Drafting Near and Far

For a large portion of Thursday's draft, rumors persisted that the Bulls were shopping Jimmy Butler, whose spot on the U.S. Olympic team had just become official, to acquire Providence's Kris Dunn.  Even after the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted Dunn, they continued to push hard for Butler before talks ultimately dissipated.  Gar Forman later said shopping him never even happened.  So for now, Butler will stay in Chicago and get used to the two players the Bulls picked.

For the second time in three years, the Bulls ended up with the reigning national player of the year.  Doug McDermott was that player in 2014 and this time, it's Denzel Valentine of Michigan State with the 14th pick.  A four-year player for a winning program, Valentine is right up there with recent Bulls draft picks with similar backgrounds.

His key is his versatility and doing it at a high level.  Scoring and passing both come easy for him, so it's great to see the Bulls draft someone with his skill set.  He has the body of a guard and skill set of a forward.  His court vision is fantastic and after a few years, he could be seen as one of the leaders on the team, assuming it matures and improves.

There are questions about his athleticism and it will be interesting to see how he adapts with those limitations.  Even more pressing are the questions surrounding his left knee, on which he had arthroscopic surgery for torn cartilage last December.  It goes back to a football injury he suffered in ninth grade and caused concern for several teams looking at him.

But Valentine, who played 144 of a possible 148 games in college, has downplayed any potential knee issues.  His main argument is the wear and tear on his body is no different from that sustained by other athletes.  The Bulls' medical staff is also comfortable with his health, so everyone is on the same page.

With the Bulls, it's likely Valentine will most often play shooting guard, his natural position, as well as small forward.  Forman also said he could play point guard if necessary.  It's a testament to the versatility that made him attractive to so many teams, even if the knee thing was the elephant in the room.  There's no reason Fred Hoiberg shouldn't give him plenty of playing time to show he can be in the NBA for years to come.

In the second round with the 48th pick, the Bulls selected forward Paul Zipser out of Germany.  When I saw this selection, my first thought wasn't that his team, Bayern Munich, shared the name of a famous soccer team.  It wasn't even the fact that the Bulls took one of 16 international players drafted, second-most ever.  It was that he happened to share the last name of my good friend Justin Zipser and luckily, he was all game for the jokes headed his way.

Anyway, Zipser has a buyout option with his team and the indication is he'll be joining the team this coming season, though his commitment to the German national team will keep him away from the Bulls' Summer League team.  His body is ready for the NBA, as is his ability to play both forward positions.  His energy is good on both ends and he can score above the rim, from the free-throw line and in catch-and-shoot situations.  He's also 22 years old just like Valentine, but age is just a number when it comes to the draft, so he's got time to show he's worth more than a second-round pick.

The chief concerns surrounding him are his non-elite athleticism and slow shot release.  If he doesn't adapt to or change those respective areas, that will cut his stay in the league short if his knee problems and the extra bone in his foot don't.  But if the Bulls have enough faith in him to give him a shot right off the bat, maybe there's more to his game than we know.  If he works out even remotely better than recent second-round picks Erik Murphy and Cameron Bairstow, that's already a sign the Bulls had a good draft.

Valentine and Zipser will be introduced Monday and next Friday, the free agency period begins.  The Bulls have approximately $25 million in cap space to spend.  Will they decide to add further depth at point guard, find a backup center for Robin Lopez or go in another direction?  Whatever they do could determine how long this first step in returning to respectability will take, so the front office better conduct itself wisely.

With the 14th Pick...

Wednesday at the time of this post's publication, Bulls fans were reacting to arguably the highest-profile trade in team history.  With Derrick Rose now in New York, the main question for the Bulls in Thursday's draft is will they do anything to address the hole he's left?  True, they've already acquired a trio of point guards in Jose Calderon, Jerian Grant and Spencer Dinwiddie, but what if they could add to that depth?  Or will they try and make the frontcourt younger instead?

As with almost any draft, there are several directions the Bulls could go in.  This year, they have the 14th and 48th picks available, though they could also try to trade up.  It would be nice if they could pull the trigger on rumored deals with Minnesota or Boston to select Kris Dunn from Providence at third or fifth.  But either trade would surely have to involve Jimmy Butler, so unless the "retool" becomes a full-blown rebuild, the Bulls have to focus on players who will likely still be there for the taking as the final lottery pick such as these:

Malik Beasley - G (Florida State):  My personal pick for the Bulls had a great freshman year for the Seminoles, scoring in double digits in his first 24 games.  The Bulls are looking to get younger and more athletic and Beasley fits that bill.  He brings a lot of energy as well as a smooth shooting stroke.  That needs to be the focus of his game until he learns to be a better playmaker.

