Chicago Bulls: Looking back at each fourth overall pick in franchise history

Eddy Curry, Chicago Bulls (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Eddy Curry, Chicago Bulls (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
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Marcus Fizer Mandatory Credit: Todd Warshaw /Allsport
Marcus Fizer Mandatory Credit: Todd Warshaw /Allsport

2. Bulls fourth overall draft picks: Marcus Fizer, Forward

Maybe the biggest miss that the Bulls ever had with a fourth overall pick in the NBA Draft came with the 6-foot-9 and 265 pound sizable forward Marcus Fizer. The gifted physical tools along with the versatile offensive skill set and tough defensive potential of Fizer is what likely drew former general manager Jerry Krause and the Bulls to Fizer in the first place.

But Fizer wound up playing in 289 career regular season games. He averaged 9.6 points per game, 4.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.3 blocks. Fizer shot 43.5 percent from the field, 19.1 percent from beyond the arc, 69.1 percent from the free-throw line.

Fizer played four seasons with the Bulls, and then one with the Milwaukee Bucks and another with the New Orleans Hornets (now the Pelicans).

1. Bulls fourth overall draft picks:  Eddy Curry, Center

This was the era where the Bulls were trying to put together a legit rebuild and having their last stand under Krause as the general manager. In the 2001 NBA Draft, the Bulls picked a product straight out of high school with the 7-foot and 295 pound big man Eddy Curry with the fourth overall pick in the first round.

Curry was a traditional big man that could body opposing defenders down low and get his way in the paint. “Baby Shaq” was supposed to have a ton of potential and be that anchor of the frontcourt rotation that the Bulls were seeking entering the 2000’s. But he didn’t stick around for all that long.

Curry spent just four seasons with the Bulls before he was traded to the New York Knicks. One of the picks that the Bulls got in return wound up turning into the former Trail Blazers and current San Antonio Spurs star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge. But the Bulls also traded Aldridge on draft night 2006.