Chicago Bulls news, draft reports, and analysis

Athletically, Bullock is an above average athlete with great size at the shooting guard position.  Bullock glides around the court, possesses average vertical leaping ability, and above average lateral quickness.  His athletic gifts give him high defensive potential at the next level. Size At 6’7, 205 lbs, Bullock presents great size at the shooting guard position.  With his size, great defensive positioning and basketball IQ, and bulk, Bullock should fit in well with Tom Thibodeau's defensive scheme as he'll be able to defend both wing positions. Off-Court Issues There are no reported issues with Bullock! Basketball IQ and Will to Want It Bullock came to North Caroline as the top shooting guard prospect of his class.  While he has never lived up to that big-time hype, Bullock has become a very nice shooter from deep, mid-range, can run the court, and is a very good defender.  To go from all the hype to becoming a hard-nose role player shows that he is willing to be a great team player and the will to play a role in the program rather than be the star. Skill Bullock possesses two very good skills that translate to the next level.  First, Bullock is a very good shooter from beyond the arc.  Next, Bullock possesses great defensive ability at his size at the shooting guard position.  With good lateral ability and a big build, he can stay in front of his man and fight through screens.  He also averaged an impressive 6.6 rebounds per game out of the SG/SF spot which shows his hustle on the court. While Bullock possesses many great attributes, he lacks any ability to create off the dribble and isn't going to offer much in the ball handling department.  He can pump fake an outside shot and step into a mid range jumper, and plays within his limits, but isn't an offensive creator.  While you will never get a star in Bullock, you are probably going to get a very solid player in the mold of A Luol Deng/Aaron Afflalo type player at the shooting guard position. Overall To me, Bullock has a game similar to a Martell Webster.  He is solidly athletic, can shoot, and can play defense at both wing positions.  Bullock is also one of the safest players in this draft and role players are becoming a premium, especially after the lottery. How does he fit with the Bulls? While we are in some need of some offensive influx with players that can create off the dribble, Bullock is a tremendous possible asset to our team and the type of player that I feel Coach Thibs will eventually love to play.  I also feel he can play somewhat early and will eventually be a very good role player.  To me, Bullock is one of the safest picks in this draft. Stating all this, I would only want to draft Bullock if a few other players were already taken on my draft board (Gorgui Dieng, C.J. McCollum, Dennis Schroeder, Sergey Karasev) and while these players are projected to go higher, I feel Bullock will be a better player than a player such as Allen Crabbe, Jamaal Franklin, Ricky Ledo, etc… The Bulls do need more offensive playmakers, but any team could use a good role player such as Bullock.  It is not the team’s fault that the Front Office does not go after many playmakers or consolidate the roster more freely.  To me adding Bullock would be a pleasant addition and again allow a player such as Deng, Butler to be moved for a piece for our team too.  It is up to the Bulls to make that call. My impressions My impressions are that Reggie Bullock will be a great asset at the next level in providing a rare combination of good athletic ability, solid build, and a three point shooter at both wing positions while being a very good defender.  While I would rather take a chance on a couple of other players if available over Bullock, I would not be disappointed to see Bullock be drafted at 20, or the Bulls somehow aligning another pick later in the first round!

Nikola Mirotic was the best player on the best team in the Spanish ACB league and thus won the ACB MVP despite a rather pedestrian sounding set of stats (12/5.5?) becoming the youngest MVP in ACB league history (replacing Marc Gasol). Chicago will likely need the full MLE to sign Mirotic in the summer of 2014 when the rules surrounding his contract change, and he is no longer tied to the rookie salary scale. Next year, expect the Bulls to amnesty Boozer in order to create minutes and money to sign Mirotic. How good will Mirotic be? Well he won the rising star award in consecutive years (only player to do that) and became the youngest MVP in ACB history. The hardware shows an appreciation of his game beyond the statistics he's piling up. European basketball isn't nearly so star oriented as the NBA is, so the statistics need to be viewed differently. It's hard to imagine a player of Mirotic's caliber playing just 20-24 minutes over the past two seasons in Euroleague and ACB league play. It's even harder to imagine a player playing that few minutes to win the MVP. However, taking a peak at his per 40 stats over at draftexpress, then his numbers still aren't eyepopping, but show why he's such a deadly player. Over the past two seasons his Euroleague/ACB combined stats would come out to around 20pts, 50% shooting, 40% 3pt, 9 rbs, 1.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.5 blocks. Not a bad haul. The passing/rebounding numbers aren't exactly star caliber, but the scoring numbers are impressive and averaging over 1 steal and 1 block per game shows nice coordination and hands and defensive effort. We won't really know what Mirotic can bring to the table until he's here playing against NBA talent, but it seems pretty clear that the Bulls are counting on him to replace Boozer in another season and key a quick mini-rebuild. Your 2014/15 Chicago Bulls? Derrick Rose ?? Jimmy Butler Nikola Mirotic Joakim Noah Bench: Marquis Teague Taj Gibson 2013 1st 2014 1st The Bulls are set up for a fairly quick rebuild in talent, ready to get younger, but still experienced. Chicago will still be looking for a shooting guard (assuming Deng is let go and Butler moves to SF), but if Teague develops, and they don't strike out this year in the draft, then the Bulls will maintain a quality core of players around Rose with some flexibility to add more pieces. Nikola Mirotic coming over and giving Chicago 15+ points a game is a big part of that puzzle. Is he up to the challenge of playing more minutes in more games in a more physical league? We'll find out.

