As Jonathan Givony of ESPN.com noted on Twitter, there’s an interesting tidbit tucked within his report on the NBA’s new Global Camp in Italy. The event, which showcased most of the top international draft-eligible prospects, was attended by 29 or 30 NBA teams. The only NBA club not present, according to Givony, was the Bulls, due to their unwillingness to pay the $10K fee the league charged for subsidizing expenses.
The Bulls, who have been criticized in the past for penny pinching, were quick to respond to Givony’s report. As K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune relays, the club insists it didn’t attend the NBA Global Camp because it had already done extensive scouting in Europe this year.
“We made a decision not to attend the Treviso camp given our trust in our director of international scouting, Ivica Dukan, and his knowledge of the event and the prospects in attendance,” Bulls executive vice president John Paxson said. “We are also currently holding workouts for our two first-round draft picks and want all of our scouts present as we go about this very important process.”
While the Bulls may not have needed to take a closer look at those international prospects this week in Italy, the team should probably be willing to put up that $10K in order to obtain the medical information on the players who participated, Givony observes (via Twitter).
Here’s more from around the Central:
- While it briefly appeared that Terry Stotts‘ job might be in jeopardy after the Trail Blazers were swept by the Pelicans in April, the Pistons wanted to talk to Stotts about their coaching job and Portland denied them permission, reports Mitch Lawrence of The Sporting News (Twitter link). Lawrence adds that John Beilein had legit interest in the Detroit job, and consulted with NBA team executives before electing to remain with the Wolverines.
- The Pacers will host their second pre-draft workout on Friday, according to the team. Keita Bates-Diop (Ohio State), Gary Clark (Cincinnati), A.J. Davis (Central Florida), Donte DiVincenzo (Villanova), Alize Johnson (Missouri State), and Shake Milton (SMU) are scheduled to participate.
- We passed along several more items from out of the Central division on Wednesday, including details on Mike Budenholzer‘s new Bucks coaching staff, the Bulls‘ offseason plans, and more. Be sure to check those stories out here and here.
The Bulls skipping the European camp really is a non-story. The truth of the matter is the Bulls spent a lot of time during the season scouting all over Europe and so attending this ridiculous camp is a total waste of time. The $10k is not the issue, although it certainly makes it easy for critics to continue to take cheap shots at the front office.
This camp was slapped together by the NBA at the last minute and suddenly they want to hit every team up for $10k to pay for it. Well, Chicago did their homework during the season, while others did not. This camp might help to bail out some of the shirkers, but it most definitely isn’t going to be a make or break event. It’s not going to decide which teams will do well in the Draft.
That medical information the other 29 teams have access to from this event could be worth a lot more than 10k to a team.
Absolutely agree
Cheap cheap cheap and more cheap that’s what the Bulls are and will always be.
There’s only one Euro in this Draft worth knowing and the Bulls and every other NBA team already has all his info — Luka Donic. This trash showcase ain’t worth the time and effort.
Bosnia’s Musa is projected right around #22. Maybe he’s young enough not to have an injury history.
As far as I know this was like the draft combine but in europe, so if you say this was trash & useless, you are saying the same about the Chicago Combine, you see is not too easy for US players to surprise very much, everybody knows them well from High School onwards, but with foreign players they are a lot of stars in the league that went in the 2nd round for example Gasol, Ginobili & so on… Also Jokic which I think is gonna be a generational talent, one of the best centers ever to play in this league, he was #41, in the year Wiggins was #1, I mean to me it is a joke, Wiggins is a good player, Jokic is a game changing player, unstoppable. That is why teams need to spent more money in looking more at foreign players.
Given the fact that the Bulls scout better than just about any team, I’m actually inclined to believe them.