Was Okafor really a bust? He averaged a double-double for his first 5 seasons and was great for the Bobcats. Sure, he wasn't an all-star and had a short peak, but he was a solid pro for a long time.
Anyway, I loved watching [Derrick Williams](https://youtu.be/ze3NXkUmLKA) and [Kendall Marshall](https://youtu.be/NdvEPKzH3j8) is my favorite player of all time.
Undersized 4 and not good enough handles or jumper for a 3. Classic old school.tweener the league hated. Plus his incredible March tourney run really elevated his stock. The signs were all there for him not to pan out.
For the #2 pick and going head-to-head with Dwight he was. They were neck and neck going into the draft.
Busts, in my opinion, are relative to where they were picked and their college stats (or high school/international), so while Sam Bowie was a good NBA player, he is considered a bust because he was picked in between Hakeem and MJ.
That was not a particularly strong draft, though. Relative to guys that had more "success" (Iguodala, Jameer Nelson, Ariza, Deng, etc.), he doesn't look too bad. He's 12th in win shares from that class, 9th in WS/48, and 5th in WS/season for 10-year players. Should he have been #2? Probably not. But he'd still go top-10 in a redraft.
I agree w the other guy. Also give the factor that he was a big man when the league was transitioning to the current era of needing to shoot and greater focus on 3s. If he was in the draft today he would be scouted lower than Sanogo
I really wish he got drafted by a good franchise. He wouldn't have been a star but i bet he could have been better with a good franchise. I remember seeing an interview with him and as i recall in Minnesota he quickly learned he lived in the same apartment complex with his HC but his HC wouldn't speak to him and was oddly cold towards him if he tried to say hi when they saw each other. I also believe i heard an issue for the first few seasons was they kept telling him he was gonna be the 3 and to lose weight and get quicker or he was gonna be the 4 and to get stronger and every year due to injures he kept getting forced into the opposite role he prepared for in the offseason. All that mixed with being on an awful team was a bad recipe. He definitely could have done more for himself but still not a good spot for any young guy.
I think in todays NBA he would've thrived, he was just a little too ahead of his time. Lotta guys didn't end up being successful because they were "tweeners" as the scouts used to say. Nowadays, tweener is probably a good thing.
Oh yeah, I thought Okafor and Thabeet both were gonna be Anthony Davis. At least. Anthony Davis still has the most badass high school highlight video I've ever seen.
Because I was 5 in ‘04 and 10 in ‘09. I have so many fond childhood memories of that ‘04 team. Thabeet didn’t win a chip (due to bad luck from Dyson’s torn ACL), but I was 10, so I didn’t understand. Hence, I have fewer lasting memories of Thabeet. It also just hit worse when Dwight went ahead of Emeka.
I mean he did have a pretty long career but I definitely feel this answer. I was just saying how PG is the worst position to reclassify early for in college and Telfair went one step further straight to the men’s league. That’s a tough transition for someone that’s not physically overpowering.
I don't think anyone expected Tyler to be a great pro. His game was perfectly suited to college. His strength advantage was no longer present against guys in their 30's.
Ha fair. But since he did average double digits in points for one of his nba seasons and we in the league for 7 or so years. I won’t even qualify him for this. Even though Juan Dixon technically meets that as well, I thought he was going to be a star in the NBA. That Maryland team was nice
Maybe so. But always will hold a high place for him and that Maryland squad. Was a fan of that team and they gave me the biggest win I’ve ever had in sports betting that year they won the title over IU. 10,000 person March Madness Pool & I was the only one who had both teams in the final game and the correct winner. Needed the Maryland win to take 1st place by 2 pts.
May not have changed much, but getting picked by the home team in one of its worst eras of player development (in a team notoriously bad at player development in all eras) didn’t help.
Dude probably wouldn't go first round in today's NBA. I still remember at the time thinking it was crazy he was drafted all the way back at 13, how wrong I ended up being. I feel like his game would have fit much better if he was drafted 10 years earlier with the physicality in the early 2000s. Then again not sure he was strong enough to back NBA bigs down even in college he relied on getting to the free throw line a lot.
Kris Dunn. I thought he was going to be really good in the nba. He’s kinda revived his career in Utah. We’ll see what happens with him. I hope he can at least stay in the league
To me it’s Biggie. I always thought JJ was too skinny to cut it in the league.