Athletically, Green won't knock your socks-off at the point-guard position, but he is not some stiff.  Green has great front-line speed, but lacks elite lateral quickness and vertical.  However, Green has a nice wing-span at 6’7, and can glide over the court.  Size While possessing nice height for a point guard, Green is rail-thin and will likely initially be abused by physical point guards.  Due to his limited base and average athletic ability, Green sometimes struggles with finishing in the paint or fighting through screens.  Green needs to learn to fight through physical play which is a concern going forward.  If his floater isn't working, Green can struggle finishing in traffic due to his limited strength. Off-Court Issues There are no reported off-the-court issues with Mr. Green. Basketball IQ and Will to Want It You don’t average 25 points a game on high efficiency in one of the top basketball conferences without a high basketball IQ.  Overall, Green is just a basketball player that understands angles, ball-speeds, and screens while possessing an excellent shooting touch.  Green is also a blur once he gets full-steam in the open court.  Green understands the game very well in terms of getting shots off and also shows a very good understanding of passing the ball to teammates in the right position.  The issue is that no other teammate could regularly score.  The next highest scorer on the team average 12.3 points a game on 40% shooting at the forward position. Green possesses great basketball IQ and shows excellent work ethic.  While not a defensive stalwart, he puts in the effort.  He'll need to prove he can handle the pressure of big games since he comes from a team lacking talent that didn't play in many big games. Skill In this draft, there may not be a more skilled offensive player that Erick Green.  Green can shoot from deep, using many speeds off the pick-and-roll, shoots the mid-range jumper, pass the ball on a dime, great handles, and can push the ball.  He really did not have much help at Virginia Tech or he would have had many more assists. Based on his pick-and-roll ability alone, Green should find success at the next level.  Green is one of the top players in the draft at making pull-up jumpers off the pick.  With his under-rated passing to go along with his tremendous shooting, Green would be an asset to many teams that have a great big man to feed off the pick-and-rolls.  If a defender slides under the pick, Green has the ability to shoot from deep.  If the defender over-plays the pick, Green can shoot from mid-range, pass it to an open player, or shoot one of his patented floaters. Stating all his positives offensively, Green is not creative/athletic enough to consistently go one-on-one offensively and will need to find other ways to score against teams that can shut down the pick and roll.  Will he have enough strength to get shots at the next level? Overall Overall, Green is a very talented scoring point guard at the next level that can shoot from three, off the pick-and-roll to the mid-range, or can pass out to the open shooter.  While Green may struggle defensively due to his lateral quickness and lack of strength, he should not be an overwhelming liability due to his length and effort.  I think Green is going to be a very good scoring point guard either as a starter or 6th man type and will play in the league for a long time. How does he fit with the Bulls? While the Bulls best player is Rose at the point guard position, we also need more offense.  In today’s game, shooting guards don’t post up as much and I feel at times, we could pair Green and Rose today and have a very talented offensive lineup.  The problem with Green is can he play defense at all?  At Virginia Tech, he orchestrated the offense as the main and sometimes only scoring option while also being the main distributor for the team.  Therefore, it is hard to say if he could even have the energy to put in defensive effort. Stating this, Green averaged 25 pts a game in the ACC at 48% shooting overall.  That is unheard of and shows elite skill.  The Bulls need offense and Green is not just some chucker.  Green is a very skilled player that can pass, create, and shoot at high efficiency.  Green shot 39% from 3 and was the main game plan for any team playing him.  Shooting nearly 48% at the point guard position and to average 25 points a game is just crazy to me. The Bulls need offense and while we have Marquis Teague, I am just not that high on him.  Green to me, allows us to have someone that backs up Rose for 15 minutes a game, and can even be paired with him for about 10 minutes a game.  Green also could possibly allow Rose to slowly ease back into the situation.  I feel Green is one of the best players we could draft at pick 20 and is severely underrated in this draft. If Green did pan out and is on the Bulls, can you imagine Rose getting a break and then Green can come in and put up great shooting to go along with his other offensive skills?  Teams would never get a break.  Then in stretches Rose/Green would be relentless offensive duo. I don’t think Green would be my first choice if someone such as Gorgui Dieng is available, but he is one of my top 3-4 players possibly at our pick.  Even then, right now he is projected as late first-early second.  If he slides this far, I would try and find ways to buy a pick or even use Teague as trade-bait for this player. My impressions Overall, I think it will take a little time for Green to adjust to the physicality of the NBA.  Obviously our best player is Derrick Rose, but Green could be paired at times with Rose, but...

