Bulls Miss Out on Top Pick, Leaving Fans Feeling Unlucky And Karnišovas Missing in Action
- Drew Stevens (@Drew_H_Stevens)
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
As fate would have it, the Bulls won the 12th pick in Monday night's NBA Draft Lottery.
CHICAGO – Matas Buzelis didn’t bring a four-leaf clover, horseshoe or rabbit’s foot with him to the NBA Draft Lottery at McCormick Place on Monday.
“We don’t need lucky charms,” said Buzelis, who represented the Chicago Bulls on stage during the night's proceedings. “We’re good.”
Oh, if only that were true.
The franchise that’s won 45% of its regular-season games and advanced past the first round of the playoffs just four times since capturing its last championship more than a quarter-century ago can use all the help it can get. Winning the rights to the first-overall pick and consensus can’t-miss prospect Cooper Flagg would’ve been a godsend in that regard. But fate saw fit to reward the Dallas Mavericks, instead.
That it would’ve been the Bulls in the catbird seat had they won a coin flip with the Mavericks last month is the plot twist fans won’t soon forget.
“It was pretty crazy, honestly. I didn’t expect that,” Buzelis said, echoing everyone’s reaction to watching the Mavericks leapfrog 10 teams en route to the top prize.
Well, almost everyone.
Although he was in attendance with general manager Marc Eversley, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas did not speak with the media afterward and would’ve only done so had the Bulls won the lottery.
Therefore, whether he’ll lean talent over fit or vice versa with the 12th pick in the draft this summer is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, queries about recent personnel changes will have to wait until June 25.
“Regardless of where we’re picking,” Karnišovas said during his end-of-season press conference in April, “I think we can always find value. Watching what Matas has done and his progression during the year, that gives you hope.”
Karnišovas, who has a knack for inviting second guessing whenever he speaks into a microphone, won’t find any pushback there.
Buzelis averaged 13.3 points on 60.4% shooting on twos and 37.3% shooting on threes, 4.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 blocks across the last 35 regular-season games of his rookie campaign. That, coupled with his athleticism, attitude and audacity, makes him easy to believe in.
“I think of it as a blessing,” Buzelis said when asked what it means to him to have fans looking to him to lead the franchise back to prominence. “Pressure is privilege, so I’m gonna take on the challenge. I know what I can be. I just gotta keep working, keep grinding, keep bettering myself. Everything will come with time.”
Karnišovas, who’s attempting to build a championship roster without any bonafide stars, sure hopes so.
The Bulls didn’t move one way or the other, but the Charlotte Hornets, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, Washington Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, and Toronto Raptors are each slotted in a worse position than they were before the Draft Lottery began.
With a purportedly stronger crop of prospects to choose from next year — at least at the top with Darryn Peterson, Cam Boozer and AJ Dybantsa — many of those same teams will be jockeying for ping pong balls again. The Bulls, on the other hand, will be fighting tooth and nail to escape the clutches of the Play-In Tournament for the first time in four years.
Before he was whisked away by the team’s public relations staff, Buzelis said he hoped to represent the Bulls at the Draft Lottery again.
Here’s to him bringing any kind of lucky charm with him this time next year.
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