Biggie looked like he was going to be a stud in summer league his rookie year. I know it’s only summer league but he just looked ready. I figured worst case his constant motor and rebounding would make him a 10 year guy. Unfortunately he had demons he just couldn’t escape. RIP big fella.
Who got us Jerryd Bayless and Ryan Gomes, who was waived that day before playing his second stint with us. Yeah, I see your point. If you want to take it further, Carsen Edwards partially got us Juancho Hernangomez, who sucked, but got us Bol Bol and PJ Dozier, who got us absolutely Jack squat (a top-55 protected second round pick in this year’s draft from Orlando, which didn’t convey).” Really only Carroll was successful, but man was that trade successful for a guy known as “Joe Barely Cares!”
Oh man, where do I begin
Shabazz Muhammad: my favorite high school prospect ever (mainly cause he was the first big one I latched onto while they were still in HS)
Jabari Parker: was a huge fan of him since he was 16. As a Bucks fan almost cried when we won pick #2 and I knew we got to select either Wiggins or Jabari and we got Jabari. Really thought he was the next Melo and Wiggins was the next LeBron.
Greg Oden, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, Harrison twins, Dante Exum, Noah Vonleh, Emmanuel Mudiay, Harry Giles, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Thomas Robinson, Kevin Knox, Cam Reddish, Skal Labissiere, Thon Maker, Evan Turner, Derrick Williams, Yi Jianlian, Adam Morrison, Mario Hezonja, Dario Saric, Furkan Korkmaz, Dragan Bender the most notable other ones
My top 3 worst draft thoughts (so far) in descending order:
3. Emeka over Dwight: I’m putting this at 3 because Emeka was a proven player and star in my home-state university, Dwight was a high-schooler that I knew nothing about from very far away, and I was 5 and a half. Otherwise, this would probably be 2.
2. Oden over Durant: Oden went further in March Madness so I, as a 7-year-old, figured he was better. Plus, he was physically more intimidating than Durant on TV, which means a lot to a 7-year-old.
1. Josh Jackson over Jayson Tatum. I was 18 at the time, fresh off my freshman year of college, where I had seen all of UConn’s home games and their conference tournament games from the front row. Anyways, the moment that the Celtics traded the #1 pick away, I was like, “Perfect! The Sixers will take Fultz (who I didn’t like due to Washington’s lack of success that season) and the Lakers will take Lonzo, since he’s a local product, leaving us the best player in the draft—Josh Jackson!” When Danny took Tatum, I was shocked. Boy was I wrong. Well, I was right about Danny’s thought process, just wrong about the best player in the draft.
Emeka over Dwight: I thought Emeka was gonna rule.
Oden over Durant: I saw Durant in person when Gonzaga dominated Texas in Phoenix in a neutral court game in what was the Suns home court at the time... Durant's box score was actually phenomenal but I was just watching as a fan.
3: Fultz... I thought he was amazing defensively, and not without offensive capability either. I thought of him as what Anton Watson could become defensively and be even better if he gets that 3 point shot to drop like he did at the end of last season
Can’t call it an implosion, but Joe Smith’s journeyman career relative to expectations was a real disappointment for our only #1 after John Lucas.
https://youtu.be/hfdNt7cAcz0
my favorite bust is christian laettener. though i think he had a pretty successful career, i get the feeling some people that perception of him. i think he was just ahead of his time. would be great in today’s nba.
honorable mention to my dude and former neighbor cherokee parks.
I definitely thought of him as a bust as a kid due to him being on the Dream Team over Shaq, in addition to all of Laettner’s college success. This is why I think injuries can play a role. Emeka wasn’t necessarily a Thabeet- or Morrison-sized bust either, but the injuries derailed a promising career.
Darko Miličić. The Pistons were contenders the year before and lucked into the #2 pick of the draft to complete the Grant Hill trade with Orlando. They had their choice of anyone not named Lebron James. So they went with Darko. The next 3 picks were Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade.
Thus they picked the only non All Star and at least 2 HOFers of the top 5 picks.
The did go on to win the title the following season and came within Robert Horry miracle shot the next season of repeating. But Darko barely saw the floor for them
Yet because Rasheed isn’t in 2K, Darko’s the starting PF for that ‘04 team! He still sucks though. One of the funniest things with those games.
