Ask Sam Mailbag – NBA.com

Albert Castro: Any truth to this possible Bulls trading up rumor that I’m hearing? I really want them to just stay @ 11th and not pick anymore guards. I think getting a guy like Cody Williams would be good enough. Maybe for a top 3 pick make a trade, but not giving up our future picks. Oh yeah and stay away from Clingan.
Sam: What’s wrong with Clingan? Bulls will need a big man with Vučević having two years left, and the NBA I have heard will continue beyond that. The Bulls tend to be in win-now modes, but if you watched the playoffs there were a lot of teams with young players. I actually do think it’s possible the Bulls could trade up with the most frequent speculation involving the Detroit Pistons at No. 5 because they need a scoring finisher, which Zach LaVine can be, as well as a veteran because they have too many young players. The Bulls, with all the rumors and speculation regarding LaVine, probably are getting close to accepting they won’t get much and probably would love to drop him into a team’s cap space so they don’t have to take back big salaries. Like if they made a deal with the Lakers. It’s probably not likely with the Pistons since Detroit just changed management. But say for fantasy sake the Bulls could trade LaVine and Alex Caruso (yes, they may have to add a sweetener) for No. 5 and Evan Fournier. Maybe throw in No. 11 instead of Caruso? It makes some sense to give the Pistons a chance to win some games, though it’s all guessing for now. The other possibilities in that sort of scenario of teams with cap room to absorb some or all of LaVine’s deal are the 76ers and Magic. You could make a case for Zach fitting in either place as the Magic could use some offense at guard to support Wagner and Banchero and the 76ers basically need a guard with Maxey and have almost no one else under contract but Embiid for now. Would either demand Caruso or someone else? The picks aren’t great as the 76ers have No. 16 and the Magic have No. 18. But if the Bulls could keep No. 11 and get one of those selections, too, it might give them a boost toward a future young base. The intriguing one is the Pistons with No 5. What to do then?
Wayne Warner: My fingers crossed is a trade of Caruso & 11th pick for rights to Matas Buzelis 
Sam: He’d probably be there more likely around No. 5, and would be an intriguing choice for the Bulls with plenty of ups and downs. He’s long and athletic, good phrases for an NBA player these days, and started in Hinsdale. He looks like the sort of athletic young big kid the Bulls really need at 6-10 and about 200 pounds. I’ve never seen him play in a game and you can’t tell much on those youtube highlights as they never miss a shot. Which seems an issue for him as he hasn’t shot well. But as both a positive and negative he is young, but he is young, and the Bulls tend to prefer more ready to play. He sounds like a Franz Wagner type, which would be nice to have especially at big forward where the Bulls lately mostly play small guards. So what would the Bulls do if they could get No. 5? All the mock drafts say Sarr and Risacher will be Nos. 1 and 2 in some order. Then maybe the shooter Sheppard. Serbian big Nikola Topic was there, but now likely drops with an ACL injury. The Bulls aren’t into waiting. Then maybe come the Connecticut guys, the guard Castle and Clingan. I’d be on board for either if I were the Bulls. I’ve been high on the Tennessee shooter Knecht, but lately there are a lot of Bulls rumors about the Providence defensive guard Devin Carter, who I’ve mentioned before sounds a lot like Caruso. Which also sounds pretty good. After all, everyone’s crediting the Celtics’ defense lately. Though Carter probably is not as high as No. 5.
Mike Sutera: I’ve been watching Buzelis. Not impressed. Poor shooter. He is athletic but doesn’t have great handles. I’m not trading up for him, but if he falls to 11 take him. No one in this draft is worth dealing future assets to move up.
