Who are some players that looked great their first few years but didn’t pan out to their potential but were still all stars. An example would be KAT. His first 3 years he was seen as the next best thing and franchises wanted to build their team around him. Fast forward 8 years he’s seen as a borderline all star and is nowhere near the mvp candidate people thought he would be. AD would be another one, people were thinking he could be one of the greatest PFs ever and he still ended up being really good but he didn’t hit that ceiling people thought.
Steve Francis’ second year was his best season and it looked like he had a potential MVP candidate vibe with the way he played.
Chris Paul was an MVP candidate in his 3rd season. An argument could be made that he should have won. He continued to perform like a top 10 player for almost a decade but he never came close to winning MVP again.
Vince Carter and Tmac were supposed to be the next big thing. They had some great early years and ended up as perennial all stars, some All NBAs, but never really a MVP candidate. Carmelo too, was suppose to be the Bird to Lebron’s Magic, had an argument as ROY over Bron, but never made the leap to a MVP caliber player.