The worst NBA Draft picks for every team

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25. Chicago Bulls: Doug McDermott

For as poorly run as the Bulls have been at times since the Jordan years, they’ve actually done a better than decent job of drafting real talent.

Perhaps the best job of that was in 2014 when they nabbed perhaps the third and fourth best players in the first round after Joel Embiid and Aaron Gordon. As if getting Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris wasn’t enough, they selected them at the 16th and 19th spots, respectively. Few teams in recent memory have gotten more bang for their buck in the second half of the first round.

There’s only one problem: the Bulls then turned around and dealt both Harris and Nurkic to Denver for the man the Nuggets selected with the 11th pick in the same draft, Doug McDermott.

It’s not that either of the guys they gave up are All-Star level players (although both could still develop into someone with that ceiling). The trade was a disaster because the Bulls were damn good and maybe on the verge of becoming something even better.

The next season, Derrick Rose was mostly healthy, Pau Gasol made All-NBA Second Team and Jimmy Butler was named the league’s Most Improved Player, all of which led to Chicago pushing Cleveland to six games in the second round of the playoffs. McDermott gave them nothing, and when things went in the tank next season, it was the beginning of the end for Butler as a Bull.

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