Former Chicago Bulls draftees having success elsewhere in the NBA

3. Gary Harris, Shooting Guard

Here comes the first of two mistakes that the Bulls made on the exact same draft night. Both of the players the Bulls actually selected in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft wound up going to the same team once they were traded. And the players that the Bulls got in return in this trade on draft night 2014 didn’t do all that much, with Doug McDermott and Anthony Randolph joining the team.

We’ll start with the former Michigan State Spartans 6-foot-4 shooting guard Gary Harris, who was the 19th overall pick of the Bulls in the 2014 NBA Draft. Harris is a solid piece for the Denver Nuggets (ironically developed in a roster built by Karnisovas). He already has more than 18 win shares to go along with a regular season and playoff true shooting percentage above 55.0.

Harris is a good sharpshooter and a piece that a lot of successful playoff contenders need at the two guard spot off the bench.

2. Jusuf Nurkic, Power Forward/Center

And we’ve arrived at the biggest mistake that the Bulls made on draft night 2014. That was trading not just Harris to the Nuggets for a subpar return, but also dealing the seven footer and Bosnian big man Jusuf Nurkic. Neither McDermott nor Randolph brought near the amount of value to the table for the Bulls as Nurkic has for the Nuggets, let alone the addition of Harris to the discussion.

Nurkic is now a member of the Portland Trail Blazers and spent all of the 2019-20 regular season to date out with injury. But prior to that he was one of the more productive and efficient big men in the NBA.

In a breakthrough season with Portland last year, Nurkic posted a box plus/minus rating of 3.7, value over replacement player rating of 2.8, .189 win shares per 48 minutes, and a 57.0 true shooting percentage. Nurkic was also a member of the 2014-15 All-Rookie Team.