Ford Set to Tour Country

ESPN’s NBA draft guru Chad Ford has embarked on his annual trip around the country to watch the top players in this year’s draft class work out.  “We’ll see Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, Jordan Hill, Earl Clark, Jrue Holiday, DeJuan Blair, Austin Daye, Darren Collison, Nick Calathes and a host of others over the next two weeks,” Ford writes.  ”The trip will end at the Chicago pre-draft combine, where the 60 top prospects in the draft compete in a number of skill and physical challenges in front of every GM in the league.”

The name that sticks out the most for the Bulls is probably DeJuan Blair.  As noted previously on this blog, the Bulls could use a bruiser like Blair doing his thing in the post.  The team already has Tyrus Thomas, but Blair would provide a different style of play down low.  He’s a good scorer and a solid rebounder, in the mold of Utah’s Paul Millsap.  I’d say Millsap is probably the best-case scenario for Blair as far as development goes, with Michael Sweetney probably being the worst-case comparison.  Blair could very well be waiting for the Bulls when they select in the middle of the first round and would certainly be considered if he were.

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