If you look at the Chicago Bulls’ recent draft history, it’s symbolic of everything that is wrong with the team.
In the last 10 seasons, the Bulls have only had a top-10 pick three times, and have picked mostly in the teens, a reflection of their mediocre run.
They’ve hit on a few of these picks, but most of them play for other teams, a reflection of how poorly the Bulls have managed assets over the course of multiple front-office regimes.
The Bulls did find some good players, but never a real star and it’s reflected in a roster that lacks a true #1 guy.
Chicago didn’t even have a first-round pick in 2023 and you could argue that their best picks were second-rounders like Ayo Dosunmu and Daniel Gafford given their impact on team-friendly contracts.
But the first round has been a string of busts, hopefuls what-could-have-beens. Here are the first-round picks from the last 10 drafts, ranked in order from worst to best.
#10: Chandler Hutchinson, 22nd pick, 2018
Back end of the first-round players are always hit or miss and this one was a miss for the Bulls. Hutchinson played just 79 games for Chicago over parts of three seasons and was traded and out of the league by the time he was 25-years-old.
#9: Dalen Terry, 22nd pick, 2022
Terry hasn’t played big minutes in his two seasons for the Bulls, but he has appeared in 97 games and still has a chance to improve. He’s a longshot to make the rotation right away given the Bulls’ glut of guards, but that could change if Chicago makes trades.
#8: Denzel Valentine, 14th pick, 2016
Valentine played 232 games for the Bulls and did have one good season of 10.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists while shooting over 38 percent from 3-point range. Valentine was always a tweener who was too slow to defend guards and too small for forwards, but his career with the Bulls was cut short with an ankle injury that cost him an entire season.
Now is where the rankings start to get contentious.