Chicago Bulls: Could lottery snub mean a trade ahead of draft night?

The results that the Chicago Bulls were looking for were not delivered on the night of the 2021 NBA Draft Lottery. What was a promising, and fortunate, night for the Bulls’ new front office regime last offseason did not get delivered this time around. The Bulls wound up giving up their first-round draft pick to the Orlando Magic since they didn’t land in the top four of the draft lottery.

The way that the Bulls could’ve received their first-round draft pick back from the Magic was landing in the top four of the lottery. That would keep their protection, but the odds of that happening sat at roughly 20 percent entering the night of June 22.

This Bulls lottery pick actually wound up staying in the same spot as their odds in the lottery to get the first overall pick altogether. The Magic got to keep the first-round pick from the Bulls since it landed in the eighth spot.

The Magic also got the fifth overall pick in the draft lottery that was their own.

And the rest of the lottery order shook out with the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Toronto Raptors, rounding out the top four from top-to-bottom. The Bulls were included in the top four of the draft lottery last year, but didn’t get the same luck this summer.

So now that we know that the only draft pick that the Bulls hold straight up is in the second round, the question begs what the plan is from the front office moving forward. There is the possibility that executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnsiovas and general manager Marc Eversley try to pull off a trade.

But that might cost the Bulls a lot when it’s all said and done. They have the option of filling out the rotation and various positional needs through free agency. That would cost them less of their current player and draft assets remaining.

It doesn’t look to make much sense for Arturas Karnisovas to get the Chicago Bulls back into the draft lottery

An option that exists is trading a draft pick-rich team like the Oklahoma City Thunder to try and get some of their draft capital in return. That would likely entail the Bulls trying to get the former Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets point guard Kemba Walker from the Thunder, along with some future draft capital.

Moreover, there are some other pieces that the Bulls have that they could potentially use to get a pick back in the first round, if not the lottery. If Karnisovas and the Bulls had to trade someone like the impending restricted free agent power forward Lauri Markkanen (sign-and-trade deal) and/or second-year point guard Coby White to get some draft capital in return, that might be worth it.

The Bulls have some rotational needs to help upgrade this supporting cast around the trio of star shooting guard Zach LaVine, center Nikola Vucevic, and rookie forward Patrick Williams. But they don’t have a whole lot of cap space to effectively round out the rotation this offseason.

That’s why having a first-round draft pick could be valuable to the front office this summer.

The Bulls finished up the 2020-21 regular season with a record of 31-41 under the direction of first-year head coach Billy Donovan. They will look to continue to build out this roster without the 2021 NBA Draft playing much of a role in all likelihood.