{"id":713280,"date":"2026-04-18T15:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713280\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T15:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T15:46:12","slug":"bulls-news-warriors-losing-to-suns-locks-in-chicagos-1st-round-pick-from-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713280\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls news: Warriors losing to Suns locks in Chicago&#8217;s 1st-round pick from Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/chicago-bulls\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Bulls<\/a> just received a quiet but massive boost to their rebuild. It came courtesy of chaos in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament. With the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/golden-state-warriors\/2-warriors-players-most-to-blame-for-loss-to-suns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Golden State Warriors recently falling 111-96<\/a> to the Phoenix Suns in a win-or-go-home clash, the final piece of a long-standing trade puzzle snapped into place. That result officially locked in the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 first-round pick to Chicago. It lands at No. 15 overall in the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/nba-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The dominoes began earlier in the week when Portland, powered by Deni Avdija, secured the No. 7 seed by <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/chicago-bulls\/bulls-news-deni-avdija-blazers-heroics-chicago-1st-round-pick\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">beating Phoenix 114-110<\/a>. That pushed their pick outside lottery protection. Once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/boxscore\/_\/gameId\/401866759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Suns eliminated Golden State<\/a>, the playoff field and the draft order were effectively finalized.<\/p>\n<p>This 2026 pick for the Bulls traces back to a 2021 three-team deal that sent Lauri Markkanen to Cleveland and Larry Nance Jr to Portland. Chicago patiently waited years for the asset to finally convey. Beyond the immediate gain, the result also frees Portland from Stepien Rule restrictions. This restores their ability to trade future first-rounders.<\/p>\n<p>For Chicago, the timing couldn\u2019t be better. A 31-51 campaign in 2025-26 underscored a franchise in transition. They have fully embraced a youth movement after a flurry of deadline trades. With veterans like Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 and Coby White moved out, the focus has shifted to a new core featuring Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Jaden Ivey, and Anfernee Simons.<\/p>\n<p>Armed with picks No. 9 and No. 15, the Bulls now enter what many view as a talent-rich draft with real flexibility. The priorities are clear. They need rim protection and defensive versatility. Chicago needs a modern big who can stabilize a unit that surrendered 121.2 points per game during the regular season. After years of waiting, Chicago finally has the draft capital to accelerate its reset.<\/p>\n<p>The Chicago Bulls just received a quiet but massive boost to their rebuild.  It came courtesy of chaos in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament.  With the Golden State Warriors recently falling 111-96 to the Phoenix Suns in a win-or-go-home clash, the final piece of a long-standing trade puzzle snapped into place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls just received a quiet but massive boost to their rebuild. It came courtesy of chaos&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,6,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-713280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116426491954578268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713280","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=713280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}