The Chicago Bulls injected some life into a sleepy NBA draft night Thursday by making a trade to acquire Tennessee’s Julian Phillips with the No. 35 pick.
The Bulls sent a pair of future second-round picks to the Washington Wizards to acquire the pick, according to a report by Shams Charania. The Wizards had previously traded with the Boston Celtics for the No. 35 pick.
A lengthy forward at 6-foot-8, Phillips impressed at the draft combine with his 7-foot wingspan and 43-inch vertical, the highest of all attendees.
“He’s one of the best athletes in the draft,” executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karni ovas said. “He can step in right now, probably can defend on our level. He has a lot of things to improve but we’re looking forward to it. He’s very young and very talented.”
Phillips, 19, carved out his draft stock on the strength of his defense — a similar resume to 2022 first-round draft pick Dalen Terry, who averaged only 5.6 minutes last season.
The forward repeats a familiar set of pros and cons for the Bulls: a strong defender who uses his physicality efficiently but struggles to shoot the ball. He shot 41.1% from the field and only 23.9% on 3-pointers during his single season at Tennessee. The Bulls previously cited 3-point shooting as a key need to fill this summer after they logged the fewest attempts (28.9) and makes (10.4) in the league last season.
General manager Marc Eversley acknowledged this area for growth but said the Bulls are doubling down on a commitment to player development — with an emphasis on 3-point shooting.
“When we both showed up here a few years ago, we talked a lot about player development and internal growth,” Eversley said. “We recently hired a new director of player development (Peter Patton) to focus just on that shooting and being shot ready and being ready to shoot the ball when you’re open. It’s something that’s very important to us. We’ll continue to work on it every single day.”
The Bulls also signed undrafted center Adama Sanogo to a two-way contract, according to an ESPN report. Sanogo played three seasons at Connecticut, averaging 17.2 points and 7.7 rebounds as a starter on the 2023 NCAA champions.
Before the Bulls made the trade to snag Phillips, they were poised for their first year without a pick since 2005. The Bulls didn’t own a single draft pick after conveying a first-rounder and second-rounder in yearsold trades with the Orlando Magic and Wizards and forfeiting an additional second-rounder as a penalty for tampering in their acquisition of Lonzo Ball.
Still, a somewhat anticlimactic NBA draft night left the Bulls facing the same question at the end of Thursday — OK, what now?
Without a major move, the Bulls are still stuck. They didn’t make a major move last summer. Or this spring at the trade deadline. They haven’t made a trade in nearly two years, acquiring every new player on their roster since through free agency or the draft. And if they hold to their refrain of continuity from exit interviews, the Bulls are set to sideline themselves for another summer.
Inactivity has become the status quo for a franchise that hasn’t qualified for consecutive playoffs in eight years, but it won’t be enough to stay afloat. The Bulls will be forced to pay the luxury tax if they maintain the same core roster as last season, although that tactic could be somewhat disrupted after forward Derrick Jones Jr. declined his player option to return.
Karni ovas signaled that the front office expects to receive a greenlight to go into the luxury tax for next season — but only if that is accompanied by improved success.
“It all depends on free agency, how that goes,” Karni ovas said. “(Owners) Jerry and (CEO) Michael (Reinsdorf) have been always open with me to go into the luxury tax if our team is competitive — top four, top six in the East — if there are players in free agency that we can improve our team and we’re competitive.”
If the front office is going to take the financial leap into the luxury tax, it will need to come with a higher reward than repeating last season’s 40-42 record — a problem that draft picks can’t solve on their own.
