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.
Since you are a new fan, you likely missed all the shit those guys have gotten, but they’ve been been shit on proper.
Anthony Bennett: He gets a bit of a pass because nobody had him going number one and it was a legit shock when the Cavs picked him. I think the belief was that the Cavs simply picked a bad player so it was more about the Cavs being awful than it was about Bennett being bad.
Greg Oden: He gets a pass from most (justifiably) because of injuries.
Darko: This guy got shit on a LOT. But if there is a pass here it is because he was drafted after LeBron and not before him, and he was drafted more on potential the readiness.
Along the same lines, Kwame Brown got shit on a lot, as did Thabeet. You might not hear about them much if you are a new fan because there is no sense beating a dead horse.
As for guys who never really got shit on despite being high picks, I’d say that Kenyon Martin comes to mind, he did manage an All-Star appearance (still shrugging my shoulders on that one) but he was more of a quality starter who was more about rebounding and defence, but he never even averaged a double-double. Frankly speaking, he was a poor man’s Horace Grant. Don’t get me wrong: He was a good player.
But he was also the #1 pick. But it was a shitty draft and just about nobody really panned out there other than Michael Redd. Some good roation players/starters, sure, but nobody that was swinging the balance of power in the NBA.
I’d say that Andrea Barngani also gets a pass, but the first overall pick was a toss up that year. I remember the Raptors shopping that pick in a trade and not getting any bites.
The Clippers drafted the Candy Man, Michael OlolowoKandi, and he wasn’t terribly good. He got drafted ahead of Dirk, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Antwan Jamison, and Rashard Lewis. But when you get drafted by the Clippers, people just assume you are doomed for failure… at least that’s how people saw it back then, though I don’t think it was on a lot of people’s radar.