Chicago Bulls: Ranking the franchise’s last 10 first-round picks
The Chicago Bulls front office has made some questionable draft decisions over the last decade. This has contributed to their current state of mediocrity.
As quick as we are to judge front offices on its aptitude in building a strong roster through the draft, we often forget how much luck plays a role in picking teenagers and players in their early 20s out of college or from overseas. Take the Chicago Bulls, for example.
In 1984, they were lucky that many decision-makers still considered the NBA the land of the giants, which allowed them to take arguably the greatest player of all-time third overall. Fast forward to 2008, and good fortune found the franchise again when, despite having less than a two percent chance to secure the number one overall pick, won the rights to future MVP Derrick Rose.
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But what separates good/great executives from bad/mediocre ones isn’t making the choices that anyone with a modicum of basketball knowledge could make; it’s using your resources to make the best possible decision when it isn’t self-evident.
So, have the Bulls done more of the former or the latter over their last 10 first-round picks? Well, it’s kind of a mixed bag: some moves made the organization look shrewd while others made the Gar Forman/John Paxson duo look worthy of the “Fire GarPax” billboard that fans doled out money for.
Hopefully, this list will give you a good idea of which picks worked out, which ones didn’t, and how much success or failure of the pick imprinted on the aspirations of the franchise.