Ranking the Worst Busts in NBA History

NBA draft bust that work is thrown around all the time to draft picks or past classes for many reasons injuries taking over their careers that hinder their development never being able to find your footage in the league being drafted too high in hindsight and having unbelievable expectations being thrusted upon you among many many other things but as we ended the 76 NBA season just recently I think it's time to look over seven of the most infamous and weirdly higher touted recent draft picks of the 2010s to just see how they became bust in the first place and rank them on a tier list just to see who is the worst of the worst NBA draft bus but before we start if you want to see more videos like these be sure to like the video to show your support and if you want to see a continuation of more draft busts in this tour list format let's aim for a thousand likes on this video and I will bring it to you sometime in the near future and subscribe to be notified when new videos come out but as usual you already know who it is wallet left [Music] let's start things off with one of the most recent examples I'll be using in this video Jalil Okafor in his path to it being an NBA bus it has to be one of the most unconventional ways to become what we've ever seen but before if he became one he was one of the best college players in the NCAA ranks dominating the competition as a 6 foot 11 275 pound Beast with his array of post moves and overall having one of these smoothest post games we've ever seen at his age group and as we know at Duke University he averaged 17 points and not rebound to game shooting 66 percent from the field and playing one of the hardest schedules in college basketball meaning he'd be a shoe-in to be a top pick in that next year's draft but as the more versatile car Anthony towns went first and point guard Prospect D'Angelo Russell went second the 76ers finally made their call to Jalil where you think he'd spend a good majority of his career and growing into a top big man in the NBA ranks but that's exactly what he do in his rookie season he'd go on and show the NBA why he was supposed to be taking more seriously as a draft prospect averaging 17 points and seven rebounds a game and over 50 shooting and ending the season fifth on the Rookie of the Year ladder due to his injury woes however this is where his potential bus status started to Peak it's really ugly head the next season will become Jalil okafor's worst nightmare as the 2014 third overall pick Joel embiid would finally come back healthy after two seasons of being out and after only playing 31 games he'd average 20 points a game and show a lot more upside than Julia would have in the NBA compared to him add on to the rise of the versatile big you have a combo that knocked out your little Oak Force chances of ever making a career in the NBA and he then be traded to the net and then on to two other teams after the fact the New Orleans and Detroit being out of the NBA at just the age of 25. now yes he has his demerits to his game with his lack of a jumper lack of play-making ability and his concerns of his Mobility defensively in general but outside of that last Point jalo Okafor would be a b case in a past era where big men were still more traditional and a whole lot slower which is why the debate of cat and Okafor was such a big thing as the NBA changed constantly talents in hindsight was the obvious best choice seeing just how the NBA was going into a different place but now in 2023 he is still attempting to get back into the NBA into G league and with the G League being more traditional Basketball Wives he is absolutely dominating averaging 20 points a game on 70 shooting 70 percent and these aren't DeAndre Jordan and Rudy go bear buckets he is absolutely making fools of opposing big men down there in the G league but at the end of the day by definition he is a bus and he must be ranked on the tier list and for me understanding what goes into the reason of him being a bust in the first place I'll be giving him an a tier ranking he is still a bust my definition again still never being able to work out a role in the league and only playing 247 games in five years but we as NBA fans can understand that it was not for a reason he could exactly help at the time but something again his situation just could not control as the new NBA AIDS was looming Over the Horizon and he unfortunately was in the 2015 NBA draft still a bust but in my eyes excusable to some extent from one imposing College big man to another but toddler let's talk about the seven foot three African Center that terrorized the college ranks and broke many on top of many blocking records Hashem the beat now we learned in the past about the risk that'll come with taking a player who only started playing basketball later in life and Hashem is no different only starting to play basketball at the age of 15. but when you are at the height that he was there is always going to be a lucrative opportunity to play basketball at a professional level but as soon as the scene touched down in Connecticut he immediately gave the Huskies one of the most dominant college