Even in the hours following the conclusion of the 2020 NBA Draft, Arturas Karnisovas and the Chicago Bulls made some noise with UDFA PG Devon Dotson.
There were plenty of mixed reactions that the Chicago Bulls got on the night of the 2020 NBA Draft. With their fourth overall pick in the 2020 draft lottery, newly hired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and the Bulls selected the former Florida State Seminoles standout freshman forward and former highly coveted four-star recruit Patrick Williams.
And with their 44th overall pick in the second round of the draft (originally of the Memphis Grizzlies), the Bulls picked up the former KK Mega Bemax 21-year-old big man Marko Simonovic. The drafting of Simonovic generated more positive immediate reactions from the fans on social media than Williams did.
But it won’t be long until we see how this draft plays out for the Bulls. While Simonovic will be more of a draft-and-stash selection, Williams will be expected to make some level of an immediate impact for first-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Bulls. There’s just no way that a fourth overall pick coming from a Power Conference college team like Florida State should go without high level contributions come in the early years of their NBA career.
One additional undrafted free agent signing in the minutes and hours following the conclusion of the 2020 NBA Draft could make a big impact for the Bulls. The Bulls reportedly (ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski) got the former Kansas Jayhawks star sophomore point guard Devon Dotson as an undrafted free agent signing soon after the second round of the draft concluded.
Undrafted Kansas guard Devon Dotson is signing with the Chicago Bulls, source tells ESPN. Dotson is a Chicago native who grew up idolizing Derrick Rose.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 19, 2020
Apparently the signing of Dotson is also a big deal because he “grew up idolizing Derrick Rose”.
The news of the signing of the undrafted free agent Dotson was one of the bigger drops of this nature in the hour following the conclusion of the second round of the draft. And the Bulls might not be done on the undrafted free agent market yet either.
However, what the Bulls are getting out of the undrafted free agent signing Dotson is a steal of a prospect that looked to be a firm second round pick at the very least in this draft. The 6-foot-2 and 185 pound Charlotte, NC, native Dotson was a two-time All-Big 12 First-Team selection and a one-time AP All-American.
During the shortened 2019-20 college hoops season, Dotson played in 30 games with the Jayhawks (all of which he started in). And he averaged 18.1 points per game, 4.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.1 blocks. Dotson shot 46.8 percent from the field, 30.9 percent from beyond the arc, and 83.0 percent from the free-throw line.
Dotson is a lightning quick point guard that can beat a lot of opposing defenders off the dribble, make things happen in transition consistently, and is a very underrated on-ball defender. In fact, Dotson was one of the better one-on-one perimeter defenders of all of the guards in this draft class.
It’s really difficult to put a grade on the Bulls 2020 draft class. We will just have to wait and see how this plays out with the likes of Dotson, Simonovic, and namely Williams, throughout the next year or two. The start of the 2020-21 NBA regular season is set for Dec. 22, so we won’t have to wait all that long until the debut of at least Williams.