DENVER (AP) — The Denver Nuggets used the 16th pick they received from Chicago in a draft-day deal to select Bosnian center Jusuf Nurkic.
The Nuggets gave the draft rights to Doug McDermott, whom they selected at No. 11, to the Bulls for the right to select the 6-foot-11 Nurkic and the 19th pick.
Nurkic has been playing for Cedevita Zagreb in the Croatian League. He averaged 11.2 points and six rebounds. The 19-year-old didn’t start playing basketball until he was 14.
The Denver Nuggets used the 19th pick acquired from the Chicago Bulls in a draft-day deal to get Michigan State guard Gary Harris.
The 6-foot-4 Harris was high on the Nuggets’ list and rather surprisingly slipped to No. 19. He averaged 16.7 points and 2.7 assists last season for the Spartans.
Denver acquired shooting guard Arron Afflalo earlier in the day from Orlando for guard Evan Fournier and the No. 56 pick in the draft.
The Denver Nuggets have taken Serbian forward Nikola Jokic (Knee-coe-lah yo-kitch) with the 41st pick in the NBA draft on Thursday night.
It’s the second international player the Nuggets have selected.
The 6-foot-10 Jokic played for Mega Vizura Belgrade in Serbia in 2013-14, averaging 11.4 points and 6.4 rebounds.
He also helped the Serbians capture a silver medal at the 2013 under-19 world championships.
Denver has had a busy draft day, trading the draft rights to Doug McDermott — along with Anthony Randolph — to the Chicago Bulls for two first-rounds picks, which they used to select Nurkic and Michigan State guard Gary Harris at No. 19.