Chicago Bulls: Fourth overall pick brings chance to rejuvenate rebuild

The right amount of luck that the Chicago Bulls might need to get an extra push this offseason arrived on the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery night.

The 2020 NBA Draft Lottery just saw the Chicago Bulls catch a bit more of a stroke of good luck than they did in the past three years. The Bulls wound up getting the fourth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery, which was a surprise given their odds coming into the night. They had the seventh best odds to get the first overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

In general, the Bulls had the odds set at 7.5 percent to get the first overall pick in the 2020 draft. And they had a 32.0 percent chance of landing in the top four picks. The Bulls got a good bit of luck on lottery night by hitting on that 32.0 percent chance to land in the top four.

This will be the highest lottery draft pick that the Bulls held since they won it all and got superstar point guard Derrick Rose with the first pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. They have picked in the top 10 three times since then, with all of them coming in the last three NBA Drafts (seventh overall each time).

To round out the top five (in order from bottom-to-top), the divisional foe Cleveland Cavaliers are slotted fifth, then the Bulls, and the Charlotte Hornets, Golden State Warriors, and then the Minnesota Timberwolves getting the first overall pick. The Warriors and Timberwolves were the two teams out of the original top four with the best odds to get the first overall pick to stick around.

The Atlanta Hawks and Cavaliers wound up catching a stroke of bad luck, getting to pick fifth and sixth overall. Another stroke of bad luck hit the New York Knicks, as they dropped out of the top six entirely, with the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft.

The Bulls draft representative, and new executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas (although it was luck), already seems to be the rabbit’s foot this rebuild needed. He has a real shot to make his mark via the NBA Draft heading into the fourth year of the rebuild.

The 2020 NBA Draft is set to begin on Oct. 16. With less than two months to formulate their official draft strategy, the front office combination of Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley need to get to work fast. They are also working with the 44th overall pick in the second round of the 2020 draft.