In most unsuspenseful fashion last night, the Bulls landed the ninth overall pick in this year's NBA Draft. So what's it mean?

For starters, the days of rooting against the Knicks are over – at least in regards to improving the Bulls' draft position. With the swapping of draft picks this year, the Eddy Curry trade officially comes to a close. As a Bulls fan, rooting against the Knicks will always be considered a fair and reasonable thing to do, but gone are the days that a Knicks loss has a daily direct effect on the Bulls' draft position. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

But on to the draft...

Oh, what could've been, Bulls fans! It sure would be nice to have last year's No. 2 pick this season, huh? It also would've been nice if the Bulls' odds for the No. 1 pick hadn't gone from sixth-best to ninth-best the last day of the regular season. Last night's Greg Oden Sweepstakes winners were the Portland Trailblazers, the team with – you guessed it – the sixth-best odds at landing the No. 1 pick. Ouch. But hey, it could be worse...check out Memphis or Boston, both of whom took the maximum three-spot slide to Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, after winning a combined 46 games this season – or three fewer than the Bulls.

Thankfully, though, this is a deep, deep draft. After Oden and Kevin Durant, there are still several high-profile, if not necessarily league-changing, prospects. The Florida Triumvirate of Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah are all solid lottery picks, as are UNC's Brandan Wright, Kansas' Julian Wright, Georgetown's Jeff Green are Oden's high school and college running mate, Mike Conley.

The top international prospect is 7-foot Yi Jianlian, who's been a dominant player for the Guangdong Tigers in the other CBA, the Chinese Basketball Association, and is expected to be drafted in the top 10, with Boston at No. 5 a likely destination. Yi, despite his height, likes to play facing the basket in order to exploit his surprisingly strong shooting and ball-handling skills and projects as more of a four in the NBA.

The list of lottery-bound 7-footers continues, though now, only by one. Georgetown's 7-2 Roy Hibbert announced today that he plans to go back to school for his senior year, leaving Washington's 7-foot Spencer Hawes as the lone lottery-quality center remaining after Oden. Hawes, despite just one year of college, appeared to be a better fit for the Bulls, anyway, because of his more refined offensive game. Still, if nothing else, Hibbert's withdrawal thins the center pool and makes getting Hawes at No. 9 a slightly dicier proposition, especially if he has strong pre-draft workouts.

The biggest knocks on Hawes, who's been compared to, among others, Vlade Divac, are his athleticism (only so-so) and his age (only 19). Given the fact that Ben Wallace will be useful for at most another couple seasons, the Bulls might not want to wait around for Hawes to develop. But with the post moves he demonstrated in his one season in the Pac-10, perhaps the wait won't be all that long. And no matter the development time, Hawes would represent an immediate upgrade over anything the Bulls currently have in the way of a post-up big man.

Hawes' lack of athleticism, meanwhile, is something that time likely will not improve and could mean Hawes has a lower ceiling than other potential lottery selections. Of course, given the dearth of quality centers in the NBA, the Bulls could do much worse than Vlade Divac, or even a slightly watered-down version of the former Laker and King center.

At the same time, with the Knicks trade finalized and the Bulls apparently set up for a good run of playoff seasons, this could very well be the last time Chicago has a lottery selection for quite some time. Remember, it's a rare thing for a playoff team to be drafting in the lottery; for the Bulls, this marks the second straight year with such a distinction.

Perhaps in keeping with the Tyrus Thomas pick – a pick that carried huge upside and considerable risk, and still does – the Bulls might be better suited taking a chance on a prospect with more, gulp, potential. It's always risky to draft with the p-word firmly in mind, but again, lottery selections figure to be few and far between for John Paxson.

If, for instance, the Bulls are as enamored of Yi as ESPN.com's Chad Ford has suggested, maybe that's the direction they should go in, even if it means trading up for a highly-skilled player who might need some extra time to adjust to the American game.

Dealing away the pick altogether remains a distinct possibility as well. If that's the case, the Bulls should demand some decent value in return because, once again, this is strong draft crop. But for the time being, nobody knows, not even John Paxson, which is why this time of year is so much fun. Let the guessing games begin.