Chicago Bulls: Impact of James Wiseman being ruled ineligible by NCAA

When the Chicago Bulls have their slotting for the 2020 NBA Draft, it could involve Memphis freshman center James Wiseman if its early in the first round.

The 2020 NBA Draft will be much deeper and more interesting for all the lottery picks through and through compared to this year’s version. The lottery picks have more talent and depth than the 2019 NBA Draft, which was filled with wings that didn’t really live up to the hype during the 2018-19 college basketball season. But how will this year’s deeper draft class impact how the Chicago Bulls front office prepares for June 2020?

One ruling from the NCAA that could shift the picture of how the Bulls plan for the 2020 NBA Draft was the eligibility case of the Memphis Tigers former five-star recruit and center James Wiseman. Considered widely to be a top three prospect for the 2020 NBA Draft, the highly touted Wiseman could really shake up this class if his eligibility is permanently compromised with Memphis.

According to an interpretation of this situation ongoing between the NCAA and Wiseman from Sports Illustrated, the main accusation held against Wiseman and the Memphis basketball program right now is that head coach Penny Hardaway paid for his family to move from Nashville to Memphis in 2017.

But Wiseman is still playing for Hardaway and Memphis to start off his freshman season. He had a nice night in double figures scoring in an early season win for Memphis over Illinois-Chicago. He might still be playing for Memphis until his next court hearing, which is set for Nov. 18 (per John Martin of The Athletic).

If something negative and permanent is to come of this investigation by the NCAA and a Tennessee court (at the moment at least), then it could drop his draft stock for the time being. He will no longer be a part of this elite Memphis freshman class, and his development would be hampered, at least in terms of the in-game experience.

Through two games with Memphis this season, Wiseman is absolutely electric posting 22.5 points per game, 10 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.5 steals, and 4 blocks. That stat line is good for Wiseman to register a player efficiency rating sitting at an insane 57.9. Those numbers over a longer time period would surely boost Wiseman’s draft stock for next June.

Moreover, there are two more games that Wiseman could play in before that Nov. 18 court hearing arrives. Memphis has a matchup with national attention on it set for Nov. 12, coming against the No. 14 ranked Oregon Ducks out of the PAC-12. Wiseman and the Tigers will also be facing Alcorn State on Nov. 16.

At least that would be four games of action before anything else could happen to Wiseman. That also assumes that Hardaway continues to allow Wiseman to play through this investigation. Hardaway seems set on playing Wiseman until ruled otherwise and he’s forced not to, though.

But what will happen if Wiseman is ruled ineligible and actually can’t play for Memphis anymore throughout his basketball career?

It seems like the best move for him would be to take his game overseas to play in a place like the NBL. He would be able to join the likes of other top 2020 NBA Draft prospects like point guard LaMelo Ball and combo guard RJ Hampton in Australia. That is a move worth watching for the fan base and front office for the Bulls this year.

If Wiseman does make a move to play overseas, his draft scouting process would take a big turn. He would have other dynamics of his game that would be followed. The development of his shooting ability and distributing would be much more closely followed as he could be playing with more experienced and polished supporting casts. The talent level might not be the same as it is with Memphis, but it will be more mature.

Given good development potentially overseas, John Paxson and Gar Forman of the Bulls might be attracted to the idea of pursuing Wiseman come the 2020 NBA Draft. GarPax loves to add big men through the draft lottery of late. And with the way that third-year power forward Lauri Markkanen and former New York Knicks center Luke Kornet played of late, drafting a big man might not be the worst move in next year’s draft.

The way the Bulls started out the 2019-20 regular season with a 3-7 record through the first 10 games, they could be well on their way to yet another good spot in the draft lottery odds. If a top five pick is just around the corner for GarPax and the Bulls in the 2020 NBA Draft, Wiseman would have to be a consideration among the top prospects in this class.

At this point, Wiseman would have to be considered a unanimous top three prospect for the 2020 NBA Draft class. He was the nation’s top 2019 high school prospect before signing his National Letter of Intent to play at Memphis. His draft scouting process is worth following mainly for the fans and GarPax in the coming months as his NCAA eligibility is completely up in the air.