Since the NBA’s draft lottery took place almost three weeks ago, the Chicago Bulls have known they would be drafting twelfth overall. They would be drafting eleventh, were it not for a coin toss; they would be drafting first, were it not for one lottery ball. Yet with neither of these two strokes of luck having come off, twelfth it is.
Considering all the variables in play on the chaos of draft night, the Bulls cannot say for certain who they will pick, as they do not know who will be available once it is their turn. It is however possible to project some names. After all, it already appears that Cooper Flagg of Duke will go first to the Dallas Mavericks, and Dylan Harper of Rutgers will go second to the San Antonio Spurs. Some information is therefore known, and so the Bulls can narrow down their focus.
Names linked to the Bulls since the lottery have included Drake Powell of North Carolina and South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles, both of whom offer length on the wing. However, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Bulls are planning to go in a different direction.
From Moscow To Provo To Chicago
In Cowley’s own words, the Bulls’ front office is “zoning in” on Egor Demin, a 6’9 forward out of Brigham Young. The Russian Demin, a 19-year-old freshman, was previously a product of Spanish giants Real Madrid, and declared for the draft after a single college season with the Cougars in which he averaged 10.6 points, 5.5 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game.
The assists per game total immediately draws the eye, especially considering his size. Demin’s 5.5 assists per game average tied for 34th in the whole of Division I basketball last season – that is to say, 34th out of 5,300 total players – and none of the players in front of him stand taller than 6’5.
As a result, he fits the Bulls’ favoured sort of player profile under Arturas Karnisovas. Over the past couple of years in particular, Karnisovas has targeted players of a certain style, one which Demin figures to accord with nicely.
Bulls Like Their Tall Passers
Currently, the Bulls have all of Josh Giddey, Kevin Huerter, Ayo Dosunmu, Nikola Vucevic, Zach Collins, Dalen Terry, Patrick Williams and Lonzo Ball on their roster. For all their limitations in other departments, each and every one of those players can be said to be above-average playmakers for their position and/or players of their size. Length plus passing equals Bulls interest.
In their defence, this correlates with a wider NBA trend. As opposed to the ball-dominant point guard era of 20 years ago, this is the era of multi-positional playmaking. With the significant advancement in NBA defensive strategy and the substantial increase in frontcourt players who can play in space and switch onto guards, teams can more effectively key in on individual ball-handlers, necessitating all line-ups to have at least one player comfortable with driving against a set defence or ball reversal.
Size with playmaking chops, therefore, is more highly regarded than ever before. And yet because of this, Demin – as Cowley notes – might not fall to the Bulls.
Between Harper and the Bulls, there are nine other teams to pick, plus infinite options for other teams to trade into the top 11 and deny the Bulls their man. Similarly, if the Bulls’ interest really is that firm, a team ahead of them can exploit that, select Demin, and make the Bulls give up assets to get his rights. A team said to be “zoning in” on a prospect should not be taken as a statement of certainty until Adrian Wojnarowski tweets it three minutes before a pick is made.
Demin Will Need Time
Nevertheless, while there are still four weeks to go, Demin fits the profile of what the Bulls are looking for. He just might not contribute much to begin with.
Young, wiry, inexperienced and currently a sub-par shooter (shooting 27% from three in his freshman season), Demin is not likely to be a significant NBA contributor right away. For all his passing IQ, unselfishness and playmaking, he is not a player particularly adept at getting his own shot, nor does he have any area of the court he can consistently makes shots from in his offensive profile.
Additionally, despite his length (measuring at 6’9 without shoes at the NBA’s recent draft combine), Demin is not a high-level athlete in any aspect, leaving concerns about his ceiling as an NBA player. Hedo Turkoglu was an exception rather than a rule – Hedo Turkoglu was also both very strong and a good shooter.
As those four weeks tick down, though, a team’s focus will get ever more narrowed. In a quagmire of their own making and still needing at least half of the “nine or ten very good players” they feel they need to win a title without winning a lottery, the Bulls have a lot of needs, but mostly just need to raise their overall talent level. Whether or not Demin is their pick, he certainly has talent.
