Bulls consistently lead the NBA in home attendance<\/a>. The Bulls fans who pack the United Center are ready for the return of a winning tradition.<\/p>\nSimply put: The NBA is better when the Bulls, the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are relevant.<\/p>\n
Flagg in Chicago would provide the Bulls a spark not seen since Derrick Rose\u2019s meteoric rise and subsequent fall due to injuries. With respect to Butler, who didn\u2019t emerge as a superstar until after he left Chicago, before Rose, the Bulls were last relevant in the 1990s during the Michael Jordan era.<\/p>\n
The Bulls\u2019 odds of getting the No. 1 pick and the ability to pick Flagg are 1.7%, which is the same percentage they had when they landed the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft when they selected Rose.<\/p>\n
The addition of Flagg would provide the Bulls with a young core of Matas Buzelis, along with guards Josh Giddey and Coby White.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Seventh-best fit: Utah Jazz<\/p>\n
After trading Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, the Jazz need a restart. Flagg would immediately be the Jazz\u2019s face of the franchise.<\/p>\n
Luring stars to Utah has not historically been easy, but Flagg could pair with a decent frontcourt of Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler.<\/p>\n
However, some people think the Jazz will trade Markkanen if they pick Flagg.<\/p>\n
Utah has missed the playoffs in three consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n
The Jazz have a lottery pick, the No. 21 pick and two second-round picks in this year\u2019s draft, so they\u2019ll get an influx of young talent.<\/p>\n
Utah, Washington and Charlotte each have the best odds \u2013 14% \u2013 of landing the No. 1 selection.<\/p>\n
Eighth-best fit: Washington Wizards<\/p>\n
The marketing campaign would write itself if the Wizards get the top pick: \u201cSalute the Flagg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flagg\u2019s selection would provide a jolt for a franchise that\u2019s been down on its luck since the John Wall-Bradley Beal era. The furthest the Wall-Beal teams got in the playoffs was the conference semifinals.<\/p>\n
Flagg could pair with guard Jordan Poole and big man Alex Sarr, the No. 2 in the 2024 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ninth-best fit: New Orleans Pelicans<\/p>\n
The Pelicans have a 12.5% chance of getting the top pick. If they land the No. 1 pick, they have a dilemma: What would Flagg\u2019s arrival mean for the future of Zion Williamson in New Orleans?<\/p>\n
Williamson, also a former Duke freshman phenom, has struggled to stay healthy. He\u2019s essentially a coin flip on whether he plays: He\u2019s played in 214 games out of 410 regular-season games in his career (52.2%).<\/p>\n
Williamson played in 70 games during the 2023-24 season, which is the most in his career.<\/p>\n
The Duke connection Flagg and Williamson share is a fun possibility. However, if playoff success didn\u2019t happen for Williamson or Davis in New Orleans, why would it for Flagg?<\/p>\n
10th-best fit: Charlotte Hornets<\/p>\n
The Hornets have some talent in All-Star guard LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and fellow former Duke player Mark Williams.<\/p>\n
However, the Hornets have been awful for the past decade. Charlotte has missed the playoffs in nine straight seasons, posting one winning record in that span in the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n
The Hornets haven\u2019t won 30 games in three seasons.<\/p>\n
Flagg would get to stay in the state of North Carolina if he played in Charlotte under head coach Charles Lee.<\/p>\n
11th-best fit: Portland Trail Blazers<\/p>\n
The Trail Blazers have a 3.7% chance of getting the No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n
Third-year guard Scoot Henderson is starting to develop. There is some talent in last year\u2019s first-round selection Donovan Clingan, guard Afernee Simons, forward Deni Avdija and center Deandre Ayton.<\/p>\n
The Blazers are in the lottery for the fourth consecutive year under newly extended head coach Chauncey Billups.<\/p>\n
12th-best fit: Brooklyn Nets<\/p>\n
For the first time since 2010, the Nets have a draft pick in the lottery. The Nets will have four first-rounders, including ones from Houston, Milwaukee and New York.<\/p>\n
While the Knicks will always own the New York market, Flagg\u2019s arrival could make the Nets an appealing franchise yet again for free agents or players seeking a trade.<\/p>\n
The Nets are expected to have lots of salary cap space. ESPN reports the Nets are the only NBA team to have at least $40 million in cap space.<\/p>\n
The Nets have a 9% chance of getting the first overall pick.<\/p>\n
13th-best fit: Sacramento Kings<\/p>\n
The Kings have a 0.8% chance of getting the top pick. It\u2019s a long shot.<\/p>\n
If the pick falls outside the top 12, it will go to the Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n
The \u201cSacramento Bulls\u201d have decent scorers in Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. Plus, Domantas Sabonis is a good passer out of the high post.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unlikely the Kings get the top pick given their odds. Plus, NBA fans would not get to watch Flagg as much, considering he would be playing for a smaller-market team on the West Coast.<\/p>\n
More On This<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mark Bergin and Louis Fernandez, WRAL reporters The NBA Draft Lottery is set for next week in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[30,6956,7,217,225,699,6957,6,12,249],"class_list":{"0":"post-19242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-2025-nba-draft","9":"tag-2025-nba-draft-lottery","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-college-basketball","12":"tag-cooper-flagg","13":"tag-duke-basketball","14":"tag-duke-sports","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-draft","17":"tag-nba-draft-lottery"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114473765756724246","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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