careers offensively we will ever see in college averaging four blocks a game in his career in three seasons and being 13th all time in total blocks for NCAA double a career however when the prospect of him being in the NBA came to the Horizon that is when NBA Scouts started to hyper analyze his game and expose the weaknesses of the beat starting with his super lackluster scoring game with no post moves to his game at all not being the most mobile center in the world which you could argue would be the biggest problem at that stage of the NBA at least in the 2010s and not having much upside as a prospect as again he just started playing basketball at the age of 15. if you want an example of someone who is in that same exact situation and someone we may talk about in a future video then the name Michael oluwa candy comes to mind who is drafted first overall in 1998 but literally they didn't touch a basketball until he was 17 years old and only started playing at 18. but in the stack 2009 NBA draft with future All-Stars and even future MVPs to choose from the Memphis Grizzlies chosen but second overall over a plethora of other names drafting the Beats to I guess to be their Cornerstone Center despite already having Microsoft for the power of assault trade who hasn't yet developed to the player that we all know he ended up becoming but immediately you can see this pick was an absolute travesty and shashim was never meant to be an NBA player struggling at all ends basketball that wasn't him blocking a shot and even then he couldn't stop being a foul magnet garnering almost three a game and only 13 minutes played in his rookie year but as the story goes after that point his career was basically over being buried on the bench and playing for three other teams where he'd still barely even be in an NBA rotation but after a decade and some change where does this pick and player end up on the scale for NBA draft bus what we already know what that answer is going to be pretty damn high or I guess pretty damn low only being drafted behind Blake Griffin and drafted ahead many on top of many All-Stars and then basically never being much of an NBA player after his first season in the NBA only playing 224 games in five years so I think there's only one one place he can't go f tier one of the absolute worst we've ever seen in the NBA another example of just how different the NBA in NCAA games can be and just how some players in those ranks just cannot translate and again the fact that he only started playing basketball real seriously at 15 and then being thrusted in the NBA only a couple years later at 21 had to be in enough of a red flag to not take him second overall let's start talking about centers for a bit and move on to a new position or in this person's case never knowing what his true position would be in the NBA but we do know what that person is the second overall pick of the 2011 Draft Derrick Williams the 2011 class is known for having some of the best players of Our Generation within the ranks Klay Thompson Kawhi Leonard Jimmy Butler and even the first overall pick Kyrie Irving but at the second spot the Minnesota Timberwolves went ahead into the Super athletic and electric Derrick Williams but the question is why well as we all discussed with our last answer the college game in the NBA game are completely different and Derek was able to excel in the college game being the super athletic six foot eight 240 pound Wing playing for the Arizona Wildcats he was a matchup nightmare for everyone being too powerful and overbearing for college Wings trying to handle him and being able to fly past NCAA power forwards into an array of finishing moves around them or even the dunk on them if he really wanted to a perfect specimen when it comes to the NCAA game looking to take over but after a sophomore season when he averaged 19 points a game and almost shooting 60 from the field he only became a more interesting Prospect for the NBA game and it wasn't like he had any reason to stay in the NCAA ranks not being able to improve on more statistically and already proven to be a top player at only a sophomore so much was already there for him but at the same time the red flags were there but we will talk about that later so with that super dominating season over and done with he was drafted second overall to Minnesota Timberwolves who were already pretty front loaded with their front Court talent and Kevin Love Nicola Pekovic and Michael Beasley but this is where the red flags from college would rear its very ugly head first of all not having a clear NPA position again being a six foot eight and 240 pound forward being too slow to compete with NBA small forwards and being too small to compete with NBA power forwards this is what we like to call an NBA tweener being able to play two positions but not excelling at either one of them or having a defined role and on to that with the lack of a consistent jump shot and his lack of upside in any other aspect of the sport outside of his athleticism and you have another case of an NCAA Prospect being able to full franchise office dominance from his days in college that had very little chances