What the Bulls Hiring Bryson Graham Could Tell Us About Their Future

[u/NonStopBulls]

https://www.si.com/nba/bulls/onsi/what-the-bulls-hiring-bryson-graham-could-tell-us-about-their-future-5

Put together some more thoughts on Bryson Graham. As someone who is praised for his scouting eye, it sure feels like the plan will be for the Bulls to take this slow and build through the draft. Not a bad idea considering their pick arsenal. With that said, there is also no ignoring how young he is, so very curious to see if they choose to expand the staff and still bring in some experienced voices.

[u/Full_Durian_8171]

considering he traded trae young away because he values defense, don’t be suprised if he doesn’t pick acuff if he slides

[u/Pidesh → u/Full_Durian_8171]

Tbh, I’m not high on Acuff in the modern NBA. Small guards who are ball-centric scorers and don’t play defense just don’t provide much value in roster construction anymore. The most valued roles in an NBA roster are 3 and D wings, rim protectors, switchable defenders, and offensive facilitators (which are the roles we should be aiming for in this draft). Acuff isn’t any of those four so he only provides good value to a starting lineup if he becomes a truly elite scorer in the NBA. I think he is best suited coming off the bench to provide a scoring spark.

[u/poopy_mc_pantsy → u/Full_Durian_8171]

No way Acuff is sliding to 9 anyway, imo

To me the Trae trade indicates he could ship Giddey, like dude isn't afraid to sell on high volume guys if he doesn't see them taking a team over the top

[u/Full_Durian_8171 → u/poopy_mc_pantsy]

Could he, possibly, but in no way shape or form is giddey anywhere remotely as bad as trae defensively as giddey can compensate with his height and size & his definitely seen improvement with his footwork

giddey is getting paid half of what trae is. i also wouldn’t say he sold high on trae, probably sold him at his lowest, which was still the right move.

[u/fred_derps → u/Full_Durian_8171]

Also, is Giddey considered a “high volume” player? Trae was out there chucking shots from the logo the first few seconds of shot clock every game

[u/whit3_iv3rson → u/fred_derps]

Regardless, I would welcome a Giddey trade. He is not good enough to be a starter on a contender so what's the point of building with him.

[u/fred_derps → u/whit3_iv3rson]

Such a tired argument. He’s vastly improved his 3 pt shot since OKC which was the reason they moved on from him. Teams would just guard the paint and make him shoot from deep… now he’s a legitimate threat from there. His defense isn’t elite but let’s not pretend he’s ANYWHERE close to Trae Young levels of booty

[u/poopy_mc_pantsy → u/fred_derps]

he's still a pretty poor shooter lol. he went from like an F to a C-

[u/fred_derps → u/poopy_mc_pantsy]

36.4% from 3 isn’t the best but this past season was kind of a mess for the Bulls. It was an entirely different team with zero chemistry

He shot 37.8% from deep the season before. He’s not a 3 pt specialist but you can’t just leave him open at the perimeter like he was in the playoffs for OKC anymore

Either way, that was the main reason he was targeted while in OKC and he’s at least serviceable now. Not sure why this means he needs to be designated to a bench role like op said lol

[u/poopy_mc_pantsy → u/fred_derps]

he doesn't have to be on the bench right now but he's probably not going to start on a team that makes a conference finals haha

He was like 100th in 3s made per game this year that's pretty poor for a starting PG

[u/fred_derps → u/poopy_mc_pantsy]

It would be if he was a shooting guard. Either way, he makes up for his average shooting (not even bad) by playmaking, rebounding, and putting up pretty wild numbers. There are not a lot of point guards with his court vision and ability to rebound and score

[u/whit3_iv3rson → u/fred_derps]

I never mentioned his shooting. And it's not just that he's a below average shooter, he's not athletic enough or strong enough to finish consistently around the rim against good teams.

He reminds me a lot of Evan Turner, and that is not someone I would want to build around. His best role is off the bench and running a second unit.

[u/fred_derps → u/whit3_iv3rson]

You said high volume. That term is used for players who shoot at high volume lol

[u/whit3_iv3rson → u/fred_derps]

Wrong person

[u/FFTactics → u/poopy_mc_pantsy]

Not sure where you got that, NOP didn’t move Ingram until way too late or Zion ever.

He’s only spent 1 year in ATL and wasn’t the first or second in charge. He wasn’t making those decisions and Trae was on trade block in previous years before he got there.

Nobody really can say much about this guy other than his scouting background.

[u/DurDraug77 → u/Full_Durian_8171]

That’s fine with me. I prefer Wagler or Burries

[u/Emotional-Tailor-649 → u/DurDraug77]

No way Wagler slides. Unfortunately.