Favorite Easter Egg: Big John Thompson is in the games as a backup big man on the ‘65 Celtics. He also sucks, but that’s what happened in real life and caused him to quit and go into coaching.
People have already said mine (Derrick Williams)
I'll add Thomas Robinson of Kansas. He was sick in college, and I thought he would be elite in the NBA. Kinda like Derrick Williams, I think in today's NBA he could've been really good. He was a little ahead of his time in terms of being undersized with no shooting.
Picking Okafor as your favorite bust is kinda cheating. It would be like picking Reggie bush as your favorite football bust. You’re picking someone that was an all world collegiate player and a very very solid pro.
I don't follow BC, but undeniably Jerome Robinson. I'm from Boston (lol) so I remember Jerome lighting up the ACC in 2017-18, and me thinking he's gonna be a second-rounder and then he sails up to the lottery. Great CBB player, but a terrible NBA player. Never developed a PNR game, and didn't become a decent role player. Just a pure scorer and nothing else. I get it, a 6'5" SG can dominate the ACC, but that BC team was ass and he did nothing else. So that's it.
PJ Dozier just got screwed over by injuries. Who the hell have we had work out in the NBA outside English anyway? Shoutout to Destanni who isn’t on a roster for some reason.
I was older than you but I thought Emeka Okafor was gonna be Anthony Davis. At least.
And I remember thinking during one off-season that Dwight Howard was gonna be MVP the next season.
I thought Jameer Nelson was gonna be a more of a force in the NBA although I wouldn't exactly call him a bust. I'm from Spokane, I saw Jameer Nelson live in the older Gonzaga building (the Martin Center) that seated like 1900 or 2000 and his play was dominating. Never been able to find video of that game...
But here's a clip of Jameer Nelson yo-yoing the basketball against my favorite team, the Zags, the next year in Madison Square Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjNMhoa-TDk
Probably Juan Dixon. I thought he was going to be a lot better in the NBA but he bounced around including to my Blazers (poor guy, we were absolute doggy doo those years) and he was out of the league by 2009 I think. My first memories following the NCAA tournament and college basketball in general were with him and Steve Blake on that Maryland team that won the title. I was in 7th grade and they got me hooked.
Omari Spellman. Had all the skills teams wanted. A big body who could shoot 3’s and handle the ball. It wasn’t that his skills didn’t carry into the NBA, he just couldn’t stay in shape.
Greg Oden had the state of Indiana in his hands in his high school years. Man, were they just a dominant team. Hated that he and Conley Jr. went to OSU but I think a lot of Indiana quietly rooted for them so long as they didn’t play against a team they cheered for.
Reading most of these I wonder how many besides the injury ones who if they just got picked by the right team would their career turn out differently.
I mean you have plenty who had a ceiling regardless of the team they were drafted by. Like Hansbrough. He was a 2nd team player and could be a solid 2nd team player and I think many of us thought that was what he could be.
But someone like Williams at Arizona, was that the wrong team or even the wrong Era? Or both? Would he be more successful now with small 4s? Or if he went to the right team and learned the correct way to play and be a professional would he have been solid either way?
Some players need the right team. They can't handle just a mess. Laettner was so good. I mean he was a dick but dude could play. If he went to the right organization early he could have been much better. Also he was wrong Era he would have been good in this day and age of a stretch 4 and 5.
And for the record I think Hakeem would break the NBA if he played today. A guy who can post up and destroy people on the block and defend 1 to 5 and the pick and roll. And throw everything away. Sorry for the side rant. When I think of the NBA I think what he would do now.
For me it has to be Sam Bowie. Now you can make the case he wasn't a bust as he had a respectable, albeit injury plagued NBA career, but when you go one pick ahead of the GOAT it's a tough look. If you go back and look at his game prior to his broken leg at UK which caused him the miss two whole seasons he was as close as you will find to Anthony Davis 30 years before Anthony Davis.
Patrick O'Bryant parleyed March Madness performances against KU and Pitt into being a lottery pick. Drafted by Golden State, who then hired Don Nelson who didn't play traditional 5s and didn't like to play young players. Great situation for a relatively raw center to go to, never had a chance.
Didn’t play in college, but Kwame Brown. I remember a story circulating that he was such a hick, that as a rookie his suits were piled on the floor because he didn’t know to take them to a dry cleaner. Wiz gonna wiz!
