Bulls are awarded the No. 4 pick in NBA draft lottery, landing their first top-5 selection since 2008

© Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS The Bulls used the No. 20 pick in 2013 to draft Tony Snell (from New Mexico). He played 3 seasons in Chicago, before a 2016 trade to the Bucks.

The steps the Chicago Bulls have taken the last few months toward remaking their organization — hiring new leadership and expanding the front office, firing the coach and launching a search for his replacement — are beginning to create optimism that their meandering rebuild could be trending upward.

© Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS The Bulls used the No. 22 pick in 2015 on Arkansas product Bobby Portis. He brought dougnuts to his introductory press conference.

Their collection of young, often-injured players is also set to receive another lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft, which is scheduled for Oct. 16. On Thursday, the Bulls were awarded the No. 4 pick in the league’s first virtual draft lottery.

© Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS The Bulls drafted Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine with the No. 14 pick in the 2016 draft. Valentine, who was the AP Player of the Year and Big Ten POY in 2016, played sporadically in his rookie season.

They entered the day with the best odds of picking eighth at 34.1% and a 32% chance at leaping into the top four but only a 7.5% chance at the No. 1 pick.

The Minnesota Timberwolves landed the No. 1 pick, followed by the Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Hornets.

Arturas Karnisovas, the team’s vice president of basketball operations, served as the Bulls’ representative for the lottery, an event held in Chicago the last two years. It was pushed to television and computer screens by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bulls finished with the seventh pick in back to back years and entered Thursday with the seventh-best odds to the get the No. 1 pick, a nod to just how stagnant the franchise has been recently.

© Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS University of Arizona’s Lauri Markkanen was selected with the 7th overall pick of the 2017 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves then traded to the Bulls with Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine for Jimmy Butler and the 16th pick in the draft, Justin Patton.

They have gone 71-158 the last three seasons, and despite entering 2019-20 with dreams of a playoff berth, weren’t even close enough to the top of the standings to receive an invitation to the NBA’s restart in Orlando, Fla.

Karnisovas was hired in April in part because of his track record of finding talented players throughout the draft. During his time as the Denver Nuggets general manager, they drafted Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Malik Beasley and traded for Jusuf Nurkic and Garry Harris (from the Bulls) — all while the Nuggets never selected higher than seventh. The Bulls are hopeful that draft success will carry over to Chicago.

Opinions surrounding this year’s draft vary, but it is generally considered to be one of the weaker classes in recent memory. Georgia guard Anthony Edwards, Memphis center James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball, who forewent college to play in Lithuania and Australia, are considered the top prospects in a wide-open field. It’s the first draft without a consensus No. 1 pick since, perhaps, 2013, when the Cleveland Cavaliers took Anthony Bennett first.

© Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune/TNS Marquis Teague, from Kentucky, was the No. 29 pick in the 2012 draft. He played for the Bulls from 2012-14 before bouncing around the NBA and other leagues.

Karnisovas, however, did not share such a pessimistic view about this year’s draft class back in June.

“I disagree with some of the opinions out there,” he said during a teleconference with reporters. “I think it’s going to be a pretty good draft, and we’re going to get a good player.”

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