There are a large swath of Chicago Bulls fans who want Chicago to take a big man no matter what with one of their two 1st round draft picks in the 2026 NBA Draft. It is never wise to take a position-specific need over the best player available--remember when the Portland Trail Blazers passed on Michael Jordan?--but with two top-15 picks, Chicago will have a chance to grab one of the top bigs in a thin class for that position should they want to do so. That is where former Houston Cougars big Chris Cenac Jr. comes into focus.

Cenac was the highest-rated recruit in Houston program history.

He is 100% a project at this point of his basketball career, but a project worth investing in for a Bulls squad desperately in need of more frontcourt talent. 

Let's take a look how Cenac would fit in Chicago.

Cenac was the top-rated center in high school class, but functionally ended up playing power forward under Kelvin Sampson at Houston.

The fact that he was open to playing a bit outside of his comfort zone and for the notoriously tough Sampson, says a lot about Cenac's coach-ability, which stands as one of his most important attributes. Cenac was the tallest starter in Houston's lineup, but played next to 6-foot-7 "JoJo" Tugler, who has 14 attempts from 3-point range over three years with the Cougars, doing his work exclusively in the paint.

Despite being the highest-rated recruit in Cougars history and a player capable of putting up big numbers if given the chance, Cenac was comfortable doing what was asked of him at Houston. He is one of the two prospects in my top-14 who have a usage rate below 20%. This isn't a huge concern for me as he played on a stacked Houston squad, and in Chicago he would have Josh Giddey--at least to start his career--feeding him the ball in his preferred spots on the floor. 

Considering he wasn't asked to do much at Houston, his 53.6% eFG leaves a bit to be desired. Cenac wasn't hyper-efficient in his limited opportunities on offense, and this was mostly due to the large share of his FGAs that came from jump shots. 

Cenac possesses a reported 7-foot-4 wingspan, and his long arms pop on tape.

It doesn't take much film digestion to see how Cenac is constantly a threat to score without the ball. He averaged 3.6 offensive rebounds and 3.9 3-point attempts per 40 minutes, and was a devastating finisher anytime he received the ball within five feet of the basket. Cenac surprisingly didn't get a ton of reps as a pick-and-roll man over his lone year at Houston, but it's easy to see how his long arms, fluidity and quick leaping ability make him a clear threat as a roll man with NBA floor spacing. 

The most intriguing part of Cenac's game is his aforementioned jumpshot. He came into the Houston Cougars program as a finesse big looking to refine his game, and that focus may have made him stray a bit from what made him special in the first place. 

Cenac shot 33.3% from 3-point range and 62.1% from the free throw line on a very limited number of attempts, casting serious doubts over his shooting translating to the next level. The key thing here was he did not shoot any fear taking open shots even when they weren't falling. It's very possible that the 37-game sample of Cenac at Houston was the worst shooting stretch of his career. If that ends up being the case, the NBA version of Cenac will be a true inside-out threat in the halfcourt. At the worst, he projects to be a traditional lob-threat, glass-cleaning, rotational big. 

The average basketball fan usually thinks of defense as steals and blocks. Being a defensive playmaker is certainly important, but playing great team defense and doing the little things in terms of boxing out and ending possessions the ol' fashioned way (defensive rebounds) is underappreciated. Cenac specializes in the latter, being one of the more impressive glass cleaners in his class. 

Cenac led Houston with an 18% rebound rate--and a whopping 26.1% defensive rebound rate--and the fact that he was able to average 7.9 RPG in under 25 minutes per game showcases his tenacity in the paint. 

The 12.7 rebounds per 40 minutes Cenac averaged as a freshman highlights his pathway to making a real impact on defense, as he is not a shot blocker. He averaged 0.8 blocks per 40 minutes despite possessing the aforementioned plus wingspan. 

Although Cenac didn't block many shots, it wasn't for a lack of effort. He covers a lot of ground quickly for a 6-foot-11, 240 lb. big man. He also showed a willingness to "dig" in pick-and-roll coverage, using his long arms to bother passing ballhandlers often. 

The tape shows Cenac's mobility on defense. It is fair to wonder how much NBA center he will be able to play with his lack of shot blocking, but we have seen plenty of centers succeed with similar skill sets in today's game. Overall, there is plenty of reason to have faith in Cenac's ability to grow as a defender, seeing as he played the 4th-most minutes (918) on KenPom's No. 4 team in the nation in Adjusted Defensive Efficiency.