BR’s early 2021 mock draft projects Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs to Chicago Bulls

The early 2021 NBA Mock Drafts are starting to pour in, and one from Bleacher Report this week had the Chicago Bulls picking Zags guard Jalen Suggs.

Whenever an NBA Draft officially gets written into the record books each passing offseason, the media landscape is able to immediately jump on what the following year’s class projects out to be. Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report hopped onto his “way-too-soon 2021 NBA Mock Draft” just a couple of days after the 2020 NBA Draft concluded. And he had a solid projection for the Chicago Bulls pick in his early mock for the 2021 draft.

Wasserman projected the Bulls to pick the Gonzaga Bulldogs former highly coveted five-star recruit and sensational true freshman 6-foot-4 and 205 pound guard Jalen Suggs seventh overall in the draft lottery. It’s still very early on for the 2020-21 college hoops regular season, but Suggs was solid for Gonzaga and head coach Mark Few in the first two games of his career.

Suggs started in each of the first two games that he played for with the Zags this season. He’s averaged 18.0 points per game, 4.0 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.5 blocks. And Suggs shot a sparkling 62.5 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 66.7 percent from the free-throw line.

That amounted to a a whopping .378 win shares per 40 minutes, 38.7 player efficiency rating, 67.0 true shooting percentage, and a 142 offensive rating/95 defensive rating. It’s still very early in this college hoops season, but Suggs is on a tremendously efficient pace through two games.

Here’s more on what Wasserman had to say about projecting the Bulls to pick Suggs seventh overall in his early 2021 mock draft.

"After passing on point guards in the 2020 draft, the Chicago Bulls could target one in 2021. Next in line after Cunningham, Jalen Suggs is expected to be Gonzaga’s second one-and-done freshman (after Zach Collins), likely to produce and create buzz with his well-rounded offense and defensive toughness.A 6’4″, 205 pounds, Suggs has an NBA body, which helps his case. And he uses it at both ends, driving through contract and pressuring opposing ball-handlers."

If the Bulls still aren’t confident in their guard situation over the long haul by the time next offseason arrives (and they’re out of the playoff picture again), then targeting Suggs seems like the right move. There is a lot of promise in what the Bulls have with point guard Coby White and shooting guard Zach LaVine, but they might not wind up being the long-term faces of the franchise and of this rebuild.

In the 2020 NBA Draft, the Bulls selected the former Florida State Seminoles freshman forward Patrick Williams fourth overall in the lottery. And they picked up the KK Mega Bemax 21-year-old 6-foot-11 big man Marko Simonovic 44th overall in the second round. They also got a solid undrafted free agent signing in the former Kansas Jayhawks star point guard Devon Dotson.

The Bulls finished up the 2019-20 shortened regular season with a record of 22-43 under the direction of former head coach Jim Boylen, good for 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. They are set to open up Training Camp on Dec. 1, and their preseason schedule begins at home at the United Center on Dec. 11 against the Houston Rockets.