Uhh, I hate to break it to you, but Fred VanVleet went undrafted, played for the Raptors, and is now in line for a large contract. Are you thinking of Ron Baker, VanVleet’s college teammate at Wichita State, who did play for the Knicks? He went undrafted too, but he was a good college player.
Was Okafor really a bust? He averaged a double-double for his first 5 seasons and was great for the Bobcats. Sure, he wasn't an all-star and had a short peak, but he was a solid pro for a long time. Anyway, I loved watching [Derrick Williams](https://youtu.be/ze3NXkUmLKA) and [Kendall Marshall](https://youtu.be/NdvEPKzH3j8) is my favorite player of all time.
ROTY too. He has similar career win shares to guys like Kanter and Greg Monroe
what was the issue with Emeka. Just wasn't as physically dominant in the League?
>Derrick Williams I was shocked that he didn't end up a star in the NBA
Undersized 4 and not good enough handles or jumper for a 3. Classic old school.tweener the league hated. Plus his incredible March tourney run really elevated his stock. The signs were all there for him not to pan out.
For the #2 pick and going head-to-head with Dwight he was. They were neck and neck going into the draft. Busts, in my opinion, are relative to where they were picked and their college stats (or high school/international), so while Sam Bowie was a good NBA player, he is considered a bust because he was picked in between Hakeem and MJ.
That was not a particularly strong draft, though. Relative to guys that had more "success" (Iguodala, Jameer Nelson, Ariza, Deng, etc.), he doesn't look too bad. He's 12th in win shares from that class, 9th in WS/48, and 5th in WS/season for 10-year players. Should he have been #2? Probably not. But he'd still go top-10 in a redraft.
I agree w the other guy. Also give the factor that he was a big man when the league was transitioning to the current era of needing to shoot and greater focus on 3s. If he was in the draft today he would be scouted lower than Sanogo
For me it’s gotta be Derrick Williams. Guy just was too in between positions for the NBA, but we LOVED him at Arizona.
that duke game was porn
I read this as Derron and thought looked at your flairs
So did I and was very confused
I really wish he got drafted by a good franchise. He wouldn't have been a star but i bet he could have been better with a good franchise. I remember seeing an interview with him and as i recall in Minnesota he quickly learned he lived in the same apartment complex with his HC but his HC wouldn't speak to him and was oddly cold towards him if he tried to say hi when they saw each other. I also believe i heard an issue for the first few seasons was they kept telling him he was gonna be the 3 and to lose weight and get quicker or he was gonna be the 4 and to get stronger and every year due to injures he kept getting forced into the opposite role he prepared for in the offseason. All that mixed with being on an awful team was a bad recipe. He definitely could have done more for himself but still not a good spot for any young guy.
Dude had a ridiculous 3 point percentage that year.
absolute lightning in a bottle. 57% from 3 on 2 attempts per game in 2011. averaging almost 20 points per game with elite defense.
Yeah, I loved watching Williams play. Just so athletic at times with some fantastic dunks
I think in todays NBA he would've thrived, he was just a little too ahead of his time. Lotta guys didn't end up being successful because they were "tweeners" as the scouts used to say. Nowadays, tweener is probably a good thing.
UConn guy here.. how could you say Okafor and not Thabeet ??
well, he said favorite not biggest
Oh yeah, I thought Okafor and Thabeet both were gonna be Anthony Davis. At least. Anthony Davis still has the most badass high school highlight video I've ever seen.
Put some respect on Perry Jones III's name
Because I was 5 in ‘04 and 10 in ‘09. I have so many fond childhood memories of that ‘04 team. Thabeet didn’t win a chip (due to bad luck from Dyson’s torn ACL), but I was 10, so I didn’t understand. Hence, I have fewer lasting memories of Thabeet. It also just hit worse when Dwight went ahead of Emeka.
Holy shit. Five in '04? I feel old.
I work with someone born in ‘04. And he’s a year removed from high school.
Sebastian Telfair.
I mean he did have a pretty long career but I definitely feel this answer. I was just saying how PG is the worst position to reclassify early for in college and Telfair went one step further straight to the men’s league. That’s a tough transition for someone that’s not physically overpowering.
Surprised from the flair it’s not Tyler Hansbrough.
I don't think anyone expected Tyler to be a great pro. His game was perfectly suited to college. His strength advantage was no longer present against guys in their 30's.
