Bulls get lucky and I think they land Cameron Boozer at No. 4: 'It's crazy, man'

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As in the sound of Graham’s head hitting the table in a ballroom at Navy Pier when the Bulls jumped from No. 9 to No. 4 in Sunday’s NBA Draft Lottery. “I almost fainted,” he said. “I was like, ‘This is crazy, this is crazy,’ because it’s such a great draft.” Four days after getting introduced as the new executive vice-president of basketball operations in Chicago, the 39-year-old Graham laughed a lot during his 10-minute interview session with Chicago reporters. You would too if you were him. The Bulls cashed in on a 20.3-percent chance to get into the top four of a loaded draft. “It’s exciting, man,” he said. “I can’t believe it. I just got the job and I got the fourth pick. It’s crazy, man!” Crazy, indeed. Bulls optimism is trading at a 10-year high. Graham’s first words to reporters were: “We got lucky.” Not that he’s complaining. Did he bring a four-leaf clover or a lucky charm? “I brought prayers,” said Graham, a man of faith. “I brought prayers, man. Actually, it’s Sunday, I didn’t go to church today. I feel kind of bad. But yeah, man, look, (we had) the Lord’s blessing and we jumped.” I’m glad someone is, in this organization. The Bulls made it through more than a decade of wandering in the NBA desert. Have they found their way back? Will a teenage basketball product lead them? And who will it be? "I can't stop smiling." -Bryson Graham 😊 pic.twitter.com/IMiKOH6oVM — Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) May 10, 2026 The Artūras Karnišovas era, such as it was, also began with the No. 4 pick in 2020. He took Florida State freshman Patrick Williams and, well, that’s kind of how we got here, isn’t it? Karnišovas’ many errors in talent evaluation finally cost him his job after six seasons, but at least his fire sale that didn’t net the team a first-round pick did succeed in allowing the Bulls to bottom out after the trade deadline. That allowed them move up a few spots in the lottery order, and it made a real difference. This draft is widely believed to have a top four of AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson, maybe not in that order. So, essentially, the Bulls don’t have to make a tough decision. All they have to do is take whichever player is left, right? Even Karnišovas couldn’t screw that up. Graham said his front office is going to stick to the process of interviews, workouts and gathering intel, but he knows his job got a little easier too. “Obviously there are some names at the top of the draft that you do get excited about and you just want to have a chance,” he said. “I’m in the thought of it doesn’t matter where we pick, we’re gonna get the best player. But you know the odds are working in your favor today. It does help.” Here’s how I see it going: the Washington Wizards go with Dybantsa, the consensus top pick, the Utah Jazz lick their wound from missing out on the BYU star and take Kansas guard Peterson, the Memphis Grizzlies take UNC forward Wilson and the Bulls get lucky once again and land Boozer, the talented big man from Duke. As a very loud man used to say, “Holdat!” That loud man, of course, was former Bulls big man Carlos Boozer, who very much wants his son to land with his old team. For months, it’s felt like Wilson would fall to four, and if that happens, that’s great too. But wouldn’t that be a tough linguistic test for Chicago sports fans and media to have a Caleb Williams and a Caleb Wilson? I’m not sure we’re ready. If the younger Boozer “falls” to four, it’s because he’s not an athletic marvel like the guys drafted ahead of him. The Athletic’s John Hollinger wrote that teams passing on the 18-year-old Boozer are overthinking it. “The reason you take him No. 1 anyway is that Boozer was basically ‘college basketball Nikola Jokić’ last season,” Hollinger wrote. “He’s a huge, wide big man who nonetheless can handle on the perimeter and shoot 3s (39.1 percent from distance, 78.9 percent from the line). Duke ran inverted pick-and-rolls for him last season, where he was picking out 3-point shooters on the weak side and flicking one-handed crosscourt passes. As a rule, teenage centers do not do this, and when they do, they turn out to be pretty special.” No matter who the Bulls draft, the difficult part is coaching and developing whomever they get. They don’t have a head coach yet or a developmental staff. As we know, many of the NBA greats, past and present, weren’t lottery picks. Nurture can often be more important than nature in this league. You’re drafting teenagers and guessing on their future. That’s the risk, and the good teams reap the rewards. “You never know,” Graham said, “that’s why it’s a lottery and growth is not linear. You never know where these guys are going to be in two, three, four seasons. We can have the confidence that we think we’ve got the guy, but still, we never know and we’ve just got to do the right thing by them and develop them.” There’s no drafting for need. The Bulls only have a few players who could even be considered building blocks for a future playoff team. On one hand, there’s a lot of work to do. On the other, the future is now a lot brighter than it was Sunday morning. “Let’s not sit here and say because we have the fourth pick and all of a sudden this franchise is back, you know what I mean?” Graham said. “But this is just a good opportunity to add high-level talent to our group and build this, and like I keep saying, layer it appropriately. So it’s exciting, man.” It’s hard to argue with that. The Bulls might not be back just yet, but for the first time in a long time, saying that aloud won’t be immediately followed by laughter. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms