Bulls Will Pick 16th In NBA Draft

By Cody Westerlund--

(CBS) The Bulls will pick 16th in the NBA Draft in June after they lost a tiebreaker drawing with the Trail Blazers on Tuesday afternoon.

Chicago and Portland each made the playoffs with identical 41-41 records, necessitating their inclusion in the tiebreak drawing, which the NBA conducted using ping-pong balls.

It will mark the second straight season the Bulls draft in the mid-teens, though they were in the lottery last season after missing the playoffs. The Bulls took Denzel Valentine with the 14th pick in 2016.

The Bulls will also likely hold the 38th overall pick, which is currently the Kings' second-rounder. Sacramento still owes Chicago payment, via Cleveland, as part of the Luol Deng trade between the Bulls and Cavaliers in 2014. That Deng trade had given Chicago rights to Sacramento's first-round pick, but it has been top-10 protected and turns into a second-rounder if the first-rounder isn't conveyed this season. The Kings currently are in line for the eighth pick as the lottery for the NBA Draft awaits on May 16.

For the Bulls to receive that payment as a first-rounder, the Kings would have to fall to No. 11 -- which would require three of the six teams behind them in the lottery to all strike lottery gold and move into the top three. The odds of that happening are miniscule.

The Bulls don't hold their own second-round pick, No. 44 overall, having traded it to the Knicks as part of the Derrick Rose deal last June.

The NBA Draft will take place June 22.

On the court, the Bulls lead 1-0 in their best-of-seven first-round series against the Celtics. Game 2 is Tuesday night in Boston.

Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and covers the Bulls. He's also the co-host of the @LockedOnBulls podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes and Stitcher. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.