Who do you think were the worst picks ever? I'm not talking about guys who everyone thought would be good, but failed. I'm talking about picks that seemed so obvious, that were butchered. Moves that left everyone in confusion, and never proved their doubters wrong. So far, I think you have to have Sam Bowie(watch the video of that draft, they are stunned when Bowie's picked) they picked him over an obvious superstar, and in doing so, set back the club for years.
Besides the Bowie pick (just b/c he was ahead of the GOAT and behind Dream), here are some others: Darko - what makes it so bad is that the draft picks produced 4-5 other superstars, and he was sandwiched between them Kwame - 'nuff said. Pervis ellison - he went #1 in a draft that had Timmy Hardaway, Kemp, and Glen Rice Kandi Man Morrison - went ahead of Roy and Gay, WTF? O'bannon - I saw him a lil bit at UCLA, and everyone and their moms thought he would have at least an all-star career. and our very own Thabeet. #2, are u kidding me? Can't say guys like Jwill or Oden are busts b/c of injuries, and they never had a proper start to their careers.
Darko and Kwame weren't surprise botched picks, that is what the OP was asking I believe. Everyone had KWAME in their top 5 picks, he was a HS players who was almost 7 feet tall with crazy manchild body. Darko ripped up all the drills and showed to be a 7 foot 18 year old skilled player, everyone had him top 5 on the draft board too. So when they were selected, not everyone agreed, but not everyone was surprised since they were projected high the picks I remember specifically that left people baffleed at the draft were david khan getting those two pgs back to back adn this year Tristan Thomas at no 4.
I was thinking about putting Flynn in my original post, not sure why I didn't. Thomson surprised me too, I hadn't really heard much of him going in to the draft, I really thought they would take Williams and a point guard.
Taking Darko over guys like Wade, Melo and even Bosh. That was the difference between the Pistons getting 1 ring and possibly being a dynasty. Imagine one of those guys paired with Billups/Hamilton/Prince/Wallace. You're talking at least 3 rings here.
Tristan Thompson definitely comes to mind this year as a surprise pick. We'll see if he pans out. Another pick that was a surprise, but to a lesser extent since it was lower, was Markieff Morris over our own Marcus. Anyone who followed college knew that Marcus was clearly the better player, and was surprised that he didn't get picked first. What it came down to was Markieff had a clearer NBA position(PF) and the Suns were looking for size and defense in the front court. I think this will in end be a great example of why you always pick the BPA, and not go for need.
Not really a draft pick bust but the trade we did that ended up with us getting Eddie Griffin for Jefferson/Armstrong/Collins. Another Rockets related "bust" was when we took Michael Dickerson over H-Town's own Rashard Lewis. Also in that same 1998 draft, the Bucks traded the rights of Dirk Nowitizki for Tractor Traylor. What an epic fail and changed the course of two franchises forever.
There's a difference between "worst picks" (more on the team) and "biggest busts" more on the player not panning out. For me, worst picks means the guys being joked about as disasters before they were even drafted....and got drafted high anyway. People were high on folks like Ed O'Bannon, Jay Williams, Greg Oden, and even Kwame going into draft night.....so I give teams a pass on picks like that. Plenty of people (not me) thought Adam Morrison was going to be great as a Bobcat after his year of jostling with Reddick for college POY.. I'm looking for "dumb when they did it, and dumber in retrospect" I do put Thabeet up there. Yi Jianlian as well. Andrea Bargnani (taken mainly because Toronto wanted to avoid more US stars leaving them at first opportunity) Marvin Williams (raw bench guy that wasn't ready...instead of Paul or Williams when the Hawks had nothing at PG) Darko Nikoloz Tskitishvili Indiana trading Antonio Davis for Jonathan Bender on draft night Vancouver selecting Steve Francis (Baron Davis available right behind him) Kandi Man going #1 Hornets trading away Kobe because of local backlash over a high schooler. Shawn Bradley instead of Penny Horry instead of Baby Jordan (lol) Pervis Ellison Sonics trading away Pippen on draft night for Olden Polynice Can't decide on Bowie...it was more like Oden/Durant at the time - there was a lot to like about Bowie coming out of college, and no one know that Jordan was going to be THAT incredibly great.
The Traylor/Nowtizki draft night trade was highly underrated as the worst draft night trade in league history.
Dickerson was a good player. The problem was taking Bryce Drew and Mirsad ****ing Turkcan with our other TWO 1st round picks in the 1998 NBA Draft.
Sam Bowie doesn't fit your criteria. Jordan wasn't an obvious pick for Portland since they had Drexler at the time.
Maybe Jordan wasn't an obvious pick for them, but if I understand correctly, no one thought they would pick Sam Bowie.
Yaroslav Korolev was horrible... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/06/29/nba.draft/korolev.jpg
Atlanta made huge blunders taking Shelden Williams and Acie Law. Ultimate FAIL. Seattle made some some bad picks on big guys as well - Mahmoud Sene, Robert Swift and Johan Petro. These guys werent top 5 picks but they were still picked high enough to be a waste and fail. Kandi Man, Kwame, Darko and Thabeet come to mind as well. And then theres Kahn, FAILURE at its best. He beats everyone hands down.
Sports Illustrated's take on the trade at the time: Winners: The Bucks After trading away No. 4 draft-pick Stephon Marbury last year, the Bucks get it right in '98 by stealing the marketable and talented Robert Traylor from the Mavs for an overhyped foreign prospect. :grin:
Kandi Man and Samaki Walker have to be up there... Everyone knew they weren't gonna be ****... Honorable mention to Randy White... Experts prepped him as the next Mailman... He was more like the Milkman
Kwame Brown is terms of worst player ever. DARKO MILLICIC in terms of worst pick ever... considering most of the superstars of today were in this draft class.
