For a franchise with a struggling reputation before and ever since the Michael Jordan era, it should be expected that the Chicago Bulls have drafted their fair sure of busts over the years. That’s surprisingly not the case, as the franchise has consistently chosen talented players both in the high lottery and in the late first round. However, it hasn’t always translated to team success.
It’s for that reason I believe the few draft busts the team has selected over the years stick out in our minds far more than all the times they drafted decent role players and genuinely good starters.
Despite the fact that the Bulls tanked for draft picks for half a decade under the leadership of John Paxson and Gar Forman, their picks all fizzled out and left Chicago with nothing to show for it. This list just further compounds how tanking doesn’t always equate to long-term success, as all but one of the players in this list were lottery picks.
What would a starting lineup comprised of the biggest draft busts in Chicago Bulls’ history look like?
Center: Stacey King (1989, Pick #6)
As much as we have all come to love Stacey King‘s color commentary, it’s still difficult reminiscing on what could have been during the 1989 NBA Draft. Don’t get me wrong, Stacey was an acceptable rotational player and his eight seasons in the league prove as much, but Chicago had to have been hoping for so much more from him when they selected King sixth overall.
When the Bulls took King with their pick, they left a plethora of All-Star talent on the board including the likes of Shawn Kemp (drafted with the No. 17 pick), Mookie Blaylock (No. 12), Cliff Robinson (No. 36), and even Hall of Famer Tim Hardaway (No.14).
Even Simeon and University of Illinois product Nick Anderson went on to have a much more successful career. Anderson (or any of the aforementioned All-Stars) would have become a fan favorite in Chicago despite being drafted five spots lower than King.
This is the last time the Bulls would get a lottery pick for over a whole decade as Jordan rose to prominence, which is why it stands out as such a huge missed opportunity. Ironically, the Bulls still ended up making out like bandits in this draft, as they selected B.J. Armstrong later on in the first round with the 18th overall pick.
Dishonorable Mention: Eddy Curry (2001, Pick #4)
Power Forward: Marcus Fizer (2000, Pick #4)
Drafted fourth overall in 2000 after a brutal 17-65 season that ranks out as the second-worst in franchise history, Marcus Fizer was intended to be the consolation prize for a team lost in the absence of Michael Jordan.
Over the course of his career, Fizer averaged 9.6 points and 4.6 rebounds while posting a miserable 48.1% true shooting percentage despite his size. It seemed as though the Bulls were prepping Fizer to take on a starting role, but by his third season, he would remain permanently glued to the bench. After finishing a four-year rookie contract in Chicago, Fizer would play in just 57 games across the next two seasons before his playing days came to an end.
In fact, Fizer’s play was so disappointing that the Bulls somehow got even worse after their historically terrible season. The Bulls would post an embarrassing 15-67 record before continuing on to draft another two of the draft busts mentioned in this list in 2001 and 2002.
While Tyrus Thomas may get the (dis)honorable mention here due to the fact the Bulls lost out on LaMarcus Aldridge by trading for him, Fizer beats him out here in terms of sheer draft bust disappointment.
Dishonorable Mention: Tyrus Thomas (2006, Pick #4)
Small Forward: Denzel Valentine (2016, Pick #14)
When the Chicago Bulls selected the 2016 AP Player of the Year Denzel Valentine, they were likely aiming to pick up a high-IQ player that could shoot and help the team win immediately. Even if Valentine didn’t have a superstar ceiling, he should have still been a fine pick at No. 14 overall. Unfortunately, the Bulls would ultimately get none of these things, as Valentine proved to be one of the team’s most frustrating draft picks in recent memory.
As a senior at Michigan State, Valentine averaged 19.2 points, 7.8 assists, 7.5 rebounds, and shot a ridiculous 44.4% from deep even on a high volume of attempts. He had the size, shooting, and playmaking to feel like a sure thing coming out of college.
After playing terribly in the first round of the NCAA tournament and getting upset by a 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee team, Valentine’s career would only go downhill from there. He’s averaged just 7 points per game in the NBA while his 3-point shot came back down to earth at a career mark of 36%. On top of all this, injuries have hampered an already defensive liability like Valentine into becoming of the worst defenders in the entire NBA.
