Unsurprisingly, the Chicago Bulls organization finds itself facing two doors. Through door one is a complete teardown and rebuild, from front office to head coach to roster. Through door two is a middling team without the talent to make a playoff push but one that carries enough veterans to stay afloat and away from the top of the NBA draft lottery.
The front office pairing of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley has begun crawling its way toward door one with the trades of Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, but the Bulls still can't seem to take their hand off the knob of door number two.
The deadline-adjacent trade of LaVine to the Sacramento Kings brought back useful players in Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter and Tre Jones. Most importantly, however, it brought back Chicago's first-round pick that was owed to the San Antonio Spurs as part of the trade that delivered DeRozan to the Bulls in 2021.
That selection was protected 1 through 10 this summer and 1 through 8 in 2026 and 2027. Now, Chicago has full control of its first-round selections.
Despite finding themselves on pace for another Play-In Tournament berth this season, the Bulls should still land a top-10 pick in this year's draft, and while two mocks have Chicago grabbing a big man, they differ on who said big man should be.
Bulls 2025 NBA Mock Draft Roundup: Which big man is coming to The Windy City?
Fox Sports: C Khaman Maluach, Duke
Khaman Maluach is 7-foot-2, 250 pounds worth of borderline freakish athleticism. It's raw, moldable athleticism as well—Maluach only started playing organized basketball in 2019 and he's already starting nightly for a Duke team with championship aspirations.
His stats don't pop off the page—8.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game—but he's already proving to be a high-level rim runner as he's shooting better than 70 percent from the field.
Maluach is a product of the NBA Academy in Senegal, and before he landed at Duke, showed some flashes of a three-point stroke. If he can be even a 33, 34 percent shooter from deep, he could become a nightmare for opposing defenses.
As Chicago continues to skew younger and reload its roster, taking a flier on someone with untapped, massive upside like Maluach makes sense.
Bleacher Report: F Asa Newell, Georgia
In some ways, Asa Newell is the polar opposite of Maluach. He's still young at 19 years old and has plenty of potential, but he's not as dominant an athlete (to be fair, not many prospects are), yet comes with a higher basketball IQ and is more skilled as a scorer. His averages of 15.4 points and 6.8 rebounds point to a more polished player at a similar age.
Like Maluach, he's dominant at the rim, but a chunk of those high-percentage baskets have come on floaters, post-ups and cuts as opposed to easy dunks and slips to the rim.
What sets Newell apart, however, is his ability to guard multiple positions at 6-foot-11 and potentially develop into a true stretch big. While Maluach has previously shown glimpses of that potential, Newell has already produced in the SEC, making 17 threes this season and shooting 75.0 percent from the free-throw line.
Josh Giddey is showing dramatic improvement over the last five weeks. Last year's first-round pick, Matas Buzelis, is capable of playing either forward spot and is progressing at a decent pace. Adding either of these big men to the Bulls' young core would be a logical next step.