The Bulls Have Brought in 42(!) Prospects for Pre-Draft Workouts

The NBA Draft is 10 days away and the Chicago Bulls have been plenty busy evaluating potential draft picks/prospects.

While all eyes are on their first-round pick (No. 7 overall), the Bulls have been focusing their pre-draft workouts on players that will fall well beyond that section of the draft board. With the team also holding the No. 38 pick, along with a bench that’s in desperate need of an update, the Bulls have been evaluating potential deep-draft or undrafted free agent suitors. And boy have they been busy.

Since the beginning of May, the Bulls have seen a total of 42 players in workouts, per Darnell Mayberry. Below is a listing of each player along with their ranking (if they have one) within the CBS Sports 2019 Draft Prospect Rankings, which ranks exactly the 110-top prospects – just for a little added context, as we will not be going through each and every one of these guys right now.

NOTE: While players always can be placed in different/multiple positional groups, we went ahead and separated them into the one which they are most frequently assigned.

Point Guards

Shamorie Ponds, St. John’s (47th)

Jordan Poole, Michigan (58th)

Jared Harper, Auburn (59th)

Tyus Battle, Syracuse (81st)

Josh Perkins, Gonzaga

Clayton Custer, Loyola

Amir Hinton, Shaw (DII)

Lamar Peters, Mississippi State

Shooting Guards

Terence Davis, Ole Miss (41st)

Zach Norvell Jr., Gonzaga (45th)

Miye Oni, Yale (50th)

Jaylen Nowell, Washington (56th)

Quinndary Weatherspoon, Mississippi State (60th)

Kyle Guy, Virginia (83rd)

Fletcher Magee, Wofford

Justin Turner, Bowling Green

Quentin Grimes, Kansas

Justin Simon, St. John’s

D’Marcus Simonds, Georgia State

Lagerald Vick, Kansas

Matt Mooney, Texas Tech

Small Forwards

Isaiah Roby, Nebraska (35th)

Terance Mann, Florida State (53rd)

Ignas Brazdeikis. Michigan (70th)

Charles Matthews, Michigan (74th)

Justin James, Wyoming (101st)

Vic Law, Northwestern

Dino Radoncic, San Pablo Burgos

Power Forwards

Jalen McDaniels, (51st)

Dedric Lawson, Kansas (57th)

Kenny Wooten, Oregon (75th)

Simi Shittu, Vanderbilt (65th)

Derek Pardon, Northwestern

Silvio De Sousa, Kansas

Javin DeLaurier, Duke

Luke Maye, UNC

Juwan Morgan, Indiana

Matur Maker, Zlatorog Lasko

Aric Holman, Mississippi State

Alpha Diallo, Providence (Returning to school)

Centers

Sagaba Konate, West Virginia (88th)

Ethan Happ, Wisconsin (100th)

As you can see, Chicago is bringing in a LOT of guards during these workouts. And when you consider the team’s hunt for a new point guard and the fact the Bulls need stronger overall shooting, that make plenty of sense. For example, it’s not surprising to see guys like Fletcher Magee and Kyle Guy on this list – both of whom were over 40 percent from behind the arc this past season.

With all the guards available in free agency though, it may be more important to focus on the forwards. The Bulls are definitely in need of options to back-up Otto Porter and Lauri Markkanen, and the fact that four of the six most recent prospects brought in for workouts were forwards could indicate their desire to find that balance.

As for center, the team will certainly need an option to back-up Wendell Carter Jr., but the fact the Bulls have only brought in two thus far is understandable. For starters, basketball is (clearly) a bit more position-less now, so the team may be considering certain power forwards to play in the spot. However, I think they should probably avoid a late-round draft pick or undrafted free agent as the back-up to their already 19-year-old center. Given how few of them are up there, I’d say they agree.

For the most part, the Bulls list here is pretty balanced. The team needs depth in every position on the court, so it’ll be interesting to see if the organization thinks they found any answers during these workouts.