To say that the “Otto Porter Experience’’ hasn’t gone as expected is an understatement.
Then again, was the veteran small forward ever really going to live up to the $56 million that the Bulls were going to have to pay him the final two years of his contract when they acquired him from Washington at the deadline last season?
Not likely.
Mistakes of the old front office regime still front and center as part of the cleanup now facing executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas.
Porter will exercise the $28.4 million on his deal this offseason, pricing him out of being any sort of trade candidate. That’s all but guaranteed.
What isn’t guaranteed?
That he can fill the hole that still remains at the small forward spot ever since the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler back in 2017.
Butler wasn’t just a scoring presence and team leader at the three, but an elite wing defender. Something this rebuild is yet to come even close to reproducing.
It was never going to be Porter – who was simply a band-aid to put over the wound the Jabari Parker signing caused. And do the Bulls really think it’s going to someday be Chandler Hutchison?
Not with the former Boise State first-round pick found more frequently in the training room than on the court.
No, with very little roster room to wiggle out from until at least the 2021 offseason, the draft might be the only answer the organization has try and fix the problem.
That’s where Auburn small forward Isaac Okoro comes in.
At 6-foot-6, Okoro is one of the best wing defenders the draft has to offer. Like Butler when he was coming out of Marquette, Okoro can guard one through four and has the mindset to develop into a team’s stopper.
Would Okoro be there at No. 7 for the Bulls if the lottery balls can’t bounce the right way and move them up from their current position? Unlikely. Okoro is projected to go anywhere from three to six.
So the Bulls would need some help.
More than Porter or Hutchison have shown they can provide.
1. Isaac Okoro – Auburn – The outside shooting is a concern, but scouts feel that Okoro has the mentality to do whatever it takes to be a standout at the NBA level.
2. Deni Avdija – Maccabi Tel Aviv – At 6-9, the 19-year-old Avdija is the poster boy for a point forward. His play-making is off the charts for his size, and he has a team-first, unselfish mindset.
He has shown an ability to defend, but there are questions of how that will translate at the NBA level. Not the only questions, either. Avdija has struggled to be a consistent outside shooter, doing most of his best scoring damage in pick-and-roll and attacking the paint.
Karnisovas has a great feel for the international game, so that’s also why Avdija could be in play for the Bulls.
3. Aaron Nesmith – Vanderbilt – The likelihood that Nesmith will shoot 52.2 percent from three-point range at the NBA level like he did at Vandy last season, well, that isn’t happening.
That doesn’t change the fact that at 6-6 with a 6-10 wingspan, Nesmith is as lethal a shooter as this draft has, especially coming off of movement.
4. Saddiq Bey – Villanova – Like Nesmith, Bey was a marksman from outside three-point range, hitting 45 percent last season. He’s a bit of a late bloomer, playing the point guard spot in high school at 6-1 before sprouting up to 6-8.
What scouts like about Bey – some over Nesmith – is his ability to also defend opposing wings. He could very well be the second small forward off the board after the interview process.
