Ranking the top 10 guards in Chicago Bulls franchise history
10. Ben Gordon
If you’ve been watching the Chicago Bulls long enough, you’d know that Ben Gordon is one of the most dynamic and polarizing players to ever don the red and white. Long before the three-point movement was ever energized by Steph Curry, Gordon was chucking up ridiculous bombs from deep at an unbelievable clip.
After being drafted third overall in 2004, Gordon would go on to post an incredible 19.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game on a ridiculous 40.4% clip from deep. This was simply unheard of at the time, and Gordon’s electric offensive ability made the Bulls one of the most exciting teams to watch at the time.
However, he’d leave for Detroit after five years in Chicago, where his career would take an immediate downturn. Had he remained in Chicago, it’s entirely possible that Gordon could have maintained his play and be remembered as a critical piece of the Rose-era Bulls — a team whose biggest weakness was their lack of a shooting guard that could consistently score alongside Rose.
Unlike Gordon, B.J. Armstrong was a big part of one of the winningest periods in Chicago Bulls history.
9. B.J. Armstrong
I previously wrote about how Chicago selected a total draft bust in the class of 1989. Fortunately, the Bulls had two first-round picks that year and would redeem their selection of Stacey King at No. 6 by taking B.J. Armstrong with the 18th pick. Although he’d spend just six seasons with the Bulls, it’s difficult finding a role player that started their career off in as good of a situation and achieved as much as Armstrong.
Collecting three championship rings in ’91, ’92, and ’93 and an All-Star selection in ’94, Armstrong proved he was a valuable piece to those championship teams. To the dismay of Bulls fans everywhere, Armstrong would be stolen away by Toronto in the 1995 expansion draft, before Jordan could return for the second three-peat run. Had the Raptors not taken B.J., he may have ended up much higher on this list.
Also, here’s a fun fact: The Bulls traded away the pick that became Armstrong for Scottie Pippen in 1987, before trading Brad Sellers to get the pick back in 1989. That means Chicago essentially swapped a mid-level role player in Sellers for two NBA legends in Pippen and Armstrong in the span of just two years.