NBA Draft: Bulls select Marko Simonovic in the 2nd round

The Bulls had a 2nd round pick in tonight’s draft, and looks to be using it on someone who won’t be playing for the Bulls anytime soon.

It’s European center prospect Marko Simonovic, a 21 year old born in Montenegro not to be confused (as I was initially!) by a 34 year old player from Serbia of the same name who is more successful and thus comes up first in a Google search.

The Bulls draftee played the last 2 seasons for KK Mega Bemax of the ABA league, a Balkans-region league that I’m not sure how well it’s ranked internationally.

Thankfully our friends at PeachtreeHoops did a large writeup (thanks commenter SweetBeezus!)

Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, 72% of players selected in the 2nd round never get more than a ‘cup of coffee’ in the league. But the outliers, while rare, can happen. For the Bulls they have former second round picks Tomas Satoransky Daniel Gafford. And of course Arturas Karnisovas was part of one of the greatest 2nd round picks of all time when the Denver Nuggets took Nikola Jokic.

Of course Jokic was a European player, as was Karnisovas...so...think about it...

Anyway, lots of speculation that there is no room on the Bulls roster for a 2nd round pick this year, because, uh, you just gotta keep these guys around if they have guaranteed contracts???

Much earlier in the night, the Bulls took Patrick Williams with the 4th overall selection.