Doug McDermott announced his retirement on Friday after 12 NBA seasons and 726 regular-season appearances, concluding a career built on perimeter shooting.
Priority Sports announced the decision for the 34-year-old forward, who finishes his professional career with averages of 8.5 points per game and 41% shooting from 3-point range. Selected 11th overall in the 2014 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets before an immediate trade to the Chicago Bulls, McDermott carved out a role primarily as a reserve floor spacer.
“Dougie McBuckets” spent two and a half seasons with Chicago before embarking on a well-traveled career path that included stints with the Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, and Sacramento Kings. His final 71 games came across two seasons in Sacramento between 2024 and 2026.
After 12 NBA seasons, Doug McDermott is retiring. Congrats to Doug on an amazing career! pic.twitter.com/AHX69aOxoN
Before entering the NBA, McDermott established himself as a standout collegiate player at Creighton University under his father, head coach Greg McDermott. He earned consensus first-team All-American honors three times and led his program to four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2010 to 2014.
During his senior season, McDermott led the nation in scoring and claimed the national player of the year award. He finished his college career with 3,150 points, ranking fifth on the all-time NCAA Division I scoring list before subsequently dropping to seventh. Creighton honored his achievements by retiring his jersey in December 2023.
While high-volume college scorers frequently struggle to translate primary offensive roles to the professional level, McDermott sustained a productive career through off-ball movement and shooting reliability.
During the 2014-15 season with Chicago, he played 36 games and averaged 3.0 points in 8 minutes and 55 seconds per contest, shooting 40.2% from the field and 31.7% from deep. His role expanded in 2015-16 with the Bulls, where he appeared in 81 games, averaging 9.4 points in nearly 23 minutes while shooting 45.2% on 3-pointers.
His highest single-season scoring average came during the 2020-21 campaign with Indiana, where he posted 13.6 points per game across 66 appearances while playing 24 minutes and 32 seconds per night. Across his final two seasons in Sacramento, he logged 42 games in 2024-25 and 29 games in 2025-26.
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