Ping pong pain: Tiebreaker proves costly to Bulls as Dallas wins draft lottery
One more loss this season and the Bulls would have had a franchise-changing draft pick. They had favorable odds at Monday's NBA Draft Lottery, but their luck couldn't have been worse.
While the Bulls stayed put at No. 12, Dallas moved all the way up to the No. 1 overall pick and will almost certainly select Duke forward Cooper Flagg.
The Mavericks just made an unpopular trade, sending star Luka Doncic to the Lakers, but they are not likely to let go of this pick.
What makes this so painful for the Bulls is they finished with the same record as Dallas, 39-43. Shortly after the play-in tournament ended, the NBA broke all ties in the draft order and Dallas won the random tiebreaker with the Bulls.
So the Bulls had a 1.7% chance at the top pick, Dallas was 1.8%. Bulls fans may recall in 2018, the Bulls won a tiebreaker with Sacramento, then watched as the Kings moved up to the No. 2 pick in the lottery.
Luck has not been a strong point of this franchise since winning the Derrick Rose lottery in 2008. The 2018 draft was when Doncic was chosen third, then traded from Atlanta to Dallas, while the Bulls took Wendell Carter Jr. at No. 7.
The full order of selection in front of the Bulls is 1) Dallas, 2) San Antonio, 3) Philadelphia, 4) Charlotte, 5) Utah, 6) Washington, 7) New Orleans, 8) Brooklyn, 9) Toronto, 10) Houston and 11) Portland. The teams that finished with the league's worst records — the Jazz, Wizards and Hornets — all had disappointing lottery outcomes.
There seems to be a strong consensus on the rest of the top five picks with guard Dylan Harper and sharpshooter Ace Bailey, both freshmen from Rutgers; and a pair of shooting guards in Baylor's V.J. Edgecombe and Texas' Tre Johnson.
Keep in mind, though, this year's prohibitive MVP favorite, Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was chosen with the No. 12 overall pick in 2018. The Bulls can still land a good player in this draft.
Who could it be? Well, the Bulls could use a center to replace Nikola Vucevic and badly need some sort of defensive presence in the paint. Whether there's a player in this draft that fits the description is open to debate.
Some possibilities are Maryland's Derik Queen, South Carolina's Collin Murray-Boyles, Georgia's Asa Newell, St. Joseph’s Rasheer Fleming, or French center Joan Beringer.
Here's another idea: Illinois freshman Will Riley. Most mock drafts have him going lower right now, but he could blossom into a versatile, athletic, tall forward, similar to Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis, giving the team some tough matchups on the perimeter. NBA teams probably wish Riley had a longer wingspan. He reportedly measured just over 6-foot-8 in bare feet at the NBA combine, with a 6-8¾ wingspan.
Buzelis, the West suburban Willowbrook native, represented the Bulls onstage at the lottery, which was held in Chicago at McCormick Place West.