Despite his fall off, Valentine’s confidence never seemed to shake, as he continued to make boneheaded decisions left and right. Of course, the most notorious of which came at the end of a close game with the Miami Heat.
After that, the rest is history. Fortunately, Valentine can terrorize Bulls fans with his shot selection no longer.
Dishonorable Mention: Brad Sellers (1986, Pick #9)
Shooting Guard: Marquis Teague (2012, Pick #29)
It’s rare for a pick this late in the first round to ever be worth considering a draft bust, but Marquis Teague is the rare exception here for the Chicago Bulls. Marquis would play just three seasons in the league, averaging a pitiful 2.4 points and 1.5 assists in the NBA.
Marquis was so terrible, that the Bulls traded him away before his rookie contract was even halfway over for a guy named Tornike Shengelia, who would only play 17 total minutes with the Bulls (and never play in the NBA again, after).
Brother to NBA All-Star Jeff Teague, his pedigree certainly seemed to suggest that talent ran in the family. However, Marquis would never even come close to reaching the heights his brother did in the NBA, including Jeff’s 2021 championship run with the Milwaukee Bucks.
It’s understandably rare for late first-round picks to become even average rotational players with long careers in the NBA. It’s not Marquis’ fault for not being up to the task, but it most certainly is the Chicago Bulls’ fault for drafting him in the first place. In 2012, the Bulls were fresh off a 50-16 record that tied San Antonio for the NBA’s best and seemed to be genuine championship contenders until Derrick Rose’s tragic injury in the first round of the playoffs.
Beyond Rose, the Bulls had an experienced Rip Hamilton, an up-and-coming Jimmy Butler, and would go on to sign two fantastic rotational players in Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson. There simply was no need to go out and draft a guard while Rose recovered when the current core could have held the fort down.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau and his staff famously advocated for the Bulls to select Michigan State forward Draymond Green to round out the roster, but the front office decided to select Teague instead. It’s interesting to think about what the Bulls could have done had they selected Draymond instead, which is exactly why Teague has gone down as one of the biggest draft mistakes in franchise history.
Dishonorable Mention: Jimmy Collins (1970, Pick #11)
Point Guard: Jay Williams (2002, Pick #2)
Largely regarded as the biggest draft in Chicago Bulls history, there was no doubt that Jay Williams was ever going to miss this list. After an incredibly decorated college career at Duke where Williams won nearly every award imaginable, including Player of the Year in 2002 and a national championship in 2001, he seemed like a great bet with the second overall selection.
Unfortunately, he’d struggle mightily in his rookie campaign, posting just 9.5 points and 4.7 assists per game on an abysmal 39.9% shooting from the field. However, fighting for minutes with Jamal Crawford very likely disrupted his natural flow as a leader, as he did take over and dominate a handful of games that season.
He’d never get the chance to improve on that poor initial impression, however, as he’d suffer from a head-on motorcycle collision with a street light while speeding through Chicago. This effectively ended his playing career as Williams had to fight simply to recover the ability to use of his legs after fracturing his pelvis, tearing multiple ligaments in his knee, and severing a vital nerve in his leg.
Having a top-two pick on just five separate occasions in franchise history, Williams stands alone as the only player who didn’t have a successful career. Derrick Rose and Elton Brand obviously enjoyed massively successful careers as the Bulls’ only two top selections, but even Dave “not Magic Johnson” Greenwood and Scott May made solid careers for themselves after being drafted by Chicago in the late ’70s.
Obviously, it’s difficult to say just how his career may have panned out had the collision never happened. Still, a three-year guard in college coming in and looking that underdeveloped was never a good sign to begin with.
Fortunately, the Bulls would draft Kirk Hinrich with their first-round draft pick in 2003 and the point guard problem would finally be solved. Hinrich helped usher in a new era of Bulls basketball that ultimately culminated with Rose and Thibodeau transforming Chicago into a contender once again.
Dishonorable Mention: Dave Schellhase (1966, Pick #10)