of ever working out in the NBA and the Timberwolves only gave him two seasons but they figured out the mistake they made we're at mostly averaged 12 points a game but not being able to show up that dominance he had in college then after six more stops than other teams he has been out of the league since 2018 and again at the age of 2 26. to his credit having some pretty decent times in other teams in his roles in Sacramento and New York as a fan favorite but never panning out at all but on the tier list where does he go well he certainly was a reached by all means definitely tricked the Timberwolves with his numbers in college but just like the tweeners of the past that couldn't find much of a role in the NBA due to his own skill set the perfect NBA crime is what he committed here but a bust is a bus at the end of the day and I do believe he's one of the worst of the worst D tier in the right circumstances could have at least been a role player in the NBA but again due to his own lackluster versatility in any aspect outside of his athleticism it really hurt his chances of even making a career in the league as a bench option but he's just a tale of the many NCAA players stricking NBA Scouts and teams with his dominance in college that never translated into a real NBA career next let's move on to another win who failed in the NBA before a completely different reason than Derek Williams did crazy enough in the giraffe right before him in the 2 2010 NBA draft class with the fourth overall pick the Minnesota Timberwolves again picked Wesley Johnson to be their wing of the future in his story to being the fourth overall pick was thought to make him a really decent NBA player for the league after two interesting years of Iowa State being their primary scorer and putting a really lackluster numbers while there he went to Syracuse to be their star player and moved up to a harder conference now you think that Wesley would just be in the same predicament if not perform worse but no he actually became the star player people thought he'd be at Syracuse he'd go on an average 16 points a game shooting over 50 from the field and 40 from Beyond The Arc but want to know was even better than that he had an all-around game that screamed NBA player averaging almost two steals a game and almost averaging two blocks a game at 1.8 the complete package of offensive versatility a defensive versatility it is six foot seven 205 pound frame tell me that does not scream NBA player only thing he had to work on is his play making but he'd truly be the full package and he can just get that one thing out of the way but as the 2010 NBA draft progressed and as the turbo wolves watched John Wall and Evan Turner get picked up who were thought to be the best players in the class at the time they chose Wesley Johnson to be their perimeter threat for the future over guys like Gordon Haywood and Paul George who are drafted at nine and ten but just like with Derek Williams they soon realized they made a mistake as Wesley Johnson's game did not translate at all at the NBA level starting in 63 games but only able to put up nine points a game on an abysmal 39 from the field a lot of people around the league in discourse who came together really just decided that Wesley Johnson was destined to be a bus just off his two years alone in Iowa State and coldest season at Syracuse a flash in the pan and honestly this is probably the best reason anyone could make of this immediate burnout in the NBA because after that first season in Minnesota he immediately got turned into a bench player on every team he played on and not a good one by any means giving chances in Los Angeles and Phoenix to try to bring back that Syracuse magic and at the end of the day he played nine years in the NBA for six different teams and never had a productive season in his career but it could be worse he could have just been thrown out The League immediately and for that I get from a c tier ranking for a lot of these busts their fate is to be thrown out ASAP as we've seen in jalooka for the scene to be but Wesley Johnson was able to survive as one of the longest tenured players we'll talk about in this video was he still buns yeah for sure but he lasted a whole lot longer than most NBA draft bucks and that is an achievement in its own right but while we're on the subject of NBA bust it didn't last long in the NBA let's talk about one of the shortest and your number one overall picks ever only playing 151 games in four years and crazy enough only starting in four games in his entire career you know him you love him and Cavalier fans hate him let's introduce number one overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft Anthony Bennett now Anthony Bennett's Rhodes become a number one overall pick was The Perfect Storm of many things of course as we all know the 2013 class was full of non posing prospects who if we'd have put in any other class in the 2010s would most likely be out of the lottery or even second round picks and that is proven by guys like Alex land and Cody Zeller being in the top five secondly as some people remember Anthony Bennett was never considered to be a number