5. Daniel Gafford, Center
Now that the Bulls have pieced together a good complete rookie class, at least so it seems, through most of the 2019-20 regular season it’s not all that hard t say that keeping a second round pick was worth it. The Bulls used their second round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, No. 38 overall, to pick up the former Arkansas Razorbacks big man Daniel Gafford.
One of the big early emergences this season for the Bulls was Gafford. He was a stud off the bench in his real coming out party, which occurred against the Central Division foe Milwaukee Bucks. Since that coming out party, Gafford did slow down a bit. But not enough to slow the momentum of him definitely being worth becoming a key part of the rotation from here on out.
Gafford is not the ideal modern NBA center, but he can be a solid force for the Bulls off the bench. His rebounding, rim protecting, and back to the basket scoring abilities are still hard to find with the value that GarPax did in the second round of the NBA Draft.
A 124 offensive rating and .146 win shares per 48 minutes were the highlights of the advanced numbers that Gafford registered so far during his rookie campaign.
In 43 games played this season, Gafford averaged 5.1 points per game, 2.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists, and 1.3 blocks, while shooting 70.1 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from the charity stripe. He has yet to attempt a single attempt from beyond the arc, but that’s not really his forte. The Bulls should continue to use him effectively, which is becoming a true force to be reckoned with down low.