3. Monte Morris, Point Guard
The former Iowa State Cyclones standout 6-foot-2 and 175 pound point guard Monte Morris was one of the great value picks of the 2017 NBA Draft. Karnisovas and the Nuggets snagged Morris with the 51st pick in the second round of the 2017 draft. And he was able to make a near immediate impact in a prominent role coming off the bench.
During the 2018-19 campaign, Morris played in all 82 regular season games for the Nuggets, starting in six of them. That type of contribution and longevity in just one regular season out of a sophomore former second round pick is hard to come by. He averaged 10.4 points per game, 3.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 steals, while shooting 49.3 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from beyond the arc last season.
Morris already leads all second round 2017 draft picks in terms of total win shares (nearly 10.0 in the regular season in his career), value over replacement player rating, and win shares per 48 minutes (among eligible players). He also has outpaced the Bulls seventh overall pick from the 2017 NBA Draft, power forward Lauri Markkanen, in total regular season win shares in his career thus far.
This was a great value find for Karnisovas, and hopefully he can replicate that to add some adequate backcourt depth with the Bulls second round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. GarPax actually did well to add depth to the frontcourt rotation with their second round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, when they selected former Arkansas Razorbacks center Daniel Gafford.