Of all the NBA Busts, which one(s) did you think would have a great career?

yea when i look at bogut, i see robinson's protege...no clue why that didn't pan out, i mean body type ,athleticism itsall there,n o?

 

Yea Iverson sucks

 

I don't think he was a bust, and I wasn't really expecting him to be a superstar when we picked him. He was kind of a safe pick. Probably didn't live up to being the 3rd overall pick, but he was a very solid player for about 10 years.

Stats as a Rocket.
12.49 PPG
6.71 RPG
3.76 APG
52.12 FG%

Those are pretty good numbers considering he was playing alongside Hakeem and Ralph who scored most of the points and grabbed most of the rebounds. He wasn't a 3 pt shooter, but a shooting percentage of 52% is not bad. His shot had an ugly flat trajectory, but he did pretty well with it.

 

Lebron James.

I thought he would've had 5 rings by now

 

this.

 

So basically Rockets 2011.

 

This thread is a bummer for the upcoming draft.

 

Julius Erving was not the #1 pick, because he had already played a season with an ABA team. He wasn't eligible for the NBA draft until a year later.
Teams knew he might not play for them if drafted.

 

What about the other guy who died?

 

just some random "busts" :

Kwame Brown
Olawokandi
Joe Smith
Bargnani
Thabeet
Darko Milicic
inknown commodity Adam Morrison
Dunleavy Jr.
Stromile Swift
Darius Miles
Keith Van Horn
Marvin Williams
Tyrus Thomas
Yi Jianlian
Michael Beasley
Shawn Bradley
Pervis Ellison
Danny Ferry
Sam Bowie (would be a decent lottery pick, although not top 3, in most other drafts even with the injuries)

players that were grossly overpaid (never worth their contract or even a fraction of it even when healthy):

Juwon Howard
Brian Grant
Rashard Lewis
Keith Van Horn
Austin Croshere
Jalen Rose
Matt Geiger
Tim Thomas
Jerome James
Stephon Marbury


ruined by injury before they could "bust":

Shawn Livingston
Greg Oden
Jason (Jay) Williams

ruined by injury before or during their prime:

Brandon Roy
Yao Ming
T-Mac
Gilbert Arenas
Penny Hardaway
Ralph Sampson
Andrew Toney
Bill Walton


died much too early or never got the chance :

Reggie Lewis
Drazen Petrovic
Len Bias

 

Do you mean Bias? Yes, he's a bust according to this definition. One can argue that he had more potential than Petrovic. But Petrovic had shown his skills on the pro level. We'll never know how Bias would have panned out in the NBA.

BTW, the OP didn't define "bust" and seemed to include injuries. Normally, bust is define as not being able to play to great potential when given a chance.

 

Michael Beasley strikes me as the one I had the highest hopes for and the least achieved. I generally see busts coming a mile away. Thabeet was real easy to spot, Oden was harder than him, I knew when Jordan Hill was taken he would be a bust, Flynn, Tyrus Thomas, Stromile Swift. All easily diagnosed as busts.

Joe Smith is not a bust
Ricky Rubio was the hardest to judge out of anyone

In fact you can book it that these are this years draft busts
Andre Drummond has bust written on his forehead(clear signs there)
Bradley Beal highly bustable probability due to size and upside projection on him
Perry Jones
Arnette Moultrie
Dion Waiters although harder to judge
Fab Melo obvious is obvious
Royce White
Michael Kidd Gilchrist(trickiest, could be next Darius Miles or next Shawn Marion)

These are the likeliest busts. Believe me most of them will bust out.