CHICAGO _ The Bulls won their tiebreaker with the Kings and also now own the 22nd pick from the Pelicans after the NBA conducted random drawings Friday to break ties for draft order.
Both the Kings and Bulls own 18.25 percent chances to move into the top-three picks and a 5.3 percent chance to win the No. 1 overall pick at the May 15 draft lottery in Chicago. If neither team moves up, and if none of the lottery teams slotted Nos. 8-14 do the same, the Bulls will pick sixth.
The lowest the Bulls could draft is ninth. There's a 67.15 percent chance they draft sixth or seventh. The Pelicans' pick, acquired in the Nikola Mirotic trade, could've been as high as No. 20 if that tiebreaker had broken most advantageously.
No matter what, it's an important draft come June 21.
"We're confident we will find two players we like," executive vice president John Paxson said at Thursday's season-ending news conference. "There's talent. It's on myself and my staff. We've done a lot of work. But now you obviously get into the deeper things with players once the predraft camp starts (in May) and the interviewing process."
Paxson said the Bulls need to "look at the wing position" but later added talent trumps all. Like many franchises, the Bulls historically have relied on using the "best player available" drafting philosophy. The most glaring example came in 2015 when the Bulls focused mostly on point guards in a deep draft at that position and then selected Bobby Portis at No. 22 because they were surprised and pleased the forward dropped.
"Not that positions are going by the wayside, but the lines are blurred. You no longer really have center-power forward. You need versatility," Paxson said. "Our game has changed that much. We can use versatile players, guys that have length and size and a shooting component."
