Pistons Palace NBA mock draft post lottery

16. Chicago Bulls

Elfrid Payton, PG, Louisiana-Lafayette

Nov 15, 2013; Fayetteville, Ar, USA; Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin

How does a gritty team get better offensively? Maybe the answer is to give up on Derrick Rose being the man with the basketball at all times. It’s hard enough to keep him healthy.

If the Bulls experiment with putting Rose in a Paul Pierce/Dwyane Wade role, Payton is the perfect guard to put next to him.

Not only does he play stellar defense and use his length to deny the ball inside.

Our friends at The Lottery Mafia compare him to Hall of Famer Gary Payton:

"Indubitably, Payton has the game to conjure comparisons to the former Super Sonics legend. While Gary Payton earned the moniker, “The Glove” for his stifling on-ball defense, Elfrid appears well on his way to earning one of his own. Elf hangs his hat on defense and might be one of the best perimeter defenders in the draft, giving even scoring professor Doug McDermott trouble in a match-up with Creighton. He is adept at using his 6’8″ wingspan in tandem with his impressive lateral quickness to drown ballhandlers in a spicy gumbo. Payton is also well versed in fronting opponents and using his impressive 35″ vertical to deny/intercept passes. Basically, if you’re looking for a lock-down PG with the size to guard most 2′s then look no further than this mini-fro’d menace."

Offensively, he needs a lot of help. He is a great distributor and play maker but he may never have a solid jump shot, make free throws at a consistent rate, or finish at the glass.

Yet there are a lot of players that have been through Chicago with the same issue that have had tons of success. There is a lot of upside with Payton and if Tom Thibodeau stays in Chicago, he may be able to get the best out of him.