When the regular season ended on May 16th, the Chicago Bulls were locked into a three-way tie with the Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans. And with that, all three teams will share the same odds for a Top-4 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft (20.3 percent). If, however, the Bulls do not land a pick within the Top-4, their first-rounder will convey to the Orlando Magic due to the Nikola Vucevic trade in March. We knew all of this before today.
But you may have seen some headlines about the Bulls “winning” the NBA Draft tiebreaker results today and I want to clear up what that means (or rather, doesn’t). While it is technically true that the Bulls won the tiebreaker, the only team with a cause for celebration is the Orlando Magic. In other words, nothing changed for Chicago when the results were revealed today.
Instead, all we learned is that if none of the Bulls, Kings, or Pelicans leap into the top-4, that the Bulls (but in reality, the Magic) would have the highest pick of the three.
NBA Draft tiebreaker results:
No. 8: Chicago Bulls*
No. 9: Sacramento Kings
No 10: New Orleans Pelicans*May be conveyed to Orlando (if outside top-4 post-lottery)
(pre-lottery drawing)
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) May 25, 2021
Updated pre-lottery order:
1. Houston
2. Detroit
3. Orlando
4. Oklahoma City
5. Cleveland
6. Minnesota (to Golden State if not top-3)
7. Toronto
8. Chicago (Orlando if not top-4)
9. Sacramento
10. New Orleans
11. Charlotte
12. San Antonio
13. Indiana
14. Golden State— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) May 25, 2021
With that said, this tiebreaker also has an impact on second-round selections, which the Bulls will have regardless of if their pick conveys to the Magic.
The three teams pick in reverse order in the second round, which means the Bulls receive the No. 40 pick instead of the No. 38. However, since the organization possesses the ability to swap their second-round pick with the New Orleans Pelicans this year (thanks to the Nikola Mirotic trade back in 2018), the Bulls were always going to avoid having the worst pick of the three. So instead of having that No. 40 pick now, the Bulls will surely exercise their option to trade places with the Pelicans for No. 38.
I know, this is all annoyingly confusing, but it’s important we don’t get fooled. All we really needed to know is that nothing changed for the Bulls today and their odds at landing in the top-4 (thus, keeping their first-round pick) still sit at 20.3 percent.