Chicago Bulls: Re-drafting past five first round selections
Pick Analysis. Center. player. 24. 16. Scouting Report. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jusuf Nurkic
This is the second part of the trade deal involving the Chicago Bulls and the Nuggets in the 2014 NBA Draft. Here, the Bulls sent the current Portland Trail Blazers breakout 7-foot center Jusuf Nurkic to the Nuggets in that same deal bringing McDermott to the Windy City.
Ultimately, we’ll keep Nurkic in Chicago and hopefully he would be paired alongside Jokic in the frontcourt to create one of the best situations down low in the Eastern Conference. The mid-range and deep shooting ability of Jokic would combine well with the two-way prowess of Nurkic who is averaging more than 15.0 points per game and 10 rebounds with the Blazers this season.
Technically, the Bulls wouldn’t be changing anything about who was selected in this spot. The Bulls would just be retaining the player that should’ve stayed in the Windy City in the first place. Taking McDermott over Nurkic and someone like Jokic proved to be a huge mistake. It also cost the Bulls in the long-term for the frontcourt.
The difference between a 20/20 hindsight move for the Bulls front office and keeping Nurkic and selecting Jokic over Harris at No. 19 is that the draft stocks and scouting reports were vastly separated at the time. Jokic would be a huge risk at the time at No. 16, but Nurkic is an obvious keep here at No. 19.