“We’ve gone on our board already. And there are more than seven (players) there that we like. Now we have to get in the process of getting to see them and know them and really dissect them. We’ll get to work now.”<doc-sep>It’s NBA Draft lottery day. Tonight, coincidentally in Chicago, the NBA will use 14 of the finest ping pong balls in the land to determine the draft order of the non-playoff team slots. Each ping pong ball is numbered 1-14 and then four ping pong balls are selected. Each lottery team is assigned a certain amount of four-number combinations out of the 1,001 possible combinations based on their lottery odds (the Chicago Bulls finished with the fourth-worst record in the NBA last season so they’ll own 12.5 percent of the 1,001 total combinations). Here’s everything you need to know. The When and Where The draft lottery is Tuesday evening at 7:30 central before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. Tune in to ESPN to catch all the ‘action’, which is somehow wringing out a half hour of programming out of reading 14 team names. Odds The Chicago Bulls have a 12.5 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft after finishing last season with the fourth-worst record in the NBA. The Bulls have a 36.6 percent chance of getting a top three pick, a 48.1 percent chance of securing a top-four pick, and the lowest they could fall is to No. 8. Here’s how it breaks down in terms of the chance each team gets every pick. It’s slightly frightening that the bulls have a 25.7 percent chance of ending up with the No. 6 pick. Bulls Reps: Former player and four-time NBA champion Horace Grant will represent the Chicago Bulls at the NBA lottery. “I’m honored the Bulls chose me to represent the organization because I also feel I’ve had a lot of luck in my life, especially in 1987 when the Bulls picked me in the draft.” Please wear the lucky goggles Horace! Joey Reinsdorf, grandson of Jerry, will witness the lottery drawing backstage. Bulls lottery representatives in the recent past have been Michael Reinsdorf in 2018, Jimmy Butler in 2016, and Rose-winner Executive Vice President of Business Operations Steve Schanwald in 2008. What’s at Stake: The Bulls are in a rebuild and high draft picks are gold. The upcoming draft isn’t deep and in terms of superstar potential it’s a two man draft at least on paper. Everybody wants Zion Williamson at No. 1. Ja Morant would be an amazing pickup for a team that needs point guard help like Chicago. Other point guards expected to go around when the Bulls are picking including Darius Garland from Vanderbilt and Coby White from North Carolina. Remember 2008 In order to get the No. 1 pick and have the privilege of drafting Zion Williamson, the Chicago Bulls need only defy 12.5 percent lottery odds. Simple. In 2008, the Bulls had a 1.7 percent chance of moving up from No. 9 to secure the No. 1 pick. The Bulls used that pick on Derrick Rose who was a franchise changer albeit for only a finite amount of time due to debilitating knee injuries.<doc-sep>The Chicago Bulls will once again add to the struggling franchise’s young core come summertime. On Tuesday evening in the “Windy City,” the Bulls were officially informed that the Eastern Conference franchise will choose at No.7 overall in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft — as it stands today, anyway. The 2019 NBA Draft class is an especially deep one while garnering the seventh overall pick certainly puts the lowly Bulls in prime position to acquire a high-caliber player that will most definitely be able to step right in and contribute in Chicago. Obviously, former Duke Blue Devils big man Zion Williamson will come off the board first come this summer while former Murray State Racers point guard Ja Morant, former Duke Blue Devils forward R.J. Barrett and several other talented up-and-comers will follow shortly thereafter. One can expect the entire first round of the 2019 NBA Draft to become a star-studded affair before all is said and done. Last season, the Bulls finished the year with a disappointing 22-60 record, good for the third-worst mark in the entire Eastern Conference. The Bulls finished the 2018-19 regular season ahead of only the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Nontheless, the Bulls still made former interim head coach Jim Boylen the team’s new full-time head coach this offseason. Boylen notably took over for current Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Fred Hoiberg midway through the 2018-19 regular season.<doc-sep>The lottery gods smited (smote?) the Bulls tonight. After finishing the NBA season with the fourth-worst record in the association, the Chicago Bulls will now pick number 7 after the results of the NBA draft lottery tonight. If they don’t make a trade, this will be the third straight year the Bulls pick in the seventh slot. They did select two fine building blocks in those years in Lauri Markannen and Wendell Carter Jr. , but likely not the superstar impact they were hoping for tonight. But hope isn’t a plan! Guys like Dukes Cam Reddish, Texas Tech’s Jarrett Culver, Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter, and Darius Garland and Coby White, the two best point guards available besides Murray’s State’s Ja Morant, are all guys the Bulls could go after. We’ll try to sort through all these players and figure out who the Bulls will pick between now and draft night on June 20. The New Orleans Pelicans, at 6% odds, won the NBA draft lottery and will likely pick Zion Williamson. The Memphis Grizzlies will pick second. Start your mock drafts!<doc-sep>
This Chicago Bulls season was likely going to be a disaster on the court from the start, but the results of the 2019 lottery make it one all around. The Chicago Bulls organization has become okay with mediocrity. They were hoping that a bad year on the court would lead to some nice results in the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery. There are some nice options in the lottery like Ja Morant, R.J. Barrett, and generational talent Zion Williamson. The Bulls came away with none of them because they were a little too good this season after some questionable decisions. Now, as a result, they will make the seventh overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft for an astonishing third year in a row. In 2017 they traded up to that spot to select Lauri Markkanen in the Jimmy Butler trade. In 2018 they selected Wendell Carter Jr. Both of those guys are good players but that isn’t always guaranteed when you pick seventh. The fact that the Bulls didn’t see the opportunity they had to make a great selection earlier in the year is annoying from a fan’s perspective. They traded for Otto Porter Jr. in a deal made with the Washington Wizards and that made them a bit of a better basketball team at that point in an already lost season. It is just weird decisions like that made by upper management that make fans really hate them. Now the Bulls will head into the offseason looking to probably be a similar team to what they were in 2018-19 unless they make a mega trade or sign one or two of the big free agents out there — news flash: Not happening. No matter how you look at it, the results of the lottery show how much of a failure this season was both on and off the court. Unless some big changes are made, they will be stuck in the middle for a long time. They don’t appear to have a plan and their chance at a top-three pick was nerfed by trying to win in a lost season. It would be nice to see the Bulls make some serious changes at the top and develop an actual plan on how to get this team to where it should be. This is an organization with a rich history and now they’re a laughing stock.