The Draft Coinflip That Changed the Trajectory of the Bulls Franchise

The Draft Coinflip That Changed the Trajectory of the Bulls Franchise

May 15th 2018 an otherwise insignificant date in history but it would prove to be the date that would fundamentally alter the trajectory of the Bulls franchise that would be the DAT of the NBA draft lottery to determine the draft order in 2018 and for a Bulls team that was just coming off their first season of a rebuild after trading away Jimmy Butler finishing the season with just 27 wins and third to last in the Eastern Conference they had their hopes set on Landing a top three pick in the draft that would feature what projected to be up and cominging St s and one international prospect that was turning heads for his insane scoring ability and dominating a professional League of grown men at the age of 18 that said Prospect being Luca donic but when the lottery results were revealed the Bull’s hopes at Landing one of the top prospects were dashed away when they fell to seventh in the draft with the Sacramento Kings having jumped them to move up to number two an unlikely draw an unlikely draw that did not go in their favor but what most people don’t remember is the coin flip that determined the outcome of the bull selection a coin flip that actually went in the Bull’s favor all but to change everything in their future a coin flip that determined the Bulls fate and prevented them from Landing a once in a generation talent and I’m here to talk about it so what’s going on everyone you’re listening to Bull Central here hope you’re all doing well now after the Bulls traded away Jimmy Butler for Zack LaVine Chris Dunn in the number seven pick that would eventually become Larry marinan the direction from the front office was clear the Bulls have signaled a rebuild one in which they were going to be bad and be bad for a while and try and rebuild through to the draft and in that season the Bulls were bad really bad they would start off the year going 3 and 20 holding the worst record in the NBA with no Zack LaVine who was still recovering from his ACL injury he sustained in the prior season with the Timberwolves and no Nicola metic who Bobby Portis sucked in the face in practice prior to the start of the Season which resulted in mirati needing facial reconstructive surgery and while it was painful to watch this team be so bad in losing night after night the Silver Lining was well they’re poised to get the number one pick that is of course until Nikola mitic returned to the court and would help the Bulls go on a pointless seven game winning streak effectively taking the Bulls out of having the highest Lottery odds to land the number one pick now I already made a video a few months back of the winning streak that impacted the Bulls in potentially Landing a top pick in the 2018 draft so I won’t be labor that point here but regardless of that seven-game winning streak and the Bulls playing better basketball after that point with the return of Zack LaVine from his ACL injury the Bulls would still finish tied with the Sacramento Kings for the sixth worst record in the NBA giving him a 5.3 % chance of getting number one pick and an 18.3% chance of moving into the top three this of course were the days before they changed the lottery odds and the ability to move into the top three which is now the ability to move into the top four but because the Bulls finished with the same record as the Sacramento Kings and the team split their regular season series a coin flip was needed to be made to determine each team’s pre-draft positioning at sixth and seventh even though the lottery odds for both the sixth and seventh worst teams were the same at that time the coin flip was simply to determine the common minations of pingpong balls for the seventh pre- Lottery positioning and sixth and wouldn’t you know it the Bulls would win that coin flip over the Sacramento Kings to give them the sixth highest odds of moving up into the top three good luck right wrong because had the bulls actually lost the coin flip they would have had the Kings combinations of pingpong balls in the hopper and would have ended up with the number two pick instead of falling back to seventh with the Kings jumping them in the draft lottery of course the Kings fumble the bag anyway because it’s what they do being known for their multiple bus lottery picks over the years and would use the number two pick to select Marvin baggley one of the biggest draft busts in recent memory but for the Bulls a team that had shown to favor International prospects a team that was in search of a high IQ playmaking and scoring point guard to add to their roster I would venture to say that they would have taken Luca donich with the number two overall pick of course we ultimately don’t know and we’ll never know if they would have in fact taken donich at two as there was some skepticism and hesitancy among GMS about how well Luca’s game would translate at the NBA level which is why you didn’t see him being the overwhelming consensus number one pick in that draft going into the combine but regardless we can speculate and assume or maybe it’s just that we’d like to think that the Bulls would have taken donich and had the Bulls lost that coin flip got the number two pick in 2018 selected donich who knows what could have been in having a player like Luca completely alter the direction of this franchise building around one of the greatest scores and passers the game has ever seen a player who impacts the game on so many levels a player that has that Killer Instinct on on the biggest stage in the biggest moments to build around a generational talent and change everything we know about this team and where they stand today if only that coin had flipped just one last time before landing and instead landed in the king’s favor instead of the Bulls we would maybe be put out of our misery and not sitting in no man’s land of mediocrity and having little to no hope for the future of this franchise as it currently sits I guess you could say it’s the butterfly effect that one seemingly insignificant outcome that would have a ripple effect on the events that would come after it for the Bulls those Ripple effects being Landing Wendell Carter Jr in the 2018 draft continuing to be bad without a franchise level player firing Fred hyberg hiring Jim boand selecting Kobe white in the preceding draft seeing a front office regime change said front office would take Patrick Willams forth overall when the previous front office because of the allegiance to Iowa State likely would have taken Tyrese halberton the new front office trying to make a big splash to make a name for themselves and accelerate the rebuild to winning now trading their future for Nikola vuich trading Lowry Markin for Derrick Jones Jr in a first first round pick which has yet to convey still signing Lonzo ball Demar de rzan later signing Zack line to a Max contract you know the rest I don’t need to go through every piece of the Bulls recent history but the path that got us to where we are today a mid team with not much to look forward to for the future when we can all wonder what could have been had that coin just flipped in the king’s favor and the Bulls were able to land LCA donic I know it’s pointless to Drudge up the past and what could have been but during the Dead period of the off season I can’t help but start thinking about things like this especially when we see Luca and the Mavericks now about to compete in the NBA Finals let me know what you guys think let me know in the comments as always be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one

Revisiting the forgotten coinflip that could have enabled the Bulls to land Luka Doncic in 2018

NBA Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCikoP0pxZTRqNp9XgMJlIqQ

Sign up for Underdog Fantasy with Promo Code [Bulls Central] to get a Special Pick in the lobby AND up to $250 in Bonus Cash on your first deposit: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-bu…

Discord: https://discord.gg/NCnTQFZkkj
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bulls.central.official/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BullsCentralYT

#ChicagoBulls #BullsNation #LukaDoncic #DeMarDeRozan #CobyWhite #AndreDrummond #AlexCaruso #NikolaVucevic #ZachLavine #PatrickWilliams #LonzoBall #AyoDosunmu #BullsNews #NBANews #NBARumors #BullsUpdates #BullsRumors #NBAFreeAgency #BullsTrades #NBATrades #NBATradeRumors #NBADraft #NBADraft2018 #NBADraftLottery #DallasMavericks