Chicago Bulls Best Draft Classes of the GarPax Era: 2004 NBA Draft
- Ben Gordon, 3rd Overall.
- Luol Deng, 7th Overall.
- Chris Duhon, 38th Overall.
Next up is the draft class that goes the furthest back. All the way back in 2004 the Bulls were aggressive and it wound up paying off in a major way.
By including a future first-round draft pick in trade talks they wound up back on the clock at pick number seven. That is after already picking third overall.
At three the team added the electric Ben Gordon out of Uconn. At seven they selected Luol Deng out of Duke. As much as people will naturally like Gordon and appreciate him for his play in the Windy City, myself included, making the trade to be able to select Deng at number seven was the game-changer in this draft.
He developed into one of the staples of the Tom Thibodeau led Bulls in a short time. His defense was elite and his offense was often underappreciated. Deng made two all-star games in his career and logged a lot of minutes in his time in the league.
Gordon was not the two-way player that Deng was but he could score with the best of them. In fact, in his rookie season, he was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. Quite impressive to make that type of impact that early in your playing career.
That was the lack of fear he played with. Between his big-time shot-making and Deng’s tenacious defense, the two of them caused the United Center to go wild for a number of years.
Finally, the Bulls did add one more playing this draft. That would be point guard Chris Duhon. Duhon was never a focal point or prioritized player but he proved to be a solid depth guard and made a nice career for himself.