The Chicago Bulls have a type, and the latest ESPN mock draft seems to believe they will go in that direction again this season.
Mine is strawberry blonde, the right amount of bubbly, and a little too obsessed with the hit 2010s series Bones (aka my wife). The Bulls’ type? Lanky, explosive in transition, and a little uncomfortable with the ball in their hands.
From Dalen Terry to Julian Phillips to Matas Buzelis to Noa Essengue, Chicago has repeatedly taken swings at the wing position. The latter two, in particular, drew plenty of comparisons after the 2025 NBA Draft. Buzelis slid down the board because of his questionable ball-handling, skinnier frame, and inconsistent three-point shooting. Essengue came with the exact same question marks—raw, master-of-none skill set and all.
To be clear, similarities alone aren’t a reason to avoid a player, especially for a franchise stuck in neutral. The modern NBA has also embraced multiple talented wings; just look at what Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have done in Boston. Still, developmental minutes are finite. The Bulls could quickly find themselves in a logjam if they keep targeting the same archetype.
So… you can probably guess who ESPN has the Bulls taking next.
Would Nate Ament Make Sense with the Bulls?
ESPN draft expert Jeremy Woo has the Chicago Bulls selecting Tennessee Volunteers forward Nate Ament with the No. 9 overall pick in his latest mock draft.
The former top-4 recruit is averaging 17.4 points and 6.4 rebounds through 29 games this season. Tennessee sits at 25-9 and is clinging to a spot in the top 25. This isn’t the first time Ament has been linked to Chicago—he was previously mocked to the Bulls at No. 13 by Bleacher Report earlier in the cycle.
Ament entered the year as a near-lock for the top 10, with some analysts even placing him just outside the top 3. His early-season struggles caused him to slide in most rankings, but he flipped the script once 2026 arrived. Over a 14-game stretch, Ament looked like the oversized scorer everyone expected, posting 20.2 points per game while knocking down 38.9% of his threes. That hot streak ended when he suffered a leg injury against Alabama. He has not played since.
On paper, pairing Ament with Matas Buzelis feels more complementary than Buzelis and Essengue. The Tennessee product is already viewed as a reliable floor spacer, which would give Buzelis room to operate. Ament also projects to bring more strength and physicality around the rim—unlike the similarly wiry Essengue. One telling stat: Ament is attacking at a 7.1 free-throw-attempts-per-game clip, including two games with double-digit makes. That’s rare production at the college level.
Yet the questions will sound familiar to Bulls fans. Can he handle the ball well enough to unlock his full shooting potential? Will he hold up defensively against stronger NBA bodies? Does he have real playmaking upside?
Buzelis has already started answering some of those same questions. The jury is still out on Essengue. Which brings us back to the original issue: Does it make sense to develop three young forwards of such a similar mold at the same time?
If the Bulls truly believe Ament is the best player available at No. 9, they should pull the trigger. But if the pick is simply another case of “he fits the type,” someone in the front office might need to step in and slap some sense into the decision-makers. There are plenty of fish in the sea.