Wade Baldwin - G (Vanderbilt):  NBADraft.net compares him to Dinwiddie, which might be a turnoff for the Bulls if they don't want two players who are that similar to each other.  Still, he has the size and length of a proper NBA guard.  He's aggressive with his scoring and can pass too as he set the Commodore freshman assist record (155).  Many are wondering whether he's a true point guard, but if the Bulls are entering a time that allows them to experiment, they could probably move him around a bit before deciding whether he's better at the one or two.

Denzel Valentine - G/F (Michigan State):  A Valentine selection would mean the Bulls have taken two of the last three National Players of the Year in the draft (Doug McDermott being the other).  Besides fitting recent Bulls draft trends of being a top player in a winning college program, he's as complete as a basketball player can get while also possessing tremendous leadership and court vision.  The biggest question concerns his size and athleticism.  But whoever selects him will probably have an All-Rookie Team selection at the very least.

Dejounte Murray - G (Washington):  Here's a player who's blessed with talent and a great basketball body.  He handles the ball well and is generally quick.  He only weighs 170 pounds, so he could stand to build up his strength before he gets knocked around too much by stronger players.  However, Hoiball is built on moving the ball and players quickly, so he could be a breath of fresh air after a season in which the offense was mostly stagnant.

Demetrius Jackson - G (Notre Dame):  This one might be a stretch with most mock drafts having him go in the late first round, but he's an alum of John Paxson's school and it would be just like the Bulls to take someone with connections to someone's past.  Regardless, he's an explosive point guard with flash who can rack up a lot of points and assists, which would be a perfect fit for Hoiball.  At 6-1, there will be plenty of questions on whether his skill set can make up for his size.  The Bulls will need to bank on his three years in college and that he'll be 22 at the start of the season if they want to select him.

The indication is the Bulls will be looking to go small in this draft, which is the direction everyone seems to be moving in these days.  If that's the case, who they take could be an indicator of how the Bulls will proceed with their personnel moves the rest of the offseason.  And if they somehow move Butler, which several teams want them to do, that will change things even further.  Either way, these next few hours won't be boring, even if those who don't like the draft think so.

Au Revoir to Rose

At least for over a week now, the rumor mill regarding Derrick Rose has been stronger than ever.  On June 14, Basketball Insiders wrote about the potential of him being moved out of Chicago.  Last Friday, the New York Knicks were said to have internally discussed acquiring him.  On Wednesday, it all came to pass.

One day before the NBA Draft, the Bulls traded the 2011 MVP, Justin Holiday and a 2017 second-round draft pick to the Big Apple for Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant.  It marks a sad, but necessary end to the narrative of the hometown star ascending to greatness, only to have it derailed by injuries that began with an ACL tear in the 2012 playoffs.  He was never the same after that, only showing flashes of what he once was while also tearing his right meniscus twice.  He stands in line to be the only NBA Most Valuable Player not to make the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Lopez, the twin brother of Brook, will likely be the starting center as the replacement for Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah, both of whom are surely gone.  He's started every game he's played the last four years, completing the full schedule in three of them.  Last season, he averaged 10.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and a career-high 1.4 assists.  He probably won't be an All-Star, but he at least provides stability down low.

Like Rose, the 34-year-old Calderon has one year left on his contract, so this part of the deal covers the swapping of guys playing for their next payday.  Still, Calderon could make the most out of his one year in Chicago as the starting point guard unless the Bulls acquire someone better or with more potential.  He led the Knicks with 4.2 assists per game last season while also averaging 7.6 points and a career-high 3.2 rebounds over 72 games.  He shot 45.6 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line, so when given the right chances, he still has the shooting to succeed in the NBA.

Horace Grant's nephew Jerian just completed his rookie season out of Notre Dame.  In 76 games, he averaged 5.6 points, 2.3 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 0.7 steals.  That 39.4 percent shooting from the field will need to improve though if he wants to make a difference in this league.  And the Bulls will need to count on him to do it too since he's under their control through the end of the decade.

Let's face it though.  Whatever these three players can bring to the Bulls is all secondary in the fans' minds right now.  D-Rose is leaving home and it's very clear his former employer has decided to rebuild, or "retool" as Gar Forman is calling it.  People surely have strong feelings about at least one, probably both, of these developments.

