The Chicago Bulls will find themselves in pretty unfamiliar territory on Wednesday night.
When the organization is on the clock at No. 11 in the 2024 NBA Draft, it will mark only the second time Arutras Karnisovas’ front office has picked inside the lottery. The first came during his regime’s initial year in office when they selected Patrick Williams at No. 4 overall.
To be sure, the Bulls could’ve had two other lottery talents on their roster, but they traded those picks away in the deal that netted them Nikola Vucevic in 2020-21. The Magic went on to take Franz Wanger with the Bulls’ No. 8 pick in 2021 and Jett Howard with their No. 11 pick in 2023.
The only other first-round player the front office has selected during their tenure is Dalen Terry. The Arizona product came off the board at No. 18 in 2022. When we consider the individual slow starts for both him and Williams, as well as the collective failure of the team’s recent “All-Star” core, this year’s No. 11 pick feels crucial.
Adding more high-upside talent to this roster is pivotal, especially as they seemingly begin a youth movement that started with the acquisition of 21-year-old Josh Giddey. With that in mind, I thought it couldn’t hurt to put together our first-ever BN Big Board.
Yes, I recognize that this class is extremely underwhelming. But the truth of the matter is that there is ALWAYS value to be found on draft night, and the Chicago Bulls find themselves in a pretty advantageous position. No. 11 puts them in the perfect place to possibly land an asset that’s shockingly dropped. If they can’t manage that, however, they have the benefit of adding the best player available on their board. Drafting for need isn’t something a team with back-to-back losing seasons needs to worry about.
Now, I’m no draft expert. I know … duh. All I can say is that I’ve done my own individual research on this year’s projected first-round talent and created a list of my preferred targets. Might I be extremely wrong? Absolutely. But, hopefully, this is still informative and helps you generate your own opinion on what the team should do in roughly 24 hours.
Enjoy!
Note: I chose a handful of players to leave out of these rankings. While this first round is expected to be extremely unpredictable, there is at least enough of a hierarchy where I went ahead and assumed those names would not fall to No. 11. The players I included who some assume go higher than No. 11 have at least been rumored at times to fall to the late-lottery.
Players excluded from the Big Board: Alexandre Sarr, Zacchaire Risacher, Donovan Clingan, Reed Sheppard, Matas Buzelis, and Stephon Castle.