Sam: I believe the draft as little as I know about it will be better than projected, and the thing I know most is these current mock drafts five years from now will all be way way way off, that No. 13 could be No. 3. Take a look at any draft and list the best players and many are 10-20 picks. So this draft night TV stuff with the college analysts, who by the way seem never on draft night to have seen a college player who isn’t a future NBA All-Star, when they act surprised some team picks someone eight spots ahead of where they had him should be ignored. If the Bulls could trade up, I’d be interested in someone like Buzelis because the Bulls yes, lack shooting. But the league also is growing younger, taller and athletic, and the Bulls need a dose of that. I’d try to do something with the Pistons if it were possible. But I also believe at No. 11 they should be able to get a rotation player like Carter. Maybe still Knecht, and the Bulls need size and maybe it’s worth even trading down a few spots for an extra pick and getting a big guy like Tristan DaSilva, Tyler Smith, Kel’el Ware or Kyle Filipowski. Size helped the Mavericks. Rebounds if not always leading to rings do matter. A lot.
John Leichenko: Looks like Celtics fans will have a summer to stop whining. Oh wait, they’re probably Red Sox fans.
Sam: Not that I get these things right that often, but I was on one level surprised to see so many picking Dallas with them having so few scorers. Still actually amazed they got to the Finals; sort of like Miami last season. They could be a play-in next season, though credit them for being willing to take a chance with those midseason deals. But this series is also a chance for a good look at what often poses as media analysis. The Mavericks were picked by maybe half the national TV commentators, in part, because they were the last ones the media saw play. Boston was long finished and another factor in fan analysis — don’t call those radio shows because you know the game probably as well or better than they do — is the media people usually go with the last thing they saw. Not to say Boston couldn’t have blown it the way they let down toward the end of Game 3. But they did lead the NBA all season for a reason and Dallas basically starts three non scorers. Which leads me to the other point of this amazing piling on that is going on regarding Luka Doncic, that now down 3-0 he’s fat and out of shape and complains too much, and can you believe it he’s not a great defender! And by the way, probably still the best player in the series and has had a truly remarkable playoffs; perhaps the MVP of the playoffs combined. But get down 3-0 and you’re a bum. Reminds me of all the piling on when David Robinson carried a Spurs team without another All-Star other than Dennis Rodman having a breakdown and then lost to Hakeem and a much better Rockets team and suddenly Robinson was a loser. Luka’s always been big like this, which is part of why he can maneuver players all over the court. He’s complained to officials almost as much as say, oh right, LeBron James. Hey, he was kicked out of the game with the Bulls this season on Serbian night. He’s picked out on defense like, you know, Damian Lillard and Jalen Brunson and Donovan Mitchell and Tyrese Haliburton and Trae Young and Steph Curry and most of those guys who have to do virtually everything on offense for their teams to even have a chance. Those guys never are going to be defenders, like, you know, MVP winners Nash, Nowitzki, Barkley and Iverson. Which is why Boston has been so good. You can’t hide a poor defender with them because they put out five players who can score and shoot. Ever notice who LeBron guards these days? This cheap shot stuff against Doncic is such bad analysis. But it is more in the current media tradition of the so called hot takes and then everyone for a day discusses something that was said that was outrageous and stupid and then there’s something else the next day. Is that a decent rant? Did those kids TP my house again?
Mike Metz: Wonder what the Mavs will do with Derrick Jones Jr. Will they overpay? Guys like him are around all the time.
Sam: I’ll admit it’s been fun seeing the former Bulls Jones Jr. and Gafford in the Finals; good for them. But given how little mail I’ve received about that the Bulls made a mistake, I’m guessing most everyone realizes to paraphrase the old political line, it’s Luka, stupid.  As great a run as the Mavs have had, it’s tenuous in the Western Conference because of how close the standings were with Denver, Minnesota and Oklahoma City all within one game and Dallas in fifth one game ahead of seventh place New Orleans. And now Morant and a lot of injured guys will return for second place Memphis from a year previous and Houston seems poised to make a jump with their No. 3 pick in play and a late season charge. And there’s still the future greatest of all time, Wembanyama. Will he some day make the playoffs? We all thought here Derrick would pick up his option. He didn’t and took a minimum and got himself in the right spot. So I assume he gets a nice pay bump, but Dallas also was somewhat exposed as late in the playoffs as they got, and you figure they’ll be looking for more offensive options to help Luka. Derrick won’t be that as valuable as he was this season.
