By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Bayern Munich Sports Director Daniele Baiesi talked about how he “overlooked” Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic during his time with the Detroit Pistons as Chief of International Scouting.
“I overlooked Nikola Jokic. I overlooked Jusuf Nurkic,” Baiesi said for Bayern’s Open Court podcast. “With the information I had, it made me think that these aren’t the right guys for us for many reasons. Nobody is going to tell you or guarantee you ‘OK these guys would’ve worked in Detroit.’ Nobody can say that. They would be trading chips maybe, which is still better than nothing.”
In the 2014 NBA Draft, Nurkic was selected with the 16th overall pick by the Chicago Bulls and was then traded to the Denver Nuggets. Denver later acquired Jokic with the 42th overall pick to basically make one of the biggest “steals” possibly ever in draft history.
The Pistons, who had traded their first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets in 2012, went with Spencer Dinwiddie with the 38th overall pick.
“But these are some things that you learn on the fly” Baiesi added. “You can’t know how the draft works before you are actually in the war room the night of the draft. Because you are alone the whole year. Watching games, writting reports, do conference calls, this and that. But you are always by yourself. And nobody has to know that you are in the building scouting the game. And then what happens? By the time you smoke a cigarette, the draft is over.”