Bulls draft rumors may be revealing same old bad process

is this a Marc Eversley signature move?

A bit of a follow-up to the latest post, which had things from all over, including: news that GM Marc Eversley signed a contract extension, and they are looking to trade up or already gave the dreaded promise at #11.

The rumors since have perhaps revealed that these things are not unrelated.

As I repeatedly say, I’m not a draftnik (go to our old pal Ricky for such things), but it seems bad process to zero-in on:

1. a particular prospect

2. player type

Especially if you’re so talent-bereft as you are currently (in part due to bad drafts!).

It was mentioned last week the promise to over-22-year-old guard Devin Carter. A lot of jokes were made referencing Chandler Hutchison, but while he was a more high-profile (and strange) draft promise, that was technically done by the prior regime.

What’s more notable information is that the current GM, Eversley, has a history of draft promises.

When Eversley was hired from the Sixers, it was so widely-known that he made a draft promise to Matisse Thybulle in 2019 that it made the write-up from keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Not directly mentioned was that the promise was so blatant that the Celtics grabbed Thybulle and extracted a prize from Eversley/Philly to move up and get Thybule.

And then with Eversley in the Bulls draft room a year later, there were building rumors that Patrick Williams received a promise, including this bit from KC Johnson at the time.

One league source even went so far as to say he’s under the impression that the Bulls have told the Florida State forward they plan to draft him should they not trade up from No. 4.

Then there’s the other potential pitfall (what I consider as one, anyway), which is drafting for a player type based on need.

Eversley did this, and admitted it, when they traded two future second-rounders to draft Julian Phillips last summer:

Bulls general manager Marc Eversley acknowledged that Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. recently declining his player option for next season played a factor in the team's choice to add another forward in Phillips.

"DJ, for everything he brought to the court -- the athleticism, the length, his ability to get out and defend multiple positions, Julian fits a lot of those same attributes," Eversley said.

I’ve never been impressed with Eversley’s very-few public comments, and the concept of needing to replace a fringe rotation player seems like another red flag raised.

Because now there are rumors that, if not taking Carter, the Bulls are targeting a replacement of another free agent to-be, Andre Drummond. They’ve been looking at centers, last week it was Donovan Clingan, this week it’s Zach Edey.

The Bulls do have a need at center. But they have needs everywhere, and what they really need is a new starting center.

If they think Clingan or Edey is next year’s starter (and, importantly, Billy Donovan has escaped the cult of Vuc and agrees) that’s not a bad value play. Non-elite centers shouldn’t be paid too much, and a rookie-scale contract is indeed that. Just off the top of my head I recall Walker Kessler and Dereck Lively as recent examples of first-rounder-to-immediate-starter at the position.

But if they are instead just in tunnel-vision seeing one of “their guys” actually leaving and thinking of using their pick to fill that hole, then that’s extremely concerning.

And based on what we’ve seen of Marc Eversley’s career, he’s downright Bullsian in that low-effort draft strategy.