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Chicago Bulls: 3 Players that Should be Considered Untouchable in Trades

By Garrett Brooks

Patrick Williams, Chicago Bulls Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Patrick Williams, Chicago Bulls Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports /
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Montenegro’s Marko Simonovic (L) fights for the ball with Great Britain’s Luke Nelson during the Eurobasket 2020 basketball match between Montenegro and Great Britain in Pau, southwestern France, on November 29, 2020. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP) (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Montenegro’s Marko Simonovic (L) fights for the ball with Great Britain’s Luke Nelson during the Eurobasket 2020 basketball match between Montenegro and Great Britain in Pau, southwestern France, on November 29, 2020. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP) (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ/AFP via Getty Images) /

Chicago Bulls 2020 NBA Draft Pick Marko Simonovic is Worth Retaining the Rights to Moving Forward

This may be a bit of a surprise for readers, but that’s only because the 44th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft hasn’t been discussed much since the pick was made. That’s not uncommon for draft and stash players, but Simonovic doesn’t appear to be the typical draft and stash player.

In case you haven’t seen, the 21-year-old big man has taken a big step forward this year while playing for Mega Basket in the ABA Adiatric league. He leads the league in rebounds per game at 8.8 while also coming in at fourth in the league in scoring with his 16 points per contest.

At just under 7 feet tall, Simonovic has the potential to be a lethal pick and pop player with his combination of size and shooting stroke. He has hit 34.3 percent of his three-pointers this season and his stroke makes one believe that number could trend up in the coming years. Evidence of that would be his 83.1 percent success rate from the charity strike.

While some will want to jump all the way to him being a Nikola Jokicesque player down the road, it’s not fair or reasonable to go nearly that far. Yes, Arturas Karnisovas played a big role in drafting Jokic in Denver and took Simonovic in his first draft with the Bulls. Let’s take that as nothing more than Karnisovas having an eye for talent in overseas prospects.

Simonovic doesn’t need to become a star for him to be a player off the table right now. He simply needs to develop into an impact player a few years down the road for this to make sense. That’s for a few reasons.

First, his value is only ascending and the Bulls should feel that trend will continue moving forward. Second, he isn’t going to be valued enough to push the needle on a really good NBA player in a trade today.

Patience is key. That’s especially true regarding stashed prospects that are on the rise.

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