2021 NBA Mock Draft: Way too early picks for the lottery

2021 NBA Mock Draft (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
2021 NBA Mock Draft (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
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(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Here we are, the Bulls first round pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. As draftsite.com holds it, the Bulls will be picking around the same spot that they did since the 2017 NBA Draft when they selected former Arizona Wildcats power forward Lauri Markkanen seventh overall. The Bulls have also drafted center Wendell Carter Jr. and point guard Coby White seventh overall in the last two years of the NBA Draft.

Who knows exactly where the Bulls will land in the 2020 draft lottery? But the Bulls would be the favorite to land the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft, as it stands now (per Tankathon). But those Tankathon odds also project the Bulls to get pick 6.2 in the 2020 NBA Draft.

However, if the Bulls are still going to be picking around the same spot once the 2021 draft arrives, then it’s hard to know what their biggest positional need will be. A good spot to look is probably going to be at shooting guard or on the wing. That’s where the safe selection of Sierra Canyon High School product BJ Boston Jr. could come into play.

Boston is yet another five-star high school signee from the 2020 recruiting cycle of the Kentucky basketball program. That will be a loaded team come the start of the 2020-21 college basketball season.

Ranking as the nation’s No. 7 2020 high school prospect, No. 2 shooting guard, and No. 4 prospect out of California, Boston has a lot to offer at the college and NBA levels. He stands at 6-foot-6 and 175 pounds, and has a very lengthy 6-foot-11 wingspan. And there could still be room to grow for Boston.

His 247Sports recruiting profile compared him to the likes of the former Duke Blue Devil and Pelicans rising star small forward Brandon Ingram. He does have that smooth outside stroke, and versatile two-way ability that Ingram could continue to develop in the NBA.