And with the ninth pick in the 2007 NBA draft, the Bulls select … Julian Wright, the Kansas star from Homewood-Flossmoor.
No, it wasn’t a lucky night for the Bulls, who had a chance in Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery to get one of the top three picks. The top prizes are Ohio State’s Greg Oden and Texas’ Kevin Durant.
They will begin the NBA’s newest rivalry in the Pacific Northwest as the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle SuperSonics both defied the odds, Portland moving up from the sixth position with a 5.3 percent chance to get No. 1, where they almost assuredly will select Oden.
Oden likely would give Portland the best young core in the NBA along with rookie of the year Brandon Roy and power forward LaMarcus Aldridge. The group will bring back “Rip City” memories of when the Trailblazers got Bill Walton in 1974 and built a champion.
The selection almost certainly means the Trailblazers will trade often-troubled but talented post player Zach Randolph, probably for very little, to focus on the development of Oden and Aldridge.
The Sonics, who are in turmoil with new ownership and a threat to move, have no coach or general manager. But they get the other prize, the transcendent Durant, already a brilliant perimeter prospect.
Durant will give the Sonics another potential star to go with Ray Allen. His selection also likely means the team won’t re-sign small forward Rashard Lewis, who supposedly is being courted by the Orlando Magic. To get him, Orlando likely wouldn’t match an offer for Darko Milicic, who could become another potential big man on the free agent market.
The big lottery losers were the Grizzlies and Celtics, who stumbled through joyless seasons with the most losses in the NBA. But both fell out of the top three as the Hawks moved up to the third spot.
Moving up is a huge plus for the Hawks, who would have had to surrender their pick to Phoenix is it wasn’t in the top three. The consensus has the top two players after Oden and Durant to be North Carolina’s Brandan Wright and Florida’s Al Horford, though the Hawks are so desperate at point guard they could push up Ohio State’s Mike Conley Jr., who has been impressing the pros. Meanwhile, Atlanta’s 2008 pick now goes to the Suns, dealing yet another blow to the Suns after their controversial rules-mandated loss to the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Grizzlies were hoping to resurrect and sell the franchise on the back of drafting Oden, whom owner Michael Heisley reportedly believed would increase the value of the franchise to buyers just as LeBron James did for Cleveland.
Now, it’s unclear what will happen with general manager Jerry West retiring. It’s possible the franchise, bleeding red on the bottom line, could cut costs dramatically in a disinterested market and deal Pau Gasol.
Likewise, it’s another dark lottery day in Boston, which had the poorest record in 1997 and missed out on Tim Duncan when it fell to No. 3. This time, with the second-worst record, Boston fell as far as it could. With star Paul Pierce crying out to end the rebuildings, it would seem they either will deal Pierce or the draft pick at No. 5.
“It’s about as disappointing as you could ever hope for,” West told reporters at the drawing in New Jersey. “It’s like pitching pennies. It’s grossly unfair to the team. I don’t think the lottery is fair. I don’t think it’s a good system at all. There have been a lot of picks in the lottery who have [failed]. There are two in the lottery this year who are not going to fail. There are two superstars in the draft. I think for the teams fortunate enough to get them, the fortunes of their franchises have changed forever.”
The Milwaukee Bucks also slipped, going to No. 6, but still have a good core and should be able to add a solid young player.
Coming up big were the New York Knicks, who stood to lose Oden or Durant from the Eddy Curry deal if the Bulls got lucky.
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But the slight odds of less than 2 percent to move up to No. 1 stayed against the Bulls.
Of course, the Bulls now have an opportunity to include the draft pick in a deal with a player such as Andres Nocioni or Chris Duhon, to acquire a front-court player. Because the ninth pick is not that big a prize, it would be difficult to see the Bulls getting a shot at a big-time player with just that bait.
With the No. 9 pick, it likely would take someone from among Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon to add a star inside player, and it appears the Bulls are not inclined to go that way.
The interesting question would be whether they would be willing to take a chance on a player like Randolph, a quality post scorer with an ongoing history of embarrassments off the court. Perhaps Milicic, though he could be part of a sign-and-trade if Orlando pursues Lewis, as expected.
It’s always difficult to read Minnesota, but staying at No. 7 would give them a chance at a big man, perhaps Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert or Washington’s Spencer Hawes.
So where does that leave the Bulls?
Likely with a good addition.
Though they need size, I think Hibbert is too slow for their style and Hawes is too far away. Joakim Noah could fall there as well as China’s Yi Jianlian. Perhaps Conley, though the Bulls have an abundance of guards. They could move in that direction to expedite a deal with Hinrich. Yi looks like a terrific shooter with size but may be too inexperienced. My guess is either Noah, whom the Bulls probably would have taken at No. 2 last year if he came out, or — and he is expected to fall at least there — the local kid, Julian Wright.
The big knock against him is his shooting, but he does just about everything else, passing, handling the ball, rebounding and running the fast break. With another 6-foot-8-inch athlete, the Bulls could play him with Tyrus Thomas and Deng. That would provide big-time matchup problems.
It’s going to be an intriguing draft.
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