Mitch Matson: The Hawks are so screwed. They don’t have their 2025 and 2027 picks. Both unprotected and their 2026th could be a swap. If they deal Young and Murray they need to recoup draft capital.
Sam: And now they have No. 1 in a draft with babies at the top? So maybe despite basically no one ever trading a No. 1 pick they will? Nah, I assume they use it because they have to start somewhere and no one is likely offering that much for the No. 1 in this draft. But they are the mystery team for deals with several players of interest and in need of a vast makeover. They took a shot to try to compete with that deal for Dejounte Murray in which they gave up all those picks. It didn’t work. But you have to try. They did; I’m OK with that. But when you take a shot and it doesn’t work if you keep patching you’ll be stuck in the middle. Can they get off Trae Young? Do they want to? That seems to be their major issue. A lot of teams would take Murray, Capela and Bogdanovic.  LaVine’s been speculated there, but I doubt the Bulls have interest in Young with his atrocious defense. The Spurs were rumored, but they seemed to have poured cold water. Though Wembanyama could protect Young’s flank. But, true, their prospects are not good. Which also makes No. 1 in this draft more interesting.
Art Alenik: Danny Hurley just stepped away from about $48MM to stay at UConn (or $6.4MM/yr. for 6 yrs). Good for him. Once you’re making $5.25MM/yr, how much more do you need? And is it worth being miserable? Because that Laker job is a mess. You have to deal with all those unrealistic expectations, and if LeBron grows unhappy with you… Bye Bye. I guess $70MM is a lot of cash for the 1 or 2 seasons he would last before they started looking for their next coach. If he can win the NCAA next season, he’ll be only the 2nd coach to do that (after John Wooden, who got 7 in a row).
Sam: And it actually seemed like the Lakers “low balled” him, at least in this era where Monty Williams in Detroit got a larger contract (OK, I get you have to pay someone more to get them to live in Detroit versus LA). But it all did sound a bit suspicious, that if you were going for your big home run coach to lead the team for the next post-LeBron era how could you not blow him away with the money? The Lakers supposedly offered about $70 million for six years, so they could not have seriously believed he’d be swayed by the money since you knew after a second straight title he was going to make close to $10 million per year at UConn. California taxes could have made it even less. So it all made no sense. And why Hurley obviously didn’t think long about it. Yes, the Lakers ship be sinkin’, to paraphrase the great Micheal Ray Richardson. LeBron & Son? Hardware store or NBA franchise? They need a big move this summer, so we have to assume Zach’s still on their radar. But riding it out with LeBron could be the sort of steep decline that makes Storrs, Connecticut look very appealing. Plus, if he wants now Hurley can get an NBA job when he wants; and there’ll be better choices.
Matt Queen: Illinois Star Terrence Shannon Jr. was found not guilty of rape. Does he get into the first round? I think so. 
Sam: If life were fair he would go back toward the end of the lottery where, you know, the Bulls are. But life — and basketball — aren’t always. He should get the same treatment as if this never happened since we are supposed to live by the rule of law in the country, though there seem to be exceptions. I do wonder if some teams will be scared off less because they believe he got out on some technicality than what if this is a distraction, and we know how much teams hate that. I have not followed the trial, but a verdict so quickly in barely more than an hour also seems to make a point. I still haven’t looked that closely at the draft, either, but I’d say he could and probably would be a good value pick in the middle of the first round where a few teams go with what they feel is “safe” and he maybe slips beyond his presumed talent. Though we know this drafting and human analysis is hardly science. But based on his talent he should be a solid first round pick, and someone could get themselves a good talent.
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