How much reliability do you put into a "friend of a friend" source? A high salt diet is recommended for the following, but the chain of a "friend of a friend said" game ends with someone in Dr. Cole's office saying Rose stretched his ACL graft during recovery which is why he didn't come back this season. According to the rumor, Rose needs to rebuild the scar tissue around his ACL graft in order to fully recover, but it shouldn't impact his long term prognosis. Presumably, no one within the organization wants a panic over Rose nor does Dr. Cole's office want to take the reputation hit if the news leaked that his star athlete had a setback. There are certainly plenty of reasons to disbelieve the rumor, first and foremost that no one else is saying it, and I'm not sure I buy into either. I'm also not sure [not being a doctor and all] if this would contradict what we know of Rose's practice/warm up routines. It seems like he'd have had to shut it down in practice if that were true rather than doing all the 5 on 5 stuff he's been doing. On the other hand, it explains the behavior we've seen from Rose in a way that doesn't end with "Rose is a pussy", "Rose is a malcontent", or some other explanation which doesn't really jive with what we've known of Derrick in the past as well as how protective Joakim Noah was over Rose when discussing the injury [if he had some inside info being good friends with Derrick]. I wasn't told when the stretching occurred, but it might explain why Rose knew there was a good chance he was going to shut down the season in February. Really, the most believable thing about the rumor is that it reconciles what we've always thought about Rose with the way his injury has played out. The previous circumstances have been frustrating largely because it was hard to understand how Rose could be kept off the court. He always seemed like a guy who would do anything to play. There's been a lot of animosity built up over Rose not playing, but the franchise still hinges on whether Derrick can make a full recovery. I expect Bulls fans to come out fully supportive at the start of next season when Rose is back on the court winning games for Chicago.

Welcome back to Draft Central for 2013.   It’s been an interesting and frustrating season with who knows what happened with Rose, fighting and giving Miami all they could handle missing Hinrich, Rose, and Deng, and much more.  Many folks are saying this is one of the weakest drafts in year.  While I agree it is weak in terms of superstar talent, I think it is a fairly deep draft in terms of role players and possible above average NBA Players.  In today’s salary cap game, cheap above average NBA Players are a goldmine.  On top of that, we have one of the best Front Office for finding hidden gems, and we shoud have an excellent opportunity to do it again at pick 20. We know that GarPax is quite a tandem for drafting mid-to-late first round talent: Jimmy Butler, Chris Duhon, Omer Asik, Nikola Mirotic, Taj Gibson, and we'll see about Marquis Teague.  While this draft is very weak at top, the draft has many skilled, serviceable players from the mid-first on.  I think the best players mid-lottery players are Alex Len and C.J. McCollum.  With GMs swinging for the fences early, the players at the end of the first round are frequently more stable, experienced, and ready to contribute even if they don't have the perceived ceilings of some of the earlier picks. Guys like Ty Lawson or Jimmy Butler showed were knocked for lack of ceiling but have found big roles and niches in the NBA now and have proven their ceiling is much higher than guys drafted beneath them. I have enjoyed writing for the last two years on draft coverage and looking to pick it up again this year. Teams usually have their own way of operating and usually the bulls take core type character with great work ethic and defensive ability.  While, I am going to measure drafting on what I know as on-court hustle/off-court (issues if any), this is something I don’t always have readily available access as teams drafting players do. With all this said, I’m going to try and post articles every other day.  If you have any requests for prospects, please send them on an article posting and I will do my best to get to them. Thank you, Kevin States