NBA teams are beginning to get serious about prospective draft picks.
Day 2 of the NBA draft combine Wednesday at Wintrust Arena and McCormick Place included media availability for every invited player in addition to private meetings with teams and 5-on-5 scrimmages.
The Bulls met with several players for one-on-one interviews, including Tre Johnson, Thomas Sorber, Asa Newell, Liam McNeeley and Collin Murray-Boyles. Jase Richardson has a meeting scheduled with the Bulls later this week. The collection reflects the team’s outlook on the draft — while the frontcourt is an obvious weak point for the roster, the Bulls are still in a position in which drafting the best available talent is a necessity regardless of position.
Here’s what we heard from several players who may be on the Bulls’ radar heading into the draft.
Khaman Maluach
One of the most intriguing prospects in the lottery, Duke center Khaman Maluach is a work in progress — for a reason.
The 7-footer only began playing basketball at age 13. He fondly remembers the day he attended his first camp organized by former Bull Luol Deng in South Sudan.
“I saw a lot of tall people being happy and it was like, ‘This is where I belong,’” Maluach said with a smile.
Within the next year, Maluach left home to join the NBA Academy in Senegal. He began playing professionally in the Basketball Africa League at 15 before committing to Duke, where he played his sole season of NCAA ball last season. Maluach said he has leaned heavily on Deng and former Bull Joakim Noah as well as other African greats throughout the process.
Although he shot 71.2% from the floor for Duke, Maluach feels his shooting efficiency is underrated. He suffered a hairline fracture in preseason that forced him to wear a hand brace for much of the season. Now fully healthy, Maluach is hoping to make a strong impression of his ability to finish shots during combine week.
“My shot has improved a lot,” Maluach said. “I had on the glove the whole season, so I kind of struggled, it kind of altered my shot. I didn’t know where my shot was falling a lot of the time. Sometimes I would shoot air balls because I just had the glove on and I wasn’t having the same feeling of the ball. But as soon as I took it off, my shot became way better.”
Derik Queen
Combine week has not been the strongest introduction for Maryland’s Derik Queen. A 6-foot-9 center, Queen will need to make up for being undersized at his position by showing out with his physicality and athleticism. But he struggled in both departments during athletic testing on Tuesday, recording low scores in the lane-agility drill and his maximum vertical jump.
Those measurements shouldn’t be a deterrent for Queen, who could be selected within the top five picks of this year’s draft. The center said he took five to six meetings on Monday and felt positively about teams’ perspectives on his ability to translate to the NBA.
Who stood out on Day 1 of the NBA draft combine? And who should the Chicago Bulls keep an eye on?
“I think a lot of my game translates — scoring, rebounding passing, just me being a dominant player,” Queen said.
Queen said he did not have a meeting with the Bulls and did not specify whether he would be scheduled for an interview or workout with the team later this week. But as one of the top frontcourt prospects in the league, he’s still likely to land somewhere on the team’s board ahead of draft night.
Collin Murray-Boyles
One of the first player interviews with the Bulls this week was Collin Murray-Boyles — and the 6-6½ forward said the meeting gave a positive impression of the front office and its belief in his ability to fit in the league.
Murray-Boyles averaged 16.8 points and 2.4 assists last season, but he wanted to talk about the other end of the court when discussing his tangibles as a draft prospect. The forward said he models himself after Draymond Green, Toumani Camara and Jalen Williams when approaching his switchability, hand activity and physicality as a diverse defender.
“I believe that I am the best defensive prospect in this draft,” Murray-Boyles said. “Not knocking anybody else, there’s a lot of good defenders in this draft. But I just feel like my attention to detail on the defensive side is unmatched.”
Thomas Sorber
The Bulls also held a Wednesday morning meeting with Georgetown’s Thomas Sorber, a forward who measured at 6-9¾ with a 7-6 wingspan on Tuesday.
Although Sorber isn’t one of the flashiest frontcourt options in this draft class, the 19-year-old made a strong impression as a well-rounded big man with room to grow as a shooter in his debut NCAA season. And it’s clear that he has been a longer-term target for the Bulls.
“They told me they’ve been watching me since I came into Georgetown,” Sorber said. “They’ve been to a couple practices and they just like how I give energy out to other players and how I’m able to bring the same intensity every day.”
Sorber is a solid option for the Bulls and likely will be available at No. 12. After initial conversations between teams and his agent, Sorber said he anticipates being selected between the bottom rung of the lottery and the mid-20s in the first round.