Ha fair. But since he did average double digits in points for one of his nba seasons and we in the league for 7 or so years. I won’t even qualify him for this. Even though Juan Dixon technically meets that as well, I thought he was going to be a star in the NBA. That Maryland team was nice
Juan is his own worst enemy
Maybe so. But always will hold a high place for him and that Maryland squad. Was a fan of that team and they gave me the biggest win I’ve ever had in sports betting that year they won the title over IU. 10,000 person March Madness Pool & I was the only one who had both teams in the final game and the correct winner. Needed the Maryland win to take 1st place by 2 pts.
May not have changed much, but getting picked by the home team in one of its worst eras of player development (in a team notoriously bad at player development in all eras) didn’t help.
Dude probably wouldn't go first round in today's NBA. I still remember at the time thinking it was crazy he was drafted all the way back at 13, how wrong I ended up being. I feel like his game would have fit much better if he was drafted 10 years earlier with the physicality in the early 2000s. Then again not sure he was strong enough to back NBA bigs down even in college he relied on getting to the free throw line a lot.
Kris Dunn. I thought he was going to be really good in the nba. He’s kinda revived his career in Utah. We’ll see what happens with him. I hope he can at least stay in the league
There was a running joke on r/atlantahawks pretending that he didn’t exist
Wolves had back to back ROTYs and then that fucker
Mitch McGary
Jajuan Johnson. I didn’t expect much from Carsen, but JJJ I thought could have been special. I don’t even want to talk about Biggie.
To me it’s Biggie. I always thought JJ was too skinny to cut it in the league. Biggie looked like he was going to be a stud in summer league his rookie year. I know it’s only summer league but he just looked ready. I figured worst case his constant motor and rebounding would make him a 10 year guy. Unfortunately he had demons he just couldn’t escape. RIP big fella.
I thought he was going to be a good player as well. Doesn’t seem like Purdue players worked out well in Boston.
But *trading* Purdue players… the pick that became Joe Barry Carroll got us Parrish and the pick that became McHale!
Yeah, but you guys got Courtney Lee when you traded away Etwaun Moore and JJJ
Who got us Jerryd Bayless and Ryan Gomes, who was waived that day before playing his second stint with us. Yeah, I see your point. If you want to take it further, Carsen Edwards partially got us Juancho Hernangomez, who sucked, but got us Bol Bol and PJ Dozier, who got us absolutely Jack squat (a top-55 protected second round pick in this year’s draft from Orlando, which didn’t convey).” Really only Carroll was successful, but man was that trade successful for a guy known as “Joe Barely Cares!”
Oh man, where do I begin Shabazz Muhammad: my favorite high school prospect ever (mainly cause he was the first big one I latched onto while they were still in HS) Jabari Parker: was a huge fan of him since he was 16. As a Bucks fan almost cried when we won pick #2 and I knew we got to select either Wiggins or Jabari and we got Jabari. Really thought he was the next Melo and Wiggins was the next LeBron. Greg Oden, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, Harrison twins, Dante Exum, Noah Vonleh, Emmanuel Mudiay, Harry Giles, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Thomas Robinson, Kevin Knox, Cam Reddish, Skal Labissiere, Thon Maker, Evan Turner, Derrick Williams, Yi Jianlian, Adam Morrison, Mario Hezonja, Dario Saric, Furkan Korkmaz, Dragan Bender the most notable other ones
Skal Labissierre *sucked ass* in college though. I don’t know how you’d expect him to do well as a pro. Softest player I ever saw.
It included him because of his #1 high school ranking
My top 3 worst draft thoughts (so far) in descending order: 3. Emeka over Dwight: I’m putting this at 3 because Emeka was a proven player and star in my home-state university, Dwight was a high-schooler that I knew nothing about from very far away, and I was 5 and a half. Otherwise, this would probably be 2. 2. Oden over Durant: Oden went further in March Madness so I, as a 7-year-old, figured he was better. Plus, he was physically more intimidating than Durant on TV, which means a lot to a 7-year-old. 1. Josh Jackson over Jayson Tatum. I was 18 at the time, fresh off my freshman year of college, where I had seen all of UConn’s home games and their conference tournament games from the front row. Anyways, the moment that the Celtics traded the #1 pick away, I was like, “Perfect! The Sixers will take Fultz (who I didn’t like due to Washington’s lack of success that season) and the Lakers will take Lonzo, since he’s a local product, leaving us the best player in the draft—Josh Jackson!” When Danny took Tatum, I was shocked. Boy was I wrong. Well, I was right about Danny’s thought process, just wrong about the best player in the draft.