No one meant for it to end like this.  By the time Rose was done as a Bull, they were supposed to have won a championship or at least gotten to the Finals once or twice.  There was supposed to be discussion among fans on where to put his statue at the United Center and anticipation of No. 1 being raised to the rafters.  Instead, a once very beloved figure, along with his camp, split the fan base and caused uneasiness within the organization with questionable decisions about playing time and comments that would have been best left unsaid.

So this Bulls fan at least is not so much saddened by how everything played out, but what could and should have been.  It's nobody's fault his body betrayed him so often and took the best of his gift away.  That's exactly what happened though and it set in motion debate over his value and commitment to the franchise.  How he achieved such polarity so quickly is absolutely mind-boggling.

It didn't help that the front office made its own questionable personnel decisions, which have made a rebuild, or retool, necessary.  The worse the Bulls and Rose got, the more his contract became an eyesore and many felt without moving it, the Bulls would be shackled and thus delayed in building for the future.  So no one party is responsible for what has transpired here.  Rose hurt his own cause by opening his mouth about meetings, graduations and his next contract, but if the Bulls were a Finals contender, people would have been more willing to overlook it.

So what happens now?  The Bulls have a long road ahead of them and pending another major move, they've chosen to travel it with Jimmy Butler as the centerpiece under Fred Hoiberg's system.  It might be a long time before they're seen as a threat again, which is something no fan wants to hear.  But the hard truth is NBA teams often flounder for years and never see any light at the end of the tunnel.

This will be a true test of every fan to see if they're willing to put up with a level of pro basketball not seen since the six years between the Bulls' last championship and their first post-Jordan playoff appearance.  The good news is there will be no expectations for awhile, so the pressure will be off.  Maybe that will make everyone a bit more relaxed.  Even if they come up short, you'll have guys who care and try, which would make the coming season more fun than anything we saw this past year.

Before wrapping this up, I want to address something that's been bothering me about certain people's perceptions of Rose for years.  Many of you know who you are.  Over his eight years as a Bull, I've heard many people heavily criticize him because of his SAT scandal, the sexual assault allegations from last summer and even his increasing proneness to injury.  Some of this goes back to before his ACL tear.

My message to this is clear:  Rose, and any athlete out there, owes the general public nothing.  It's great if they're model citizens, but it should be considered gravy and nothing else.  Charles Barkley famously said he's not a role model.  It's amazing more athletes haven't publicly taken this stand.

I'm not saying athletes can go out and commit transgressions whenever they want.  After all, they need to be members of polite society at the very least.  I'm saying as long as they didn't artificially affect competition, it's silly to let anything in their past that happened away from the stadium cloud your judgment of them as players in the present.  Granted, the Bulls didn't succeed with Rose like they wanted to, but if they had, he was a major part of it and you still couldn't enjoy it because of said past offenses, I would seriously question the type of fan you are.

The Bulls Rose I'm going to remember is the player who put excitement back into the team at a time when there was very little.  He was the player who took the league by storm and made the Bulls a team everyone had to look out for if they wanted to go far in the playoffs.  All that time before everything was derailed was the best time I had following the Bulls since I started in the late 90s.  It is for this reason I wish him reasonably well in New York and maybe someday, he can return in a capacity that will make him loved in Chicago once again.

Possible Point Depth

The Bulls couldn't wait for the NBA Finals to end before making their first roster move of their offseason.  So on Friday, they traded seldom-used power forward Cameron Bairstow to the Detroit Pistons for point guard Spencer Dinwiddie.  He's on a non-guaranteed contract, so there's virtually no risk in giving him a look.  Plus, the team needs depth at point guard with the possible departures of Aaron Brooks and E'Twaun Moore via free agency.

Dinwiddie was taken 11 picks ahead of Bairstow in the second round of the 2014 draft.  Like Bairstow with the Bulls, he barely registered on the radar in Detroit.  In 46 games over two years, he averaged 2.7 assists and 4.4 points on 31.4 percent shooting from the field and 74.6 percent from the free-throw line.  He also has D-League experience, so it's possible he could be on the inaugural Windy City Bulls team.

Of course, that depends on his health, something he unfortunately has in common with fellow Bulls point guard Derrick Rose.  He tore his ACL during his senior season at Colorado in 2014, which killed his chances of being a first-round draft pick.  This past year, he was plagued by knee and ankle ailments.  Perhaps he can get back in playing shape by being on the Summer League roster.

