick in store. But the real question for the Bulls was which strategy John Paxson and Gar Forman should draft with. For the past two editions of the NBA Draft, the Bulls elected to choose the best player available on the board.
Drafting for positional need or best player available is always a difficult position in the NBA Draft. To one degree, you don’t want to end up like the Orlando Magic for the past three years, clogging the frontcourt rotation. But, you could also be the Cavs or Timberwolves in the sense that numerous top draft picks couldn’t get them to contention status alone.
What threw off some of the Bulls draft plans potentially was the Timberwolves selecting Texas Tech wing Jarrett Culver and the Cavaliers selecting Vanderbilt point guard Darius Garland. Garland seemed like a good draft option for the Bulls, but the Cavs decided to stack the backcourt.
The Bulls could still wind up with a better scoring point guard than Garland when it’s all said and done with White. He broke numerous college and high school basketball scoring records in the state of North Carolina.
Next. 2019 NBA Draft Chicago Bulls Big Board prospect rankings. dark
A player that averaged more than 16.0 points per game and has a frame at 6-foot-5 and 185 pounds could be very potent at the next level. The Chicago Bulls did well to nab Coby White from the Tar Heels to try and move forward from the former Providence point guard Kris Dunn.