Chicago Bulls: 5 best Jerry Krause draft picks ever

5. Metta World Peace, Forward

No one is ever going to be perfect in the NBA Draft. No matter how good the Bulls were at drafting between the two years that saw Jordan and Pippen land in the Windy City, that wasn’t going to be something that they could do year in and year out. Yet, what Krause could’ve done for the Bulls was buying into the talent that he drafted.

The perfect example of a player who Krause should’ve bought into more over the long haul is the 6-foot-6 and 260 pound small forward formerly known as “Ron Artest”, the ultra-polarizing Metta World Peace. With the 16th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, the Bulls picked up the former St. John’s forward and New York native Artest.

This was a pretty loaded draft class that also included the likes of one other former Bull on this list along with Shawn Marion, Manu Ginobili, Lamar Odom, Jason Terry, Andre Miller, Andrei Kirilenko, Baron Davis, Richard Hamilton, and Corey Maggette.

The Bulls only kept Metta around for around two and a half seasons until he was dished out to the divisional foe Indiana Pacers. In that trade deal, the Bulls sent out Brad Miller, Ron Mercer, and Kevin Ollie, along with Artest for a return that included Travis Best, Norm Richardson, Jalen Rose, and a future second round draft pick.

That wasn’t worth it for the Bulls since Metta would go on to nab one NBA Championship, one All-Star selection, one All-NBA Team selection, 1999-00 All-Rookie Team honors, four All-Defensive Team selections, and one Defensive Player of the Year award.