Bulls sign Kansas’ Devon Dotson to 2-way deal

When the Bulls’ pick came up at No. 44 in Wednesday night’s draft, I figured they’d go for a point guard or a draft-and-stash prospect. The Bulls indeed went the draft-and-stash route by taking Marko Simonovic, but they also added a point guard after the draft by snagging Kansas’ Devon Dotson.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the news in the immediate aftermath of the draft, and Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas confirmed Thursday morning that Dotson got a two-way contract.

Dotson was born in Chicago (apparently he’s a big Derrick Rose fan) and grew up in Charlotte before heading to Kansas as a big-time recruit. The 6-foot-2 guard enjoyed a stellar freshman campaign before really breaking out as a sophomore, averaging 18.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.1 steals in 34.9 minutes per game. While his 3-point shooting took a dip from 36.3% on 2.5 attempts per game to 30.9% on 4.1 attempts per game, the small guard shot an impressive 53.3% on 2-pointers as a frosh and 54.1% in his second year in Lawrence.

The 21-year-old earned First-Team All-Big 12 honors and was a Consensus Second-Team All-American. Dotson also ranked second in kenpom.com’s 2020 Player of the Year standings behind only Iowa’s Luka Garza:

It was a bit of a surprise that Dotson didn’t get drafted. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie had the guard as his No. 38 prospect in this draft and the best undrafted player available. ESPN had Dotson at No. 47.

This is a sign the Bulls did well to scoop him up, especially with a few guards set to move on in Kris Dunn and Shaquille Harrison. The Bulls should still look to improve the guard position in the coming days, but regardless of that, I wouldn’t mind seeing Dotson get a chance to play at some point.

At the least, I’d probably rather see him get a real chance over some of the guys currently on the end of the bench. The Bulls have a “roster crunch” right now with 14 guaranteed deals, but I have to imagine there will be some churn. Either way, Dotson’s two-way deal gives him an opportunity to be active for up to 50 games this season, up from the previous 45-day rule. So that’s nice.