ESPN 2026 Mock Draft has us picking 7th

[Ben Wilson25]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45585873/2026-nba-mock-draft-four-players-no-1-pick-options-peterson-dybantsa-boozer-ament

I was a little surprised that they have us picking that high. It would be great but I still think we’ll be pushing for the play-in and be picking somewhere closer to 12-16.

This is predicted to be an unusually strong draft with multiple potential franchise players at the top between Peterson, Dybantsa, Boozer and Ament so the tanking could be strong and early next year. On the other hand, the East has been severely weakened with injuries.

I know it massively depends on if we move Coby or Vuc but where do you think we pick next year? If we mainly focused on developing Buz and Essengue (ie lots of minutes and playing through mistakes) could we get closer to 5-10 or are we just going to see a healthy dose of Lonzo Ball, Zach Collins and Kevin Huerter trying to get us to 40 wins?

[ChiTownHero1992]

As it stands 7 seems about right...this team is going nowhere fast to be honest.

In the East alone Knicks, Cavs and Magic project to be Top 3.

After those 3, its pretty wide open but likely Pistons, Hawks, 76ers if healthy, a depleted Celtics, depleted Bucks, an overachieving Pacers and Heat teams all likely ahead of the Bulls.

Hornets, Bulls, Nets and Raptors are all likely fighting for 11th but will think they can get to 10th. I think the only team we are forsure better than is Wizards.

[MGB8]

Boston will tank. Washington will just stink. Nets will, too. Suns likely to stink. Pacers may not have it in them to be bad, even if Hali is out a long time. Does Philly bounce back, or stink again? My guess is the latter. 7 is probably on the low end of what Bulls will end up at, but the range is sort of 6-12.

Trades and injuries may affect things, too.

[Peelboy]

That's probably a best case scenario. You know AKME is pushing for their holy grail, the playin. You also know that the NBA and Karma aren't going to do them any favors, so if they fail at making the playin, they'll end up at 7 (probably winning or losing a coin flip with a team that ends up top 3).

[MGB8]

On the flip side, the following teams will almost certainly be better than the Bulls: Thunder, Pacers, Knicks, Cavs, Nuggets, Wolves, Spurs, Lakers, Warriors, Rockets, Magic, Mavs, Pistons, Clippers.

Then there are the next tier, where the Bulls exist but on the lower end, of the: Heat, Hawks, Hornets, Bucks (yup - they really need to trade Giannis), Pels, Kings, Blazers, Sixers, Jazz, Raptors. Maybe the Nets and Suns are no Tatum but still Brown plus White Celtics are here, too (but I see them resting and being extra cautious with players to rack up losses).

[ImSlower]

I reserve any real idea of what the East is going to look like until the rest of the off season, where surely we are going to see some more significant trades.

That said, with the East utterly gutted or injured, the Play In seems extremely likely. I don't gamble on sports but I wonder if there's a line on Losing to the Heat 4 Years In A Row.

[kodo]

They're assuming these teams will be a lot better:
- Philly
- San Antonio
- Dallas
- Phoenix

4 spots from 12 and that's about 8. And TBH, even Pelicans were a 50 win team when Zion plays so there's some chance of them being at least mid.

I will say I think the national media & vegas have undershot the Bulls every single season of AK's era. Sometimes just a game or two sometimes by a lot (like this year). We're used to it, everyone else isn't.

[sco]

On the flip side, the following teams will almost certainly be better than the Bulls: Thunder, Pacers, Knicks, Cavs, Nuggets, Wolves, Spurs, Lakers, Warriors, Rockets, Magic, Mavs, Pistons, Clippers.

Then there are the next tier, where the Bulls exist but on the lower end, of the: Heat, Hawks, Hornets, Bucks (yup - they really need to trade Giannis), Pels, Kings, Blazers, Sixers, Jazz, Raptors. Maybe the Nets and Suns are no Tatum but still Brown plus White Celtics are here, too (but I see them resting and being extra cautious with players to rack up losses).

Yeah. Health has a lot to do with outcomes in the NBA, especially with a good number of the top tier teams featuring players who are 35+. BTW, I think you need to move the pacers to that next tier down with Hali out.

One reason we didn't do worse last season was that we were largely uninjured (although one could claim that 2 "key" guys, Pat and Ayo, played all season in injury diminished capacities).

