Where the Bulls Will Pick in the Second Round Following the Pelicans' Tiebreaker

The Chicago Bulls now know the placement of all four of their picks in the 2026 NBA Draft ... for now.

The NBA officially held its tiebreakers on Monday evening. A drawing is done for every situation in which two or more teams finish with the same record. This season, six different tiebreakers had to be conducted, which included two in the draft lottery.

Thanks to the Bulls losing their final game of the regular season to the Dallas Mavericks, they avoided a tiebreaker situation with the Milwaukee Bucks. Of course, this is something the team has become plenty familiar with in recent years, including ahead of the 2025-26 NBA Draft.

The Bulls and Mavericks ended that season with an identical record. Dallas would go on to win the "coin flip," thus securing the 11th spot in the lottery order. What happened next was absolutely brutal for the Bulls, as the Mavericks stunningly defied the odds and won the Cooper Flagg Sweepstakes.

Jun 25, 2025; Brooklyn, NY, USA; General view after the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Nonetheless, this year's set of tiebreakers wasn't completely void of meaning for the Bulls. While it may not have had any direct impact on their first-round draft capital, Chicago was watching to see exactly where their first second-round pick would land.

The organization acquired the worst of the Celtics, Pistons, Trail Blazers, and Pistons second-rounder in their trade deadline deal with the Boston Celtics. They sent Nikola Vucevic to the Eastern Conference contender in exchange for the pick and Anfernee Simons.

At first, it looked like a pretty big win for the Bulls due to the Pelicans' battling for the worst record in the NBA. However, as the season dragged on, New Orleans proceeded to move up the totem pole and end up in the middle of the lottery. They eventually ended with a 26-56 record, tying the Dallas Mavericks for the seventh spot in the order.

This meant that, due to NBA protocol, whichever team won the higher pick in the first round would end up with the lower pick in the second round. The Pelicans got lucky and secured the No. 7 slot, meaning that they will have the No. 38 pick in the second round instead of the higher No. 37. And, once again, the Bulls will go into June 24th as the owners of that pick.

When we get into the mid-to-late 30s, the benefit of sitting one spot higher obviously shrinks. Still, this area of the draft board is known to offer up some decent value, so it's not out of the question that the Mavs end up stealing someone the Bulls like on their board. Will the Bulls' new front office actually be that concerned? Probably not, but an ideal world would have seen the Pelicans lose the coin flip.

The Chicago Bulls' Four Draft Picks

Jun 25, 2025; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver speaks during the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

With the tiebreakers out of the way, the Chicago Bulls are set with the following four draft picks: No. 9, No. 15 (via Portland), No. 38 (via New Orleans), and No. 56 (via Denver). The latter two picks were acquired at this season's trade deadline, while the No. 15 selection was part of the three-team Lauri Markkanen trade in 2021. The lottery-protected pick finally conveyed due to Portland securing the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.

Keep in mind that there is still one more opportunity for this list to change. With the No. 9 selection being part of the lottery, the Bulls hold a 20.3 percent chance at moving into the Top 4 and a 4.5 percent shot at stealing the No. 1 overall pick. No matter what happens, however, the other three picks will remain the same.

For what it's worth, the Bulls' own second-round pick belongs to the Houston Rockets and sits just one spot lower at No. 39. This was originally dealt to the Washington Wizards as part of the Julian Phillips trade in 2023 and was moved to Houston as part of a deal in 2025.

The NBA Draft Lottery is set for May 10 at 2 p.m. in Chicago.

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