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.
When factoring busts you have to rank how high the pick was vs who was drafted after them as well. Like saying a number 6 pick is a bust may be true but it’s the 6th pick and if no all-stars were drafted after him then it’s really not that much of a bust.
Now guys like Josh Jackson, picked at #4, with a few all stars and really borderline all stars drafted after him is a big bust.
Jahlil Okafor is a pretty decent bust at #3 with decent guys like Porzingis, Turner, and Booker all drafted in the lottery after him. I feel like he’s sort of just brushed over because the Sixers burned so many picks.
Hate to say it because of injuries but Jabari Parker. #2 in the draft and later picks were Embiid, Gordon, Smart, Randle, and Lavine in the lottery.
Then there’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Definitely did not live up to the hype of a second pick and virtually never mentioned in these conversations.
There’s lots of busts out there that we don’t talk about. Man those were easy to find and I have only gone back like 10 years.