The Chicago Bulls have to be cursing themselves. With a chance to win the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes, a Josh Giddey buzzer-beater over the Los Angeles Lakers affected Chicago’s odds in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery and may have ended those chances for him.
Now, approaching a rebuild after their splurge on DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Nikola Vučević did not work out, the Bulls need to make the right pick. Thankfully, even with their draft lottery drop, one analyst believes Chicago can walk out of the 2025 NBA Draft with the ideal player for them in a position of need.
Chicago Bulls Finally Find Their Forward?
Since they went all in in the summer of 2021, the Bulls have been looking for some stability at the forward slot. While Patrick Williams was supposed to be their man at the position, he hasn’t worked out in the way the team hoped.
As a result, the latest mock draft from PFSN believes the Bulls will finally look in a different direction. Holding the 12th overall pick, analyst Sterling Xie believes the best option for Chicago is drafting Collin Murray-Boyles out of South Carolina.
A two-way star at the collegiate level, Murray-Boyles offers upside on both sides of the ball. However, his immediate value comes in an ultra-refined offensive game that Xie couldn’t help but rave about.
“Collin Murray-Boyles is a little undersized for a frontcourt player at 6’8″. However, the South Carolina product is one of the more skilled offensive bigs in the draft, which gives him a reasonable chance at ending up in the lottery.”
Continuing, he added, “Murray-Boyles possesses an advanced offensive feel and tenacity to do the dirty work on both ends of the floor. As a sophomore this past season, Murray-Boyles averaged 16.8 points and 8.3 rebounds on 58.6% shooting for the Gamecocks.”
However, it isn’t just Murray-Boyles’ offense that makes him such an intriguing prospect. Last year, he also tallied 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks a night for South Carolina, becoming a true force on the less glamorous end as well.
There is one area of major concern for the Bulls, though.
“His largest flaw is the lack of a 3-point jumper. Murray-Boyles shot 26.5% from deep this season after attempting only five total 3s during his freshman season.”
Nevertheless, Xie believes Murray-Boyles might be a nice fit in Chicago, which was third in the NBA in 3-point attempts with above-average efficiency.
“The defensive impact gives him a high floor, though, and the Chicago Bulls could use a more diverse offense after leaning heavily on the backcourt of Coby White and Josh Giddey this season.”
With Vučević potentially on the move, the Bulls need more frontcourt depth in a hurry. And at pick 12, there might not be a better prospect who can also contribute immediately than Boyles.