NEWSLETTER
We don’t know when the 2020-21 season will start. We don’t know when free agency will begin. We don’t know when players must pick up their options. We don’t know what the salary cap is. So, what do we know? That you can save a bunch of money on your car insurance by switch…nvm.
The NBA’s future may be a bit murky right now, but at least we have the 2020 NBA Draft to look forward to. The event is scheduled to take place on November 18th, and the Bulls are expected to head into the night with the No. 4-overall pick. With their highest draft spot in over a decade, Bulls fans will have plenty of reason to watch what new front-office leader Arturas Karnisovas does in a little less than a month from now.
Ironically, though, this also happens to be one of the most unpredictable drafts in quite some time. While the Bulls are finally in an ideal position to grab one of the best players, it also feels like the value of picking in the top 3-5 is as low as ever. In other words we know that there is no clear-cut No. 1 or easy-to-envision superstar among the top options, and that’s just bad luck/timing. However, as the months have gone by, I’ve talked myself into this being a far deeper draft than initially expected. The late lottery has plenty of intriguing young players – ones who feel as though they could prove to be just as valuable as a top-5 pick.
Karnisovas has been on this bandwagon for a while now. Indeed, he told reporters upon his hiring that he disagreed with the belief that this was a “weak draft.” In fact, he also said he liked several players that were projected to be in the team’s range, and that was when the team sat with the 7th-best lottery odds. Is this only more reason to believe the Bulls could trade down in this year’s draft? Something to think about.
Arturas Karnisovas on 2020 draft: “I disagree that it’s a weak draft.”
He likes the players in #Bulls’ range, he says. They’re 7th in draft lottery order.
— Cody Westerlund (@CodyWesterlund) June 6, 2020
Speaking of which – holy crap – there is a lot to think about with this draft. Trade up? Trade down? Take a projected top-3 player if he falls? Go out on a limb and take someone projected to go deeper? One would think that with all this extra time, teams around the league would have the 2020 Draft all figured out, but it’s practically the opposite.
Instead, teams haven’t been able to go through anything close to the normal pre-draft process. Executives and scouts have had to rely on Zoom calls and video footage, which must be especially difficult for a Bulls front office that is run by two gym junkies.
Teams have sat and thought about these prospects for months on end without any news or fruitful information. Fortunately, they can gather some now with 10 allowed visits to prospects over the next couple of weeks, but who knows for sure how much confusion that will really clear up? All of this time has opened the door for some extreme overthinking. Perhaps teams have talked themselves into certain players they normally wouldn’t have or certain trades they wouldn’t normally consider.
Things are so frustrating and up in the air that some even believe teams would prefer to have a lower pick: “I think in this draft, every team is totally unsure of how good these top seven or eight guys are going to be. I’ve never heard, and they’re not going to say this, less enthusiasm for teams that have high picks,” an agent recently told The Athletic. Less to think about it.
It’s already been widely reported that the Warriors and Timberwolves – the teams who possess the No. 1 and No. 2 pick, respectively – have actively looked to trade their picks. Sure, part of this is to get a more win-now piece to pair with current, big league All-Star talent, but the other is because there is no easy decision to be made in either of these positions. As ESPN notes, Minnesota still has no clue who would be the right choice at No. 1. Agents in that piece by the Athletic tabbed LaMelo Ball as the “most intriguing” prospect, but there were also a range of other names thrown into the mix like Killian Hayes, Devin Vassell, Patrick Williams, and Deni Avdija.
So, what does this all mean? What should we expect on draft night? Well, the easy answer is to assume and expect nothing. We could see a ton of chaos due to a wide range of differing opinions, accompanied by trades galore and big-time moves. On the other hand, we could see everyone stay in their place simply due to the fear of screwing up. I tend to anticipate the former, but it’s too hard to say.
Fortunately, for us Bulls fans, I think we can at least be comfortable knowing the team is now in better hands. Karnisovas has proven time and again that he has a strong eye for talent, and that he can also take advantage of the opportunity when it presents itself. In a draft like this, that’s about all you can ask for … I think.
