4) Biggest Chicago Bulls draft mistakes under Paxson: Trading Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris
A commonly mentioned mistake on draft night 2014 for the Bulls was the occurrence that saw GarPax pass on retaining big man Jusuf Nurkic and shooting guard/wing Gary Harris in favor of trading for former Creighton Blue Jay Doug McDermott. The accomplished college wing McDermott was traded to the Bulls ironically by Karnisovas and the Nuggets.
The Bulls originally selected the former Michigan State Spartans 6-foot-4 and 210 pound shooting guard Harris 19th overall in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft. And they had picked the 7-foot and 290 pound towering big man “The Bosnian Beast” with the 16th slot in the first round of the 2014 draft.
Nurkic and Harris were packaged together in a trade with the Nuggets to land McDermott and Anthony Randolph on draft night 2014. Both Nurkic and Harris wound up being more productive for the Nuggets than McDermott ever was for the Bulls. Nurkic is mainly breaking through the last two seasons, though, with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Meanwhile, McDermott only played in three seasons with the Bulls. During the course of his three year run with the Bulls, he averaged 8.2 points per game, 2.3 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks, in just over 160 regular season games played. He wasn’t all that effective with the Bulls, and is doing much better with his current team the Indiana Pacers.