Chicago Bulls acquire Doug McDermott after Denver Nuggets select him 11th overall

Well, the Chicago Bulls and Denver Nuggets conspired to ruin what could have been the best marketing campaign in Denver, maybe even the NBA, as the Nuggets traded the rights of Doug “McNuggets” McDermott to the Bulls for the 16th and 19th pick. 

This is a good pick up for the Bulls. McDermott provides instant scroing for an offense that is usually anemic (and painful to watch) save for Derrick Rose. He’s a great shooter in both catch-and-shoot and spot-up situations. He won’t handle the ball nearly as much as he did at Creighton, but that’s not that big of an issue, since McDermott is better than one might think at moving without the ball. He should be very useful coming off screens. The Bulls could use him at the four or as a big (very big) three. 

In his post-draft press conference, McDermott said he’ll need to be a “sponge” defensively, which is a good idea, because a sponge is, at this moment, probably a better defender than McDermott. OK, that’s a bit unfair. McDermott gives effort on defense, but he’s limited given that he’ll be asked to defend fours and threes that are faster and stronger than anything he faced on a consistent basis in college. Then again, this could be a perfect situation for him. There are very few coaches better at cloaking their player’s defensive deficiencies than Tom Thibodeau. That doesn’t mean McDermott won’t have to try — he absolutely will, or he’ll never see the flor — just that Thibodeau should be able to hide him. 

Great job by the Bulls to get a scorer capable of creating his own offense, something they desperately needd. Please keep in mind: McDermott isn’t the next Adam Morrison, both because he’s a different player, and because he goes to a perfect situation.