8. Drafted Horace Grant
Horace Grant was not a big name entering the 1987 NBA Draft after playing college ball at Clemson. Per usual, Krause didn’t care what other scouts were saying. In Grant, he saw an elite interior defender and a great athlete with offensive potential. The 10th overall pick in the draft, Horace played his rookie season behind veteran power forward Charles Oakley. But Krause believed in the Clemson kid, and the Oakley trade in the summer of ’88 (we’ll get to that later) gave Grant his chance to shine.
Horace quickly became the team’s reliable third scoring option behind Jordan and his fellow ’87 draft product Scottie Pippen. His defense and rebounding skills rivaled the best big men in the league. Two of his four selections to the All-Defensive Team came as a member of the Bulls, including the 1992-93 season that completed the first threepeat. After Paxson’s three pointer in the ’93 Finals, Grant sealed the title by blocking the shot of Suns guard Kevin Johnson as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
Kudos to Krause for drafting Grant, who fit into his “OKP” (Our Kind of People) criteria despite being a fairly unknown prospect.
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