Bulls Draft: Rumors Galore
The NBA Draft is being held Wednesday night in New York, and the Bulls have two first-round picks (#2 and #16). I already touched on a few of the potential picks a few weeks ago, but there's some rumors going around that need to be addressed:
Rumor #1: ESPN is saying the deal is already off, but supposedly the Bulls were thinking of sending the #2 pick, along with Tyson Chandler, to the Suns for Shawn Marion. That would have been a steal, too bad it's BS. Marion's only 28 years old, a proven scorer at 21.8 PPG, a proven rebounder at 11.8 RPG and he can play in the up-tempo offense that the Bulls have embraced. Oh well. At the very least, it seems the Bulls are listening to offers for Chandler.
Rumor #2: If Toronto passes on Andrea Bargnani, the Bulls will take the italian big man. I've never seen him play, of course, but Scouts, Inc. likens him to a Dirk Nowitzki lite. To be sure, with his size (7'1, 248) he seems to have pretty good potential, though they say he projects more as a Power Forward than Center. When I hear European big man, I think "project" ala Darko Milicic. But these days, the Europeans seem more fundamentally sound and ready-to-go than their American counterparts, so he's probably not a bad pick.
Rumor #3: Paxson wants Washington SG Brandon Roy, the most NBA-ready player in the draft. If Pax takes Roy with the 2nd pick, more than a few GMs will have to alter their gameplan. Michael Jordan and the Bobcats are said to covet Roy, and he'll do anything he can to get him. The Bulls taking Roy is supposedly contingent on them being able to move Luol Deng, a move I don't agree with. Deng is still a pup (21) with long arms, freakish ability, and probably the Bull with the highest ceiling at this point. Give him another year to grow into that body before you trade him.
Rumor #4: The consensus from this webosphere that we call home is that the Bulls will definitely take Tryus Thomas or LaMarcus Aldridge, the two guys I already talked about in my last preview. Thomas does appear to be the "safe pick" at this point, but the crazy LaMarcus Aldridge staredown with Scott Skiles leads me to believe you won't be seeing him in Deerfield any time soon.
Rumor #5: Bulls trade up their #16 pick to grab Rudy Gay. Don't count on this one, as he'll run into Ozzie Guillen at Reinsdorf's annual Christmas party and all hell will break loose. Shazam!
Rumor #6: Bulls take Gonzaga's Adam Morrison, a guy some are comparing a young Larry Bird, right down to the wispy mustache. Call it women's intuition.
Rumor #7: Bulls take JJ Reddick with the #16 pick. With his latest injury concern, the Bulls might choose to pass on him even this low, but I say take a flier on him. I was talking to Perry about this today, and he's insisting that he's at best the next Steve Kerr. I'm totally cool with that. Kerr had a long career and was part of five championship teams. Someone that can hit 50% of his threes will find his niche on any NBA roster, and you can't really ask for much more than that with a pick that low. The boy is light's out.
So based on everything you see above, it's pretty obvious that I have no idea what Paxson's going to do tomorrow. It seems the safest bet lies with Tyrus Thomas, but Aldridge, Bargnani, Morrison and even Roy seem like reasonable guesses. Official Prediction? I'll go out on a limb and say Thomas. It's just a shame there are no Lebron James in this draft, or else we could really stick it to the Knicks for giving us their #2 pick. Which reminds me, I have to send Isiah a thank-you note. Back with a recap tomorrow night....