Fifth Round Draft Justifications

Here's where we start to reach a little. Here's the full results again.

Will- Stacey King
If I was Will, I would justify this by just linking to the Stacey King soundboard.

Oh, you were expecting that link to go the soundboard, weren't you? Well, I'm not Will, so instead it goes to his career stats. 6.4 points! 3.3 rebounds! That kind of sucks for a big man! While Stacey is awesome as a color commentator, he never really lived up to his potential as the 6th pick of the draft, ahead of Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp.

Gomez- Robbie Gould
Gomez picked Robbie Gould about 10 rounds before you'd pick a kicker in a fantasy football draft. Next.

Ron- Lou Brock
Ron's draft was solid until this point, but Ron doesn't have Ethan's excuse of not understanding the criteria. Thus, Lou Brock is not a good pick. Lou Brock played 2 and a half seasons in Chicago, where he put up OPS+ numbers of 92 and 91 (100 is average), and stole a grand total of 50 bases. Here is a short list of Cubs outfielders off the top of my head who accomplished more than that in their first two seasons in Chicago:
Matt Murton (104, 99)
Kosuke Fukudome (89, 104)
Rondell White (115, 134)
Jeromy Burnitz (94, just one season)
Jacque Jones (108, 86)

Conall- Horace Grant
Horace was great, but the most iconic image of Grant is him celebrating beating the Bulls in the 95 playoffs. Then he talked trash and generally acted like an asshole after (I suppose he had a little right to, but still.) Then he and the Magic got swept in the finals by the Rockets, and the Bulls got revenge the next year.

BJ- Greg Maddux
Even keeping within the technical rules of the draft and discounting Maddux's time with the Braves doesn't affect my rationale for picking him here. Maddux's primary appeal to me growing up was how easy it was to connect with him as a somewhat unathletic, undersized, nerdy kid who loved sports. His legendary preparation and thoughtful approach to pitching are what made him historically successful, but he made the idea real to me that you actually could excel at the highest level by out-thinking the opponent. Also culturally ahead of his time making nerdiness cool in the 90s with the Chicks Dig the Long Ball commercials.

Sam- John Paxson
As a 5th round choice, John Paxson is kind of a steal. Not only was he an essential component of the first three championship for the Bulls in the 1990s - including draining the game-winning shot in Game 6 of the Finals against Phoenix - but he continues his contribution today as the very capable VP of basketball operations for the Bulls. While he may have bogusly fired Scott Skiles on Christmas Eve many years ago and was responsible for the debacle of VDN while he was the GM, he helped bring in TT into the fold and has consistently drafted and signed quality players who buy in to the team system. Bonus points for him being an assistant coach for the Bulls championship team in 1996.

Ethan- Carlos Lee
Again, Carlos Lee had some nice years on the South Side, I suppose, but he's now played almost as long for Houston as the White Sox, and he was gone by 2005 anyway. Meh.

Katz- Toni Kukoc
I don't have too many knocks on Toni, he always did what he was supposed to do, which was be an all-around offensive weapon. He sucked at defense, though, which is why I feel good about my next pick...

Tristan- Ron Harper
There was clearly a huge run on Bulls, so I felt the need to take one of my favorite Bulls, and one I have newfound respect for know that I understand basketball better than I did back in the 90s. Reading Phil Jackson's book The Last Season, he makes a great case for Ron Harper being more instrumental than I realized to the 2nd 3-peat, since he, along with Scottie, just understood defense better than most NBA players. Phil would take Ron out at the end of games and put in Steve Kerr, to open things up a little for MJ, so he's not in some of the most iconic moments in Bulls history, but they wouldn't have gotten there without him.