The good news for the 23-year-old Dinwiddie is he's still young enough that he can save his NBA career.  Maybe he won't get to the level that made him a projected first-rounder, but he can still be a serviceable backup at best.  That's what the Bulls were hoping for when they made this deal.  While it probably won't make a huge difference in next season's outcome, any depth will help out Rose, especially when the inevitable lower-body ailments show their ugly heads.

As for Bairstow, his departure marks the end of a very unremarkable tenure in Chicago.  He was never given much of a positive prognosis, even when he was drafted.  That was proved correctly when he averaged just 1.2 points and one rebound in 36 games these past two years.  The fact that two head coaches couldn't see much in him is proof he needed a change in scenery to see if he can still make a difference in the NBA.

Meanwhile, you can start the Dinwiddie era by following him on Twitter.  He's already been very active in the time since this move was announced.  So if nothing else, he can one of the most active social media users the Bulls have ever had.  Hopefully, he can play well and make his account even more of a must-follow.

Hard Dealers

The calls for the Bulls to rebuild are plenty.  Many around the league seem to think they're willing to do so.  It's gotten to the point where teams are willing to offer their higher draft picks for Jimmy Butler.

For awhile now, the Boston Celtics have been interested in swapping their third overall pick because the Bulls are reportedly attracted to Providence's Kris Dunn, who is sure to be gone long before the Bulls select 14th.  Now, we hear Tom Thibodeau and his Minnesota Timberwolves would also like Butler in exchange for their fifth pick.  But the Bulls are said to want no part of it unless Andrew Wiggins is included.  Talk about really forcing the other team to give something to get something.

If the Bulls are serious about winning sooner than later, any deal that would bring back a high pick has to be considered, even if Butler is the centerpiece.  In the month leading up to the draft lottery, nobody was really excited about the Bulls' likely position.  Very few picks there turn out to be franchise changers, fueling the argument that the Bulls are stuck in basketball hell.  If they pull off a deal like the ones proposed, this past season won't entirely be for naught as they can take a step in going young, yet productive.

It would be best for everybody if either Butler or Derrick Rose was shipped out.  Everyone has had enough of these two alpha males not gelling together on the court and causing their own share of drama.  Maybe the team would take a hit talent-wise, but it's not nearly as frustrating to watch a team fail when it was expected to do so.  How many times did you want to throw your remote at your TV last year because this team was falling so far short of being the championship contender it was predicted to be?

But as the latest report would indicated, the Bulls seem committed to Butler going forward.  They didn't send him to represent them at the draft lottery for nothing.  And with Jen Swanson, a Rose ally, no longer in the organization, it's a clear sign which of the two the Bulls would fight to keep first.

So until we see something that would suggest otherwise, the fans are likely stuck with both players.  That means anytime would be a good time to connect like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.  Of course, the rest of the talent might not make they as effective as they'd like to be.  These are trying times indeed.

McBuckets Selected

As one might expect as the NBA postseason continues, the Bulls are mostly staying out of the news.  In the past week, the only move of note is the return of dynasty trainer Chip Schaefer in a prominent strength and training role, likely the director of sports performance role most recently held by Jen Swanson.  But Tuesday's news might somewhat justify the team's recent draft history, which has become a main talking point for critics.  That news is that Doug McDermott is one of 25 young players selected to this year's USA Select.

As part of the team, coached by Gregg Popovich, McDermott and the other members will train daily with the U.S. Nation Team, for which Jimmy Butler is a finalist.  The sessions will be held in Las Vegas from July 18-21, a couple of weeks before the big boys leave for the Rio Olympics.  This is McDermott's second time with the Select Team, the first coming in 2014.  He was also on the U19 World Championship roster in 2011 and at a National Team Minicamp in 2014, so he has quite a bit of experience representing his country.

Say what you will about McDermott, but to me, he's one of the few guys on the roster with a future here.  He just played in 81 games, averaging 9.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and shooting 45.2 percent from the field (42.5 percent from behind the 3-point line).  True, it doesn't mean a whole lot for a team that's destined for a rebuild.  But he's a player who can play a significant role as a role player anywhere and the Bulls would be wise to stick with him.

With a little more development and experience, he could develop into something every team would love to have.  Team USA obviously feels the same way about him or they wouldn't want to test him out against the LeBrons, Carmelos and Kawhis.  He deserves every chance he gets to face elite competition, especially some of the best players America has to offer.  And if he proves himself, that's good news for the Bulls.