[nomorezorro]

there are really an unusually low number of obviously bad teams this year. how many teams can you really say it would be hugely surprising if they were better than the bulls? i don't know if my list would be longer than brooklyn and utah.

there are a couple of teams like washington who will almost certainly suck but seem to be pushing to win and have enough young talent that they could be feisty if development breaks right, but even those are fairly limited. might just be a handful of teams who are a clear tier below us in the landscape of the league heading into next season

[Red8911]

If the Bulls play the way they played the last 20 games or so and keep the core together I guarantee you guys they will not be picking 7th. They are simply too good to lose and be a lottery team.

Most of you guys forgot or didn’t pay attention to the team post the Zach Lavine trade.

[HomoSapien]

Ad of right now, why would we be projected to be worse? It feels like we are firmly in the play in range.

[Hangtime84]

A lot of teams who finish the worse than us should be better

[BullsSD]

Simply too early. I see 4 major factors that will heavily affect next year's outcome:

-Is Vuc on roster?
-Giddey/Coby chemistry-- was it real?
-Lonzo healthy?
-Matas growth (sophomore slump or explosion onto scene?)

[Muzbar]

These are the 15 bottom teams this last year via post lottery order:

1. Mavs
2. Spurs
3. 76ers
4. Hornets
5. Jazz
6. Wizards
7. Pelicans
8. Nets
9. Raptors
10. Suns
11. Blazers
12. Bulls
13. Kings (to Hawks)
14. Hawks (to Spurs)
15. Heat (to OKC)

The Mavs, 76ers (health pending) and probably the Spurs will likely be better than the Bulls.

The Blazers, Hawks, Kings, Suns and Heat (and maybe the Raptors) will all be probably on par with the Bulls record wise I think.

The Nets, Hornets and Jazz I think will be terrible as they're all young teams without many vets.

The Wizards I think will be better than people may think as they have some very solid veterans in Marcus Smart, Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum.

The Pelicans will go as far as Zions health will take them, they gave up an unprotected FRP next year so they'll likely be trying to win as much as possible.

Outside of those 15, potentially, the Celtics and Grizzlies may end up with a similar record as the Bulls, but they're both still pretty strong teams.

So it is quite possible that the Bulls, if they do nothing (very likely), that they could end up a bottom 7-10 team.

[burlydee]

They're assuming these teams will be a lot better:
- Philly
- San Antonio
- Dallas
- Phoenix

4 spots from 12 and that's about 8. And TBH, even Pelicans were a 50 win team when Zion plays so there's some chance of them being at least mid.

I will say I think the national media & vegas have undershot the Bulls every single season of AK's era. Sometimes just a game or two sometimes by a lot (like this year). We're used to it, everyone else isn't.

To this point, the Bulls over is one of the easiest every year bc they don't tank after the all star break and are generally deep enough to be competitive if the main guys are healthy. This is a 37-40 win team in the East.

[Rose2Boozer]

Let's start the bull**** NOW!!!

Chris Cenac Jr.

Watch on YouTube

[Lexluthor]

Ad of right now, why would we be projected to be worse? It feels like we are firmly in the play in range.

If healthy the sixers should be better than the bulls . Maybe the raptors

[CROBulls]

Ad of right now, why would we be projected to be worse? It feels like we are firmly in the play in range.

In theory they are around 7th worst team in league. That's their range last 5 year. But they gonna climb that projection somewhere in March with their fake wins, and go on fake winning trip. Gonna win somewhere around 5-7 extra games when bad teams start tanking and losing on purpose and gonna climb up to 9-11-13 range. We know it. We not stupid. We seen it.

[dougthonus]

I'd put us in the 6-10 range in the East. I think we'll be better than last year, and the East is worse. I'd be pretty shocked if we were the 7th worst team in the NBA, especially since there is no reason to remotely think we'd ever shift to a "tanking" strategy at end of season when we have traditionally turned it on at that point to beat up those teams and push for the play-in.

With a younger team, it even makes more sense to take that approach now when you can squint real hard and pretend you have a core that will be here instead of a vet laden team that you know is all on the downslide and already not making the playoffs. That approach is at least defensible now.

[Chi town]

Everyone will be tanking next year as it’s a much stronger draft class with stars.