The Chicago Bulls have made a few roster-building blunders in recent years.
Extending Nikola Vucevic seemed unnecessary and still does. The 34-year-old is having arguably the best season of his career, but the Bulls shouldn't expect to get more than salary filler and some second-round picks if they trade him this year.
Zach LaVine's contract makes him just about entirely untradeable. Extending Patrick Williams made no sense to anyone outside the organization, and the 23-year-old is injured again and wasn't playing well even when he was healthy to start the year.
Sure, there have been some good moves, most of which have come via the draft. Matas Buzelis seems to be a hit, and to a lesser extent, Dalen Terry. Julian Phillips is turning into a second-round surprise.
Chicago's most impactful decision last summer was to trade Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder straight up for Josh Giddey. Giddey has shown flashes of what the Bulls were hoping to get - a jumbo point guard with the passing chops and offensive IQ to run their new up-tempo system.
Unfortunately, those flashes have been few and far between, and it's fair to say Giddey hasn't lived up to expectations yet.
In his most recent mock draft, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report has Chicago correcting that Giddey mistake.
Bulls pick BYU's Egor Demin in latest 2025 NBA Mock Draft
Giddey's appeal stems from his unusual 6-foot-8 size for a true floor general. Whereas other guards his size tend to slide back and forth between the backcourt and the wing, Giddey is a pure point guard with flashy passing skills and the ability to manage an offense.
He's struggled massively as a shooter and defender, however, enough that he's often removed from closing lineups. That was true in Oklahoma City, which is what made him expendable, and it's been true so far at times in Chicago.
BYU guard Egor Demin has some of the same traits that make Giddey's archetype alluring but with fewer question marks.
Demin is a 6-foot-9 point guard from Russia who Wasserman describes as a freshman who has "looked comfortable early handling the ball, creating advantages and live-dribble passing."
He goes on to write, "Questions about his burst and explosion are still there, but he's compensated well early ... using height and angles for finishing."
Those are the same traits that have made Giddey appealing throughout his NBA career.
However, the 18-year-old Demin is shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from three on 4.5 attempts per game through his first eight games. It's a small sample size, but compared to Giddey (career 46.2 percent from the field and 31.4 percent from three), it makes him a much more promising oversized point guard.
Giddey still has 59 games to show the Bulls that he can be their franchise point guard and that he's worth giving potentially $30 million a year to at the conclusion of this season. So far, though, he hasn't proven that, and giving him a massive deal would be another huge mistake to put on the franchise's ledger.
If Chicago can land someone like Demin, though - a similar type of player but one with a more potentially well-rounded offensive game - it would allow the Bulls to fix their Giddey blunder.