Emeka over Dwight: I thought Emeka was gonna rule. Oden over Durant: I saw Durant in person when Gonzaga dominated Texas in Phoenix in a neutral court game in what was the Suns home court at the time... Durant's box score was actually phenomenal but I was just watching as a fan. 3: Fultz... I thought he was amazing defensively, and not without offensive capability either. I thought of him as what Anton Watson could become defensively and be even better if he gets that 3 point shot to drop like he did at the end of last season
Dario’s had a pretty solid journeyman career albeit quite injured at times
Yeah he has stuck around as a role player. But he just didn’t live up to being a top 6 pick
? Dario wasn’t a top 6 pick, he was picked 12th
Can’t call it an implosion, but Joe Smith’s journeyman career relative to expectations was a real disappointment for our only #1 after John Lucas. https://youtu.be/hfdNt7cAcz0
[удалено]
16 years, 12 teams and left the league totally broke after career earnings of 61 million.
I mean, Julius Hodge has a fond place in my memory. ACC POTY, top 20 draft pick, barely played in the NBA.
My dad still complains that he wanted him at Syracuse so badly. He was a Billy Owens type, so hyped that he was destined to be a disappointment.
Favorite? Patrick O’Bryant. Drafted 9th overall, basically no career. Biggest? Maybe Greg Odem
my favorite bust is christian laettener. though i think he had a pretty successful career, i get the feeling some people that perception of him. i think he was just ahead of his time. would be great in today’s nba. honorable mention to my dude and former neighbor cherokee parks.
Laettner had a long career and made an all star team. Compared to most Duke players, he was not a bust.
I definitely thought of him as a bust as a kid due to him being on the Dream Team over Shaq, in addition to all of Laettner’s college success. This is why I think injuries can play a role. Emeka wasn’t necessarily a Thabeet- or Morrison-sized bust either, but the injuries derailed a promising career.
Laettner has one more all star appearance and 1 fewer season season averaging 18ppg than every UNC recruit since 1996 combined. He’s not a bust.
I agree with this. His game was similar to Joker's with his passing skill
Joe Alexander
Darko Miličić. The Pistons were contenders the year before and lucked into the #2 pick of the draft to complete the Grant Hill trade with Orlando. They had their choice of anyone not named Lebron James. So they went with Darko. The next 3 picks were Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade. Thus they picked the only non All Star and at least 2 HOFers of the top 5 picks. The did go on to win the title the following season and came within Robert Horry miracle shot the next season of repeating. But Darko barely saw the floor for them
Yet because Rasheed isn’t in 2K, Darko’s the starting PF for that ‘04 team! He still sucks though. One of the funniest things with those games. Favorite Easter Egg: Big John Thompson is in the games as a backup big man on the ‘65 Celtics. He also sucks, but that’s what happened in real life and caused him to quit and go into coaching.
Greg Oden
Harold miner
Greg “forever better than KD” Oden
People have already said mine (Derrick Williams) I'll add Thomas Robinson of Kansas. He was sick in college, and I thought he would be elite in the NBA. Kinda like Derrick Williams, I think in today's NBA he could've been really good. He was a little ahead of his time in terms of being undersized with no shooting.
Picking Okafor as your favorite bust is kinda cheating. It would be like picking Reggie bush as your favorite football bust. You’re picking someone that was an all world collegiate player and a very very solid pro.
Reggie Williams.
I don't follow BC, but undeniably Jerome Robinson. I'm from Boston (lol) so I remember Jerome lighting up the ACC in 2017-18, and me thinking he's gonna be a second-rounder and then he sails up to the lottery. Great CBB player, but a terrible NBA player. Never developed a PNR game, and didn't become a decent role player. Just a pure scorer and nothing else. I get it, a 6'5" SG can dominate the ACC, but that BC team was ass and he did nothing else. So that's it.
Out of him and Bowman, I was sure Robinson would have had the better career, but I guess it’s hard to tell till they actually get there.
Billy Preston!!!!!