one overall pick Prospect it only began to be talked about as a top five pick due to his lone season at UNLV it was dominated the competition as a freshman with a big six foot eight 240 pound foot frame to support himself overpowering everyone having shooting range and really good athleticism for her size now of course there was no obvious number one overall pick option but compared to most of the top five selections they were really standard prototypes with not a lot of upside to them while some Scouts seen Bennett as the opposite but obviously the red flags are still there the main one being how would his size and frame translate to the NBA but as he got drafted we already know how every NBA fan reacted and it was represented by Bill Simmons in the background with the first pick in the 2013 NBA draft the Cleveland Cavaliers select Anthony Bennett Toronto Canada and the University of Nevada Las Vegas so now we have it Anthony Bennett was drafted to a team who already owned Tristan Thompson at the four and overall was jumbled in their front Court core he even played minutes as a small forward due to it still trying to figure out just where does he fit in the NBA but as we all know his downfall was immediate having many problems at the NBA level firstly not having a defined position due to his size and lack of Envy athleticism same as other players we talked about before having weight issues which would only bring more problems in the future and overall just not being made for the NBA again he had the perfect storm to get drafted highly in the first place and maximize that into being a first overall pick but from day one we could all see that he was not NBA material and the Cavaliers took the bait and unfortunately paid the price for it and in his InFamous first season he averaged Four Points a game on 35 from the field and only scored 10.6 times and 52 games and as we all know he was involved in the trade for Kevin Love and he was sent to Minnesota did bad there sign with Toronto didn't do much there and in his final destination in Brooklyn again he didn't do anything only having four seasons of service in the NBA and only becoming one of the worst first overall picks of all time but it's safe to say we already know he belongs on this ranking F tier bottom of the barrel couldn't even survive in the NBA for his pension and will forever stay a top three worst draft list of all time if not at the worst top five but hopefully we never have a draft class that bat again to avoid this from ever happening again now as Michael Jordan has recently stood off his stake as majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets he has made many many different bad draft selections as the majority owner and this person happens to be one of the worst draft busts of all time before we had Anthony Bennett in 2013 we have the second it of the 2012 NBA draft Michael kid Gilchrist and I know the name immediately brings up flashbacks one of the worst jumpers you'll ever see by an NBA a player but before he was being roasted by that being one of his top things about him as a player he was already one of the top high school prospects of his class and also playing at Kentucky alongside his college teammate and number one pick up that class Anthony Davis where he played out some decent numbers that Kentucky being a part of a very stacked team and Michael being a dangerous inside presence and an a-tier athlete defensively but did he deserve to be the second overall pick of that draft even when you look at his college tape you can see there was much to be desired from him he was mainly a top recruit in high school due to his athleticism and size as an athlete built like more of a football player than an NBA player at six foot six to Thirty but what I want to ask is where is he supposed to be placed as a player in the NBA he's too slow as a small forward and can't create for himself and he's too undersized for a power forward and will struggle due to his lack of shooting ability as I said many times this video some players are meant for the NCAA game where some of those qualities don't matter but in the NBA when you're are facing the best of the best you are definitely not gonna be able to skate by off athleticism and strength alone but the horned fantasy any of those warning signs as red flags and took Michael kid gilchrist's second overall instead of giving Kemba Walker a running mate in the backcourt and Damian Lillard or Bradley Beal who was selected right after mkg but to his credit where he came to the Bobcats at the time he was an okay supplementary piece on a team who had plenty of scores already there but obviously when you draft someone at the second overall pick and seeing how Damian Lillard and Bradley Bill were already getting things done for them as rookies you're definitely not going to want to use a second overall pick on a role player and again the Hornets already seen what they messed up with them and it never got any better than that as Michael kid Gilchrist would continue the rest of his career as a role player with Charlotte and then as the team slowly got better with other young pieces he would slowly be put on the back