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For their second-round NBA Draft pick Thursday night, the Chicago Bulls traded down from 45 to 55 with the Los Angeles Lakers for cash considerations, and then took Australian big man Lachlan Olbrich.
Olbrich stands 6 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds, and played the last two seasons in the NBL in Australia —helping his team win the league's championship last season. Olbrich also impressed at the NBA Draft Combine.
He is also expected to get a two-way deal with the Bulls.
This pick comes a day after the Bulls also looked outside the college ranks for their first-round pick, taking Frenchman Noa Essengue 12th overall. Essengue spent this past season playing in the top professional league in Germany.
He is an athletic big man who said himself he can do pretty much everything, but does need to improve his shooting.
Essengue is also only 18 years old, and it seems unlikely he'll be a key contributor anytime soon. That seems to be fine with general manager Marc Eversley who described the Bulls as a team in transition.
"I think we're just going to continue to focus on player development, and you know, we've established a style of play offensively. I think the next iteration of this is really identifying who we are defensively, and how we can improve. You know, for our young players — I'll use Matas [Buzelis] as an example — Matas, second half of the season, was terrific. I think everybody in the room would agree," said Eversley. "How does he now respond to be on the scouting report? What does he do in the summer to work on his game, knowing that?"
Matt Zahn
Matt Zahn joined CBS2 Chicago in October 2016 as a sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor, and what a time to come to Chicago. Matt arrived just as the Cubs won the World Series.