DENVER — The Denver Nuggets selected forward Doug McDermott from Creighton with the 11th overall pick in the NBA draft Thursday night.
“McBuckets,” as he’s called because of his shooting ability, was with the Nuggets about four minutes. He was with the team long enough to respond to the question about what he’ll be at the end of his career, “I’ll be an NBA champion.”
He was traded to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for the 16th and 19th picks in the first round. The Nuggets also received a future 2nd round draft pick from the Bulls in the deal.
The Nuggets got Jusuf Nurkic, a 19-year-old from Bosnia with the 16th pick.
And then fireworks. Denver got shooting guard Gary Harris of Michigan State with the 19th pick.
Harris scored 1,025 points to become only the 3rd Spartan to break the 1,000 point mark in just two seasons.
“We saw the opportunity to get a two-for-one deal. We feel good about today,” says Nuggets General Manager Tim Connelly.
Unlike other pro sports, trades on draft night in the NBA aren’t “official” until the league office has been contacted and details like making sure salary caps fall in line are checked out.
So officially, the McDermott for Nurkic and Harris deal between Denver and Chicago is a ‘proposed trade’ until the league finalizes it.
Denver took Nikola Jokic with the 41st pick. He’s power forward out of Serbia.
Earlier in the day, the Nuggets traded Evan Fournier to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Arron Afflalo, who will be coming back to Denver.