I’m a fairly new NBA fan so obviously I didn’t follow the league when these guys got drafted. But I’ve done reading up on it and Anthony Bennett, Greg Oden, and Darko Milicic are the three that probably come most readily to mind when I think about this question.
My question is who are some of the sneaky draft busts? The guys you consider huge busts that don’t really get talked about as much when this question comes up. I’d love to hear about some of those guys and learn some more about NBA history.
Jarrett Culver. 6th overall pick that was in the G league within 3 seasons
I wanted the Lakers to draft him at 4 in 2017 before that pick got sent to New Orleans
I believed in Culver.
I hate being wrong
He was on the older side and was in a specific system. But the dude should’ve been able to at least contribute. Super weird.
He had one good dunk on one of the Lopez brothers, and that mf mean-mugged and chased him down the court. It was all downhill after that. I think his life flashed before his eyes and he said this ain’t worth it.
What’s crazy to me is how bad he sucked, and yet in the same year the Wolves signed an undrafted chubby kid from LSU who now might contend for 6th man this season.
The number of athletic two way wings that never pan out is scary. All because Kawhi turned out the way he did, guys like Culver, Knox, and Reddish are drafted highly. Even ones that are still in the league aren’t even close to Kawhi level, like Patrick Williams, Zaire Williams, Josh Green.
As a Nuggets fan I laughed so hard when the Knicks drafted Kevin Knox. I remember watching him leading up to the draft thinking “this dude should absolutely NOT be a lottery pick”. To me he just looked to slow and he never actually made a real impact on games. He was just 6’9, that was it.
And then MPJ fell to us and I was so happy.
I don’t think it was all because of Kawhi. This was the archetype for the high upside high lotto pick for years before Kawhi was in the league.
I think Kawhi played a big role, but ur right
Culver isn’t athletic though. It was immediately clear when he came into the league that he was one of the slowest perimeter players in the NBA
Josh Green is nowhere near Kawhi but nowhere near a bust. He is a breakout candidate
So are Ziare and Pat
Josh Jackson, Justice Winslow, Stanley Johnson, Nasir Little are just a few
Justise would’ve worked out if he didn’t get injured every 10 games
I went to a heat game with pregame access and was courtisde for their warmups and justice winslow could not hit a 15 footer to save his life 😬😂
am i missing something ? i kno Cam Reddish ain’t a PREMIER player but is he not at least solid ? genuinely curious btw, haven’t really watched him ball
no, Cam isn’t a solid player. he’s on a 2 year/4m contract in LA which is a pay cut from his rookie deal. he’s 24 and the Blazers didn’t try to keep him around even though they’re in a full rebuild.
Right. It wasnt wrong for kawhi to be picked where he was. Hard to predict someone overhauling their offensive game to dramatically after getting into the league.
Is it any different than other players who never pan out? Always swing for ceiling in the lottery.
Josh green is starting to put up pretty solid numbers, and had a few standout games for Dallas last year. I don’t think you can call him a bust?
Never said he was a bust. He’s a great young two way wing. Just don’t think he ever gets becomes anything better than someone like a PJ tucker type player, which is good, but not great.
I’m an Aussie sixers fan, so I see both play. Josh Green is light years ahead of PJ. Green averaged 16/4/4 with Luka out, and can shoot non-corner 3s and at the rim. He won’t have a Jalen Brunson level glowup outside the Mavs, but don’t be surprised if he scores 18-20 and has 5-6 assists when he inevitably moves on.
I mean, Kawhi has been the best player on a championship team, almost nobody is actually on his level.
I think the prospect of it is that with those tools, it might start rocky but eventually you can mold him into being at least a decent starter.
It fails to consider both Kawhi work ethic and the Spurs development team.
I think teams try to think they have the Spurs development team or attempt to have that. Idk how you think you could recreate Kawhi’s work ethic when everything he does it looks like he’s done it 1000 times.
Patrick Williams turned 22 two months ago. If he would have stayed in college, this would be his rookie season.
As a Texas Tech fan it hurts seeing this as top comment but as a basketball fan I was fully expecting it. Dude looked fairly decent his rookie year, even had people saying he had a lot of potential during that season but after he caught the injury bug he regressed and never made it back. Sad to see.
The fact that we traded Dario Saric and pick 11 to move up to try to get Garland and landed on Culver. Gersson really f’d that chase.
Meanwhile, had we sat at 11:
Our consolation prize was Naz tho.