By Paul M. Banks
In the NBA Draft, lying is the only truth. NBA GMs often tell the media they’ll be focusing on guards with their draft choices. Before they say they’re focusing on forwards. Or maybe centers. Others just go the “best player available” route. In this environment of doublespeak, it’s good to focus on need when attempting to predict where a team will go. And the Chicago Bulls need a scoring big man like a newbie author needs an Oprah’s Book Club recommendation. Unfortunately, there are very few legitimate 4s and 5s with offensive game in this draft after Blake Griffin.
Therefore, when the Bulls possibly pick a forward with their two first round picks (#16 and #26, they have no picks in the second round this year) it may be at the 3, a.k.a. small forward or swingman. One of those could be North Carolina’s Danny Green, who had a physical workout at the Bulls practice facility before the NBA Draft Combine. At combine media day he spoke about his experience at the Berto Center. “They were really cool guys that I knew from last year when I met, sat down and talked with them. I saw Joahkim Noah there, I did high school ball at AAU with him,” Green said.
Partially due to the ridiculous amount of unnecessary hype surrounding his teammate Tyler Hansbrough, perhaps no player in college basketball did more for his team and received less attention for it than Green. He isn’t going to blow you away with any particular part of his game, but he does a little bit of everything- truly earning the title “glue guy.”
Perhaps this statistic solves the Chicago draft riddle: about three-quarters of the players who have worked out for the Bulls were forwards. Including: UConn’s Jeff Adrien, Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt, LSU’s Chris Johnson, Georgia Tech’s Gani Lawal, USC’s Taj Gibson and Wisconsin’s Marcus Landry.