I was waiting for it. Seems like most here don't remember the 90's much. We had a great number of busts back then. Your looking at a list of: Harold Miner Yinka Dare Sharone Wright Lamond Murray Eric Montross *94 was a great year* Michael Olowokandi Another great bust year was 86 I believe. It was the cocaine draft where Bias od'ed just after and just about everyone in the top 10 did not live up to expectations.
PG - Mateen Cleaves, Erick Barkley, Sebastian Telfair, Jonny Flynn SG - J.R. Rider, Harold Minor, Rodney McCray(Cuz Houston coulda had 12 years of Phi Slamma Jamma with Clyde and Hakeem if we just woulda traded back and taken Clyde instead of this waste, sorry Rodney) SF - Adam Morrison, Joe Alexander PF - Darko Milicic, Darius Miles C - Michael Olowokandi, Joe Smith, Sam Bowie
Michael Olokowandi (The original Nigerian scammer. Everytime I open up a scam email, I picture the Kandi Man) Kwame Brown (Has given me some of the best LOL moments on and off the TV. The man attempted to throw a 2X2 foot cake at teammate Ronny Turiaf from point blank range. He missed and hit a pedestrian instead. True Story! You cant make this **** up!) Robert Taylor (A tractor without an engine. His food bill counted against the team salary cap) Adam Morrison (Every-time I see him on TV, I feel like grabbing my shotgun. The kind of guy you hide your daughters, wife, mother, grandmothers from) Stormile Swift (The Black Beavis. He stalks a woman. Then forgets about it. Then does it again the following year. And gets caught each time) Darko Milicic (ABSOLUTE Trash of a a player. Even worse human being. I dont know why he exists) Hasheem Thabeet (Anti-matter to Hakeem in a parallel universe) The people above are just plain bad. They are akin to highway robbers. The players below were busts because of injuries, not necessarily because they were bad players. Some could have been good but injuries closed the chapter on them... Pervis Ellison Greg Oden Sam Bowie (He would have to be excellent to not be declared a bust though)
Two additions: LaRue Martin: Center. #1 overall pick in the draft. His career numbers are 5.3 points and 4.6 boards. But remember, he played in an era with a quicker pace, so those stats are a bit inflated. This is way worse than the stiffs that some others have posted. And the simple fact that he was a number one overall pick and you have never heard of him should tell you something. Len Bias: Forward. Yeah, who knows how good he might have been. But the pick itself basically busted the franchise for almost a decade, and it definitely is the lowest ever in terms of value for the pick. For guards I'd have to go with Shaun Livingston.
That makes you wonder...if the Pistons had the #1 draft pick \ that year, would they still have drafted Darko? Hmmmm
PG: Antonio Daniels (4th pick in 97) SG: Darius Miles (3rd pick in 00) SF: Adam Morrison (3rd pick 06) PF: Kwame Brown (1st pick 01) C: Michael Olowokandi (1st pick 98)
I had forgot about Mateen Cleaves until this thread came up. Didn't even realize he was a lottery pick. Wow he was the definition of no production at all at the NBA level.
I know joe smith was a number 1 overall pick and there are high expectations with that. However, labeling him a bust after a 16 year career in which he averaged 11 points and 6 boards is pushing it imo. He also averaged 19 and 9 one season.
Eh,is Oden really a "bust"? When I think of bust, it's someone who was hyped up but couldn't do **** in the NBA. Oden was a solid young player (even if he looked 40), it's not that he wasn't good, it's that he had horrible injury problem.. I guess in that sense he is a "bust", but not because he wasn't good enough. He was one of the promising young centers. Man, Portland has such a young good core.. injuries were insane