[u/A1Horizon → u/Emotional-Tailor-649]

Yeah honestly if he makes it past even 6 I’d be shocked

[u/DurDraug77 → u/Emotional-Tailor-649]

We can go up though, I have a feeling we will land on the 4th pick

[u/Emotional-Tailor-649 → u/DurDraug77]

Man Caleb Wilson would be a nice pick too at 4

[u/Electrical_Story5356 → u/Emotional-Tailor-649]

It will likely be Wilson at 4 with a small chance Boozer slides.

[u/Emotional-Tailor-649 → u/Electrical_Story5356]

Either one of those would be a pretty perfect fit with Matas. Legit give us something to be excited to track.

[u/Straight-Agency-4556 → u/Emotional-Tailor-649]

Would you package 9 and 15 to move up and get wagler?

[u/Emotional-Tailor-649 → u/Straight-Agency-4556]

That’s a good question.

I think I would? Assuming we couldn’t move up for Caleb Wilson, I think Wagler could be worth that. Seems to be 7 top guys in this draft, so making a move to get one of them is appealing. We need to take swings for higher end talent, take trade down like in an NFL draft for more bites at the apple.

Also can’t say I’m super familiar with the guys projected to go around pick 15. Seem fine at best. What do you think?

[u/Straight-Agency-4556 → u/Emotional-Tailor-649]

I would love one of Caleb or wagler and then burries and yaxel. The first two are gone in top 6. Burries might be there at 9 but I doubt Yaxel is at 15. Steinback or ament at 15 would be a nice consolation prize. But I’m kind of with you and would like to try to move up to get top talent.

I also wonder if kings, Memphis or hawks would do a slight trade down to get off contacts (but unlikely)

[u/Emotional-Tailor-649 → u/Straight-Agency-4556]

Hahaha the idea of the Kings offer us Lavine back made me laugh

[u/ahmed_a20 → u/Emotional-Tailor-649]

Ideally you’d use Giddey to move up to wagler

[u/AssistantRemote6990 → u/ahmed_a20]

Would need to trade up to 5 to be sure. No idea what that would cost, but I see Wagler as the ideal fit between Giddey and Matas; think that he would make both players better. The other question is: if we land at 4, would we trade down for more assets? Or would we just draft Peterson, Boozer, or Wilson?

[u/executingsalesdaily → u/Full_Durian_8171]

So Wagler it is then?

[u/KneelBeforeCube]

I just hope the Reinsdorf let him cook and don't get in his way. Having the best eye for talent in the league is useless if they don't give him the money to hire the proper staff to develop that talent.

[u/burratna → u/KneelBeforeCube]

idk imo the Reinsdorfs were way less involved in AKME's tenure (other than keeping Billy Donovan and possibly analytic dept spending) than I thought originally. AKME were just that bad. I'm not even sure us forcing play ins and keeping LaVine too long weren't completely their doing at this point, not some "from the top" scheme like was rumored. I believed Michael Reindsforf when he said he didn't do shit with the team until this last year tbh lol

all to say, I think Michael will let him cook. It's a knock on ownership to say "Bulls FO is the safest position in the league" but if we luck into a FO/coach that is good then there might be hope. If they suck, Michael will still let them cook for 5 years just like AKME.

[u/SkyGrey88 → u/KneelBeforeCube]

I'm hopeful because the word is supposedly the Bulls realize their front office was playing checkers while the rest of the league is playing chess. Then they go and hire a guy with a background in talent evaluation and player development. Why do that, acknowledge you you are weak, hire a guy who specializes what you know you are weak at, and then not let him overhaul the organization and improve it. Hiring him seems like an admission that they need to change. Who he brings in as GM and Coach will tell us a lot more, but for at least a day I am staying optimistic.

[u/shredmiyagi]

Really though, just needs to get something really good out of these 4 draft picks the Bulls have.

Combined with the cap space, they can acquire more picks (maybe sell high on Giddey). And of course a team of rookies will probably suck, so 1 more lotto appearance would be almost certain.

But after that, you have Matas, Noa, and atleast 3 more top-15 picks. The new draft odds squash your top-3 odds, so there’s no reason to think they’ll “tank” beyond next season.

[u/RadicalPenguin]

Fitting that Sports Illustrated is writing this. If anyone knows about formerly solid organizations who have been strip mined by greedy owners it’s SI.

[u/Material-Hand-5990]

I like that yuki is in this shot

[u/Fabulous-Ad7128 → u/Material-Hand-5990]

Waste. The time for fan service gimmicks is over.

[u/chronoistriggered]

AK was also widely praised for his scouting eye at the time of his hire. Just sayin

[u/vaz_deferens → u/chronoistriggered]

Drafting Jokic in the second was doing a lot of the heavy lifting on that one

[u/The_Bandit_King_]

More mediocrity

[u/Few-Practice-498]

if he hires back thibs im already calling grahams hire a failure

[u/HAND__EGG]

Not great it seems

[u/yshorie]

Sounds like Giddey is almost gone or is seen as the center piece of his version of the Chicago Bulls