Chicago Sports Stuff Mailbag: Bulls Draft Talk and More Caleb Aggregation
Rookie questions abound.
Last Sunday, the great Dick Vitale turned 85, so in honor of the best college basketball pundit ever — and in response to the fact that we had like 621 emails asking about the NBA Draft — today is all about oozing po-po-po-potential.
The Chicago Bulls hope to land a rookie who oozes po-po-po-potential.
The Chicago Bears are pinning their hopes on a rookie who oozes po-po-po-potential.
And we’d like to think that the Chicago Sports Stuff mailbag oozes po-po-po-potential.
So let’s po! Er, let’s go!
The NBA Draft is pretty much my favorite day of the season. (I’m not thrilled that the league spread it out over two days, but it’s still the best.) The Bulls have the 11th pick, so my question for you is, who do you want them to pick, who should they pick, and who will they pick? Here’s the catch: All three players have to be different. 🤣 🤣 🤣
-M.D., Deerfield, IL
You’d think that this whole three different players thing would faze me — but nah. The 2024 Draft is so weird that I could realistically throw four or six or ten players into the discussion. But three it is…
Who I Want Chicago to Draft
Matas Buzelis, SF/PF, G-League Ignite
I think most of us agree it’s time for the Bulls to put an end to the Patrick Williams experiment.
It’s unfair to call the fourth pick of the 2020 Draft a bust — he’s spent a whole lot of his career in the trainer’s room — but his Chicago tenure hasn’t been at all impressive, and finding him a new home would likely behoove both him and the franchise.
Buzelis would be the ideal replacement for Williams, both on the floor and in the bank vault: The two have relatively similar skill sets, and bringing Buzelis and a rookie contract into the fold would make way more sense than overpaying restricted free agent Williams.
All that said, I’ll caveat this one: Chances are better than good that Buzelis, a Chicago native, will be long gone by the 11th pick. But if he’s available, the Bulls need to pounce, because of every po-po-po-potential pick, this combo forward is, by far, the most logical.
Who Chicago Should Draft
Nobody
"This group, something doesn't work. I have to find ways to find a group that's going to make improvements. We've done it for a couple years now and it hasn't worked. Everything is on the table."
So said Bulls GM Artūras Karnišovas the week after his team’s disappointing 2023-24 season came to an ignominious end. But considering Karnišovas has proven to be allergic to making trades, we’ll take this with several million grains of salt.
Thing is, Karnišovas is right — it’s not working. Problem is, there’s nobody in this Draft class who will significantly move Chicago’s needle, so it’s time to punt.
Ship Zach Lavine and his problematic contract somewhere — anywhere — and be content with getting pennies on the dollar in return. Put together a package of the 11th pick and a signed-and-traded Patrick Williams for an established veteran and a future pick. Bundle DeMar DeRozan with 11 and bring back a relative haul.
It’s time for a tear-down, and Draft Night is the ideal time to start.
Who Chicago Will Draft
Devin Carter, G, Providence
Remember Chandler Hutchison? Of course you don’t. Dude was eminently forgettable.
A combo forward who performed admirably at the hoops hotbed of Boise State University, Hutchinson was selected by Chicago with the 22nd pick of the 2018 NBA Draft, chosen over the likes of Jalen Brunson, Anfernee Simons, and Gary Trent Jr. But even if the Bulls wanted to grab Brunson, Simons, or Trent, they couldn’t because the Chicago front office tandem of John Paxson and Gar Foreman freakin’ promised Hutch he’d be a Bull.
Brunson is an All-Star and an MVP candidate. Simons is a scoring machine. Trent is a quality role player who’s about to get paid.
But Hutchison is gone. Like, really gone.
After three uninspiring seasons in Chicago, Hutchison had cups of coffee with the Washington Wizards (2021) and the Phoenix Suns (2021-22), after which he made brief appearances with the G-League Santa Cruz Warriors (2021) and the Sioux Falls Skyforce (2022). He retired from pro basketball on November 29, 2022.
Fast forward to this spring, when rumors started flying that the Bulls made a similar promise to Devin Carter.
Now Carter is a far better prospect than Hutchinson ever was. Last season, the 22-year-old former Friar — son of former NBA guard Anthony Carter — earned the Big East Player of the Year award, averaging 19.7 points, 3.6 assists, 1.8 steals, and a whopping 8.7 rebounds, a beastly board number for a guard who clocks in at 6’3”, 195.
One of the most common words you’ll see in Carter’s scouring reports is “energy,” and his comps are cited as Bruce Brown, De’Anthony Melton, Brandin Podziemski, and — wait for it, wait for it — Ayo Dosumnu.
In what’s acknowledged to be a lousy Draft class, you could do a helluva lot worse than Brown, Melton, Potziemski, or Dosumnu.
All that said, I have two issues with this pick:
1) Promise PTSD
As borne out by the fact that I spent 150 words on the Chandler Hutchison fiasco, it’s obvious that Draft promises really grind my gears. I mean, what if Buzelis falls to Chicago? If the Bulls did indeed back themselves into a corner with a guarantee to Carter, they might miss out on a steal. For a team with so many holes, every option needs to be left on the table.
I promise.
2) Duplication
The Bulls’ practice facility is overflowing with guards. We’re talking, in alphabetical order, Lonzo Ball (if he gets healthy), Jevon Carter (inexplicably under contract through 2026), Alex Caruso, Dosumnu, Zach Lavine (if he doesn’t get traded), Dalen Terry (yes, he’s a guard, don’t argue), and Coby White. Take Ball and Lavine out of the equation, and sure, Carter (Devin, not Jevon) makes sense.
But we might very well not be able to take Ball and Lavine out of the equation.
And while we’re on the subject of duplication, here’s Carter (Devin, not Jevon) and Dosumnu on Media Day:
I’m a lazy, lazy person, and I appreciate it very much when you do your aggregations, so can you aggregate some of Caleb Williams’ highlights from OTAs so I don’t have to scour the internet myself?
-Charlie M, Chicago, IL
Gladly. And please note that due to Elon Musk’s baffling war with Substack, we Substackers can’t embed tweets into our postings. But thanks to a lovely workaround, all you need to do to enjoy Caleb-fest, dear reader, is click the image, and it’ll take you right to the video. Yay!
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