What should the Chicago Bulls do with their two draft picks?

It’s pretty obvious what the Chicago Bulls should do with their draft picks on Thursday night- trade them along with some of their misfit pieces and get themselves a scorer. They desperately need another scorer, preferably a shooter. However, we’re not going to speculate about trades and free agent signings right now.

We’ll save that for another Chicago Bulls article. For now, we’ll save the speculation for the Bulls draft picks. Here’s what we have the Bulls doing in our latest mock drafts, and more about the players we have slotted to Chicago.

Here’s our entire first round mock draft. The Chicago Bulls picks are below:

16. Chicago (from CHAR)- Shabazz Napier, PG, UConn, 6-1, Sr.
Since the Bulls dealt Marquis Teague and both Kirk Hinrich and D.J. Augustin are free agents, they could use some depth at the point guard position. Shabazz Napier is a proven winner and would be a great option behind Derrick Rose.

19. Chicago- Adreian Payne, PF, Michigan State, 6-10, Sr.
By adding a guard with their earlier selection, the Bulls either look for a wing scorer or frontcourt depth here (assuming they keep both of their picks which appears to be unlikely.) Adreian Payne would provide some insurance in the frontcourt in case the Bulls amnesty Carlos Boozer and Nikola Mirotic doesn’t come to the NBA next season.

Go here for more on Adreian Payne

And here’s our second round mock draft.

49. Chicago- Jordan Bachynski, C, Arizona State, 7-2, Sr.
His size alone makes him an intriguing second round prospect.

Go here for more on Bachynski

You’ll notice all three are seniors from big five power conferences. That is exactly how GarPax likes to draft: guys who stayed in school a long time and played for the big universities.

ESPN Analyst Jay Bilas joined the media on conference call yesterday to preview the NBA Draft, here’s what he said about Payne:

“Payne is one of those guys that’s kind of a stretch four. He can make an NBA three. He runs the floor very well. Put him in the post, and he can operate out of there. But he’s I don’t know that you see him necessarily as a starter. He can start certainly for some teams. I don’t know long term you say, okay, that’s a starter. I’ve got him ranked, I think, 20, in that range. But he’s had a really good college career, and just a terrific kid. So I really hope he does well.

“Super athletic, but, boy, he really changed his game throughout the course of his four years at Michigan State. I think he did a really good job there.”

We’ll see what the Chicago Bulls do Thursday night. I’ll be at the media event at their practice facility, and I’ll be tweeting, live-blogging, reporting etc. everything that goes down. Cheers!

Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on talk shows across the world. Banks has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, Washington Times, NBC and the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)

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