The Bulls have picked 20-year old power forward Kevin Seraphin with the 17th overall pick of the NBA Draft out of France. He will likely be traded to the Wizards on July 8th along with Kirk Hinrich. Seraphin played in 97 games (47 starts) in France and he averaged 7.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 1.0 blocked shot per game. The Bulls would have certainly picked a better player then Seraphin if they had kept the pick.

UPDATE: (7/8/2010) - Seraphin is officially a Washington Wizard.

Although a trade of this kind can’t be officially announced until July 8th it appears as though the Bulls have traded Kirk Hinrich and the #17 overall pick to the Washington Wizards for a future 2nd round pick. Hinrich played 7 years for the Bulls appearing in 514 games (433 starts) in which he averaged 34.0 minutes, 13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game. This trade looks very lopsided in the Wizards’ favor but it opens up enough cap space for the Bulls that they could sign to max contract players.

UPDATE: The Wizards have sent the rights to 25-year old power forward Vladimir Veremeenko to the Bulls to complete this trade. He was a 2006 draft pick of the Wizards who is currently playing in Russia.

The biggest need for the Chicago Bulls heading into tomorrow night’s NBA Draft is shooting guard. Kirk Hinrich is much better as a #3 guard than a starting shooting guard. Most experts have the Bulls selecting SG James Anderson of Oklahoma State. But the Bulls could possibly sell the pick with the idea that they would have more bucks to spend in free agency. I think that would be a bad move for the Bulls who should probably pick Anderson or the best player available. The Bulls only pick in the draft as of now is #17 overall.

A 6′8″ 250 lb. Small Forward with handles, a quick first step, range to the 3 point line, quick feet to defend small guards, size to bang with the 4’s and 5’s, and explosiveness to jump over people at the rim. Sounds like an all-star description right? Sounds like a player your familiar with right? If you read the first line in this paragraph and you didn’t read the headline you would think I was talking about LeBron James right? Well had James Johnson been exposed to the AAU circuit before his Junior year in high school, and been hooked up with a powerful shoe company perhaps he would be spoken about in the same breath as LBJ.

James Johnson, however grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a basketball nowhere, and then blew up on the AAU scene going into his senior year. He was ranked in the top 50 and commited to Wake Forest. Despite playing with shoot first point guard Jeff Teague he finished 2nd in the ACC freshman of the year voting. He was dominant at times at Wake despite not being featured enough. That may explain his drop to #16 in the NBA draft despite having a skill set only comparable to the elite small forwards in the NBA.

 His jump shot and handle needs refining but it is there. Look at James Johnson play and see who he reminds you of in the NBA. I think of Carmelo Anthony, LBJ, and a young Antoine Walker. While there were some good players in the ‘09 draft taken ahead of Johnson there were not 15 of them. Sure Blake Griffin will dominate. Guards like James Harden will be an automatic 20ppg scorer for years, Ricky Rubio will make highlight reels sick of him, and guys like Stephen Curry and Johnny Flynn will score in bunches, but with the exception of Griffin are any of them all-stars? All-stars are unique. They are matchup problems. They have size, strength and skill combinations no one else has, and James Johnson definitely fits that description, and the Bulls are very fortunate to have had him fall to #16.

 Playing with Derrick Rose won’t hurt either. The 6′4″ point guard prodigy needs athletes that can run with him, and he will set Johnson up for better shots than he ever has gotten before. Add that with his ability to get his own shot and the Bulls may have their dynamic duo for the next 12 years

The Bulls selected 24-year old power forward Taj Gibson with the #26 pick in the NBA Draft last night. Gibson played in 105 games in three years at USC and he averaged 12.4 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.4 blocked shots per game. Gibson is a really good athlete with a nice upside and he will compete for minutes early in his career. This was a solid pick by the Bulls.