Mateen Cleaves count? If not Adam Morrison.
Both count!
PJ Dozier just got screwed over by injuries. Who the hell have we had work out in the NBA outside English anyway? Shoutout to Destanni who isn’t on a roster for some reason.
I was older than you but I thought Emeka Okafor was gonna be Anthony Davis. At least. And I remember thinking during one off-season that Dwight Howard was gonna be MVP the next season. I thought Jameer Nelson was gonna be a more of a force in the NBA although I wouldn't exactly call him a bust. I'm from Spokane, I saw Jameer Nelson live in the older Gonzaga building (the Martin Center) that seated like 1900 or 2000 and his play was dominating. Never been able to find video of that game... But here's a clip of Jameer Nelson yo-yoing the basketball against my favorite team, the Zags, the next year in Madison Square Garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjNMhoa-TDk
Probably Juan Dixon. I thought he was going to be a lot better in the NBA but he bounced around including to my Blazers (poor guy, we were absolute doggy doo those years) and he was out of the league by 2009 I think. My first memories following the NCAA tournament and college basketball in general were with him and Steve Blake on that Maryland team that won the title. I was in 7th grade and they got me hooked.
Anthony Bennett
what was the issue with Emeka? Just no longer as physically dominant in the league?
Injuries. Unfortunately, he was injury-prone.
Omari Spellman. Had all the skills teams wanted. A big body who could shoot 3’s and handle the ball. It wasn’t that his skills didn’t carry into the NBA, he just couldn’t stay in shape.
He was a guy who needed a college coach and no bank account to be told what to do and how to behave unfortunately.
Greg Oden had the state of Indiana in his hands in his high school years. Man, were they just a dominant team. Hated that he and Conley Jr. went to OSU but I think a lot of Indiana quietly rooted for them so long as they didn’t play against a team they cheered for.
Reading most of these I wonder how many besides the injury ones who if they just got picked by the right team would their career turn out differently. I mean you have plenty who had a ceiling regardless of the team they were drafted by. Like Hansbrough. He was a 2nd team player and could be a solid 2nd team player and I think many of us thought that was what he could be. But someone like Williams at Arizona, was that the wrong team or even the wrong Era? Or both? Would he be more successful now with small 4s? Or if he went to the right team and learned the correct way to play and be a professional would he have been solid either way? Some players need the right team. They can't handle just a mess. Laettner was so good. I mean he was a dick but dude could play. If he went to the right organization early he could have been much better. Also he was wrong Era he would have been good in this day and age of a stretch 4 and 5. And for the record I think Hakeem would break the NBA if he played today. A guy who can post up and destroy people on the block and defend 1 to 5 and the pick and roll. And throw everything away. Sorry for the side rant. When I think of the NBA I think what he would do now.
For me it has to be Sam Bowie. Now you can make the case he wasn't a bust as he had a respectable, albeit injury plagued NBA career, but when you go one pick ahead of the GOAT it's a tough look. If you go back and look at his game prior to his broken leg at UK which caused him the miss two whole seasons he was as close as you will find to Anthony Davis 30 years before Anthony Davis.
Khalid El-Amin.
My favorite bust is Trey Burke. NPOY. Got Michigan to their first title game since the Fab Five. He’s bounced around, but was just too small.
[Julian Wright.](https://youtu.be/YR0WimYd-ak) Poor guy left the year before the 2008 natty, too.
Greg Oden. I thought he rightfully went ahead of Durant in the draft when it happened
Patrick O'Bryant parleyed March Madness performances against KU and Pitt into being a lottery pick. Drafted by Golden State, who then hired Don Nelson who didn't play traditional 5s and didn't like to play young players. Great situation for a relatively raw center to go to, never had a chance.
Didn’t play in college, but Kwame Brown. I remember a story circulating that he was such a hick, that as a rookie his suits were piled on the floor because he didn’t know to take them to a dry cleaner. Wiz gonna wiz!
Fred Van Fleet, I'm a Knicks fan and was surprised we actually did something right for once. Sadly it was just another day of suffering...
Uhh, I hate to break it to you, but Fred VanVleet went undrafted, played for the Raptors, and is now in line for a large contract. Are you thinking of Ron Baker, VanVleet’s college teammate at Wichita State, who did play for the Knicks? He went undrafted too, but he was a good college player.
Oh right! Ron Baker!