In Ayton’s defense, he had a killer playoffs for the Suns run to the finals. Played defense and looked motivated most of the time. Then he seemed to come out strong the next season but his effort clearly started dropping and eventually it all culminated in him withering in the playoffs that year.
He very briefly proved people wrong and the regressed immediately after.
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.
Oh my gosh you’re right! I forgot how injured Jokic was when Ayton held him to his lowest averages of the playoffs so far. You can minimize all you want. Ayton played great. He clearly lost that motivation again but he showed he could be a game changer on a contender, albeit very shortly.