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.
The #4 pick in 2017, Josh Jackson. Projected ahead of Tatum in a lot of mocks and big boards. Taken before Fox, Lauri, Donovan Mitchell, Bam, and many others.
Maybe I’m just close to it as a Suns fan, but I feel like it gets talked about a decent amount. There’s just a ton of bad suns picks in that Era. Alex Len, marquis Chriss, dragan bender. I feel like any of those get less talk than Josh. The Josh pick almost seems to get a pass just because he’s a shitty person.
Lmao I wanted both Bender and Jackson over Brown and Tatum thank god I’m not a GM
Celtics fans bring up Josh Jackson pretty regularly because Ainge basically matrix-dodged a whole cloud of draft busts to pick Tatum, and Josh famously did it himself by telling the Celtics to get bent and not working out with us! Which I guess I get, he could have more touches and starting minutes with another team, but (1.) Tatum started and (2.) lol, you’re Josh Jackson mate.
Josh cancelled the workout on Ainge and Brad Steven’s while they were mid flight to see him in Sacramento. Talk about Karma!
The Suns blowing the #4 overall pick felt lukewarm an annual tradition for a while
I’d always get so excited and lie to myself that they still had potential way after they proved themselves as crappy players.
yeah. it always followed up the annual tradition of not getting the #1 pick. until we did and we messed that up too.
Don’t miss the old front office at all
That was an absolutely stacked draft now that I look at some of these names
Fultz gets all the attention there because he was in front of Tatum
Fultz is a bust as a number one pick, but he’s still a pretty good player. If he never hurt his shoulder/back/brain and could still shoot, he’d be a complete player. He’s big and pretty athletic with some defensive versatility, he can get into the paint and create for others with the ball in his hands. He’s a reliable 3 point shot away from being an awesome 2 way player.
It couldn’t be helped, he has thoracic outlet syndrome. He’s decent now but can’t stay healthy. It’s not his fault but he is definitely a busy.
Not only was that a sneaky horrible bust of a pick, it basically changed the whole trajectory of the Suns. You can’t have two top 5 picks in consecutive years and go Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson, that’s immediate rebuild territory. The fact that they turned it around after two massive top 5 whiffs like that, and made the Finals not even 5 years later, is actually incredible.
When Kyrie Irving demanded out of Cleveland it was reported here in Ctown that the Cavs no1 target was Josh Jackson. PHX was considered the favorite to land Irving but Suns refused to include Jackson in any trade and the deal fell through.
Heard on an interview he was present at the malice in the palace as a kid