burner until he's finally traded away to the Dallas Mavericks played 13 games with them and then disappeared from the NBA sphere at the age of 26. now unlike other viral bus he was able to at least make some type of career in the NBA even if it was with the team that drafted him originally but for the fact that he quite literally never improved since his rookie season I will have to give him a detailed ranking on the tier list it's pretty plain and simple why he ended up here but also not much to say since he was one of the most uneventful draft bus stories I've seen but a bust is a bus being one of the many bad draft selections by Michael Jordan and the Hornets slash Bobcats organization and for our final bust for today we have a player who is a victim of a new trend and new meta coming to the NBA the stretch big and unicorn player type and as Chris Staples started it off in the 2015 class you had an early selection get traction due to his rookie success and that was the fourth pick of the 2016 draft Dragon Bender Who was brought in to the Phoenix Suns to be their version of that I talked about his entire NBA Journey on my case study of the NBA unicorn on my channel that'll be linked on the screen but again the seven foot Dragon Bender made himself known at the perfect time in the NBA as the league solely shifted to a more perimeter-oriented game with more three-pointers being shot more than ever and a traditional Center being thrown away by every team now it's all about versatility and with christoph's porzingis impressed in the NBA World it opened up an Avenue of players of similar builds to get more looks who could replicate his game and the first victim in case for that hunt for the next kristaps was Dragon Bender but Chris staff's unlike Dragon was shown very early to have shot creation ability that had Scouts intrigued while Dragon didn't have that at all only really having the ability to space the floor for others and getting the occasional block but the Phoenix Suns had the opportunity to take some top tier talent in the 2016 draft one of the best we've seen at the time Devonta sabonis or even a point guard for Devin Booker and Jamal Murray but instead they fell for the Trap and Trent Chase for the thought to Dragon to be a kristaps clone but how did it turn out well they immediately figured out that they made a crucial mistake instead of drafting a go-getter who wanted to create his own shot and get Buckets they draft a very timid player who was five playing a role obviously not something that you'd want with a fourth overall pick and by timid I mean a not using his seven foot frame for anything a seven foot person would use it for B not excelling in the paint defensively and C being a very very weak rebounder for a size and not to sound like an extreme critic but he was legitimately seven feet for nothing at all he was given a better opportunity to become better at the second year being the full-time starter and playing 25 minutes a game however zero Improvement was shown it's going only six points a game under abysmal 38 shooting but at least he shot 36 from three so I guess he had that going for him as he stretched big that's that point they were done with him sending him to the bench in his third season and after that being side by the Bucks not getting his rookie extension and traded to the Warriors only lasting Four Seasons in the NBA three of them with the sons where he disappointed and one of them when he was already one foot out of the league basically but again he was more of a victim of Chris that's for zingis and the rise of the shooting big man or I guess you could say he benefited from it making money in the NBA but overall on the tier list we already know where you gotta go f tier worst of the worst his town was more of the scale of a second round your league talent that usually gets sent back to develop more than a top five pick and while put in that position he underachieves compared to his placement in the draft again one of the worst of all time for sure now as we've seen the NBA drafting process isn't the most consistent and how a player is looked at and then drafted in hindsight we can see a player years later and exactly understand how they weren't meant to be drafted that highly or even drafted at all in some cases but whether it's due to a flash in the pan season Being Fit more for the NCAA game rather than the NBA a shift in the NBA meta itself whatever it may be not everyone is meant to survive in the NBA no matter how highly drafted they are even sometimes the number one overall pick of the NBA draft but as always all if you enjoyed today's video and learn something new it's my vision for this channel is to inform and entertain check out my social medias for the insta Life valvino channel news check out my twitch stretch stream weekly and lastly if you want to talk to your boy there is always my Discord links are in the description but with all that out of the way this is your boy Alvin linguity same piece

Channel: Alvini Linguine

Views: 70,984

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Id: d9FnPbCN_r0

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 11 2023