As the night of the 2021 NBA Draft moves along, Chicago Bulls fans are waiting for the possibility of the front office making a big splash move. And that might not be too surprising if the front office were to make a pretty bold move to get up on the draft board on this night, especially with the precedent set at the trade deadline back on March 25.
Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley made a big move at the trade deadline to land star center Nikola Vucevic from the Orlando Magic, which is why this team doesn’t have a first-round pick in this draft. Part of that trade to land Vooch from the Magic saw the Bulls ship off the first-round pick for 2021 with top-four protection.
But a move could still be on the horizon for the Bulls. According to a report from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times on his Twitter timeline on the evening of July 29, the Bulls could make a move up into the late first round to get some guard help.
Keep an eye on the Bulls looking to get into the late first round for backcourt help, eyeing Miles McBride or "Bones" Hyland from VCU, per a source. Knicks also like Hyland at pick 19 or 21.
— Joe Cowley (@JCowleyHoops) July 29, 2021
Let the games begin ....
Where the Chicago Bulls could look if AK moves into the first round?
Cowley specifically noted that the Bulls could move into the late first round to get a guard like West Virginia’s Miles McBride or VCU’s Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland. There would be more options available to the Bulls if the team were to move up into the late first round with how deep this draft class is.
The lone pick that the Bulls hold at the moment in the 2021 draft lies in the second round, 38th overall. That still presents the Bulls with some options that would likely be available at 38, namely the likes of Houston’s Quentin Grimes, Ohio’s Jason Preston, and Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu, among others.
The 2021 draft did have a lot of action in store early on, including a number of big-time trades. But none of the early trades involved the Bulls. Most notably, the Los Angeles Lakers shipped off a package that included Montrezl Harrell and Kyle Kuzma for star point guard Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards.
The last time that the Bulls held the 38th overall pick in the draft, John Paxson and Gar Forman selected the former Arkansas Razorbacks big man Daniel Gafford back in 2019. Last year, the Bulls took the likes of forward Patrick Williams fourth overall and big man Marko Simonovic 44th overall.