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.
Ricky Rubio
Otto porter Jr, was the third pick in a draft with Oladipo Cj Gianni’s.
That draft was the biggest crapshoot in recent memory though.
Oladipo went in front of him so you can’t really count him.
To be fair Oladipo went #2… but yeah it was a shit draft.
That may have been the worst top five of all time. Oladipo is the best one, and he really only had one good season.
Giannis is the only sure fire Hall of Famer in that entire draft. Rudy Gobert seems the next most likely.
Lebum
Was waiting for this. r/NBA never fails
Olowokandi
Ellison.
Does Rubio count?
I guess so, he’s had a decent career but never lived up to being a top five pick. If he had gone like 25-30 that would be much more reasonable for the kind of career he’s had.
You’re thinking of the draft as too much of a science. It’s a gamble.
No but Jonny Flynn sure does
We also would have accepted Randy Foye
I can’t think of any scenario in which Rubio can be considered a bust.
I mean, he had a horrific injury in a really promising rookie season. Could he have had a better career? Sure. But he’s been a team leader everywhere he’s gone.
no way, Rubio was a good starting point guard for like a decade, his teams have always been better with him on the court
LaRue Martin. Was picked right ahead of MVP Bob McAdoo as well, when everyone else in basketball assumed McAdoo was a sure thing number one pick
Man, the Timberwolves have no luck in the draft. Other than Kevin Garnett their high draft picks always flame out. Even though KAT and Edwards have looked good, it looks like they’re gonna struggle to get anywhere in the playoffs with them.
No luck? I think it’s mostly incompetence and not luck that’s the issue. Let’s not forget they drafted TWO point guards 5th and 6th overall in 2009 when Steph Curry went 7th.
Yup. Jonny Flynn should be in this thread forsure
He had a very promising rookie year, but never recovered from his hip injury. Pretty sad.
Kmart was pretty shit for a 1st overall pick but that draft was terrible.
Nah, only real basketball people know…
Yeah, I mean, say that the Nets have amazing clairvoyance and actually pick the best player from that draft, Michael Redd. He’d probably get the same assessment: “Definitely not the worst of his class, but not what you hope for out of a #1 pick.”
Aw c’mon he may be an idiot but as a player he’s good. A former all star and 2nd best player on a team that went to NBA finals twice, played 15 years. He was not a bust.
Interesting note: this is a guy who has microfracture surgery on both knees. Players career normally die after one of those surgeries and he had it twice. Dude would have been something incredible if not for those surgeries. Microfractute surgery is not done in NBA anymore because ppl realized its a debilitating procedure.
He played in the east, didn’t even win ROTY and only made all star once. That is considered really bad for a #1 pick
Okafor, Mudiay, Hezonja, Bender, Chriss, Maker, Shabazz Muhammad, Stauskas, Nonleh, Thomas Robinson
Mudiay and Hezonja are good answers. Both had quite a bit of hype.
I remember Stauskas doing some nice things! Thought he was about to walk into a ring at the celtics too
The Vesely pick set back our rebuild
I feel like Thabeet and Olowokandi get kind of forgotten about these days
#2 pick Stromile Swift fits on that list as well.
The entire 2000 draft gets a pass though. Kenyon Martin only made 1 All star team and averaged 12 ppg for his career but still probably goes #1 in a redraft.
I mean pointing out K Marts ppg as a measure of his playing is weird. Guy was a lock down defender, good rebounder, and great shot blocker for a PF in his era.
Great dunker though
Does he? I mean obviously he was never a star or anything but wasn’t he in the league for like 10 years as a decent role player?
He did somehow play for almost 10 years and ended up career wise at 8 pts and 4 rebounds a game but (that draft year notwithstanding) you’d hope for more from the number 2 pick and he had a lot of hype.
Thabeet immortalised by Eminem at least.
Thunder legend Hasheem Thabeet how could I ever forget
Jarrett Culver. 6th overall pick that was in the G league within 3 seasons
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:
- Cam Johnson
- PJ Washington
- Tyler Herro
Our consolation prize was Naz tho.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Is it any different than other players who never pan out? Always swing for ceiling in the lottery.
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.
Patrick Williams turned 22 two months ago. If he would have stayed in college, this would be his rookie season.
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 😬😂
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.
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.
I wanted the Lakers to draft him at 4 in 2017 before that pick got sent to New Orleans
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.
Heard on an interview he was present at the malice in the palace as a kid
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.
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!
Lmao I wanted both Bender and Jackson over Brown and Tatum thank god I’m not a GM
The Suns blowing the #4 overall pick felt lukewarm an annual tradition for a while
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
I’d always get so excited and lie to myself that they still had potential way after they proved themselves as crappy players.
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.
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.
That was an absolutely stacked draft now that I look at some of these names
Jahlil Okafor. Michael Beasley wasn’t a major bust per se but he just loved weed more than basketball.
Yeah, Okafor is a good call.
You almost wonder if he’d been born in 2003 how does his career pan out? Beasley was an absolute monster one on one. I forget the story, someone can remind me, but he could allegedly beat lebron or kd 1 v 1 at a point in time I forget which
KD said that when they were kids Beasley was always better than him. Also Beasley stole his pizza. https://youtu.be/3frtWaANTmE?si=wDDmDlj4gJjPymPH
I just looked it up and the rumor is he used to be able to torch lebron 1 on 1. I guess Tom Haberstroh was the original source
Imagine beating both Kevin Durant and lebron James one on one and never making an all star team. Basketballs a funny game
Honest to god true story. I used to hoop with a current NBA player. I would beat him at one-on one and three on three every week when we met up. Eventually he just got better as he got older.
Judging players when they’re young is difficult.
Well I think the Beasley beating Lebron story was when they both played for the heat
He’s one of the only examples there is of a prospect with generational levels of pre-draft statistical production coming into the league and completely flaming out for non-injury reasons. There’s definitely a non basketball related story there.
Okafor was just made for the wrong era. Dude was made for the 80s where post up games were more common, the half court was slower, and clunky post players were more common
Okafor would have struggled even in 1980s and 1990s because he was a poor defensive player.
He was, but it’s easier to play defense with less ground to cover and more ability to be physical with dudes. He probably wouldnt have been a + defender, but he might have had more of a chance at least.
I disagree. He’s not fit for any era because he didn’t seem he could mentally handle the pressure of being in the NBA at all. He lost his composure pretty early on when he shoved a fan in the street that one time. It was all downhill from there.
Okafor was talked about plenty at the time. Time has passed and he’s just kinda been forgotten. Not because he’s a “sleeper” but just because he never really did anything, his limitations in college were never fixed. Duke won that National Championship off the back of Tyus Jones, Grayson Allen and Justise Winslow. Okafor had no impact.
I’m forever convinced that he would’ve been a multi time all star if he was born 10 years earlier
I don’t hear enough about Thomas Robinson being drafted over Dame Lillard
I always misremember Dame being the 5th pick that year, and then I remember oh yeah Dame was the 6th pick. The Kings took Thomas Robinson.
Pretty sure Dame absolutely crushed the Kings workout too
Put some respect in Oden, that was a travesty
Mario Hezonja. Taken #5, leaving Booker, Myles Turner, Oubre, Rozier, Portis, Looney, and more on the board.
Sigh, I’ll throw this out before someone else does: Joshua Primo.
Woof you’re right. Hezonja was terrible. I wish someone had told Neil Olshey