The two primary areas I look at for a 'bust' are: (1) How good the player is relative to where he was drafted and (2) Who that team could have drafted instead. Team need, how good the player is minus the draft element and other contributions are other areas to consider. An example of a pick I have defended in the past is Marvin Williams. He's a legit starter and solid overall player that continues to improve -- definitely a good player once people get over the whole CP3/Deron Williams element. Does that make him a bust? No. Does that make him the right pick, though? Absolutely not -- not only because of how great those PG's are but also because the Hawks had a greater need at the time. Darko not only failed to live up to expectations but he's also a horrible player as well. He has never improved and was never was able to establish himself as a starter in this league at a relatively weak position. I don't care if he's only 24-years-old, it's painfully obvious that he's peaked. Can you even name his biggest NBA contribution? I mean, Dwayne Wade is the 2nd or 3rd best player in the league and we're talking about an average-at-best bench player. How can you possibly not factor that into your opinion? If you don't, you're basically scoffing at the type of conventional wisdom that labels Sam Bowie as the biggest bust ever. The same exact logic applies here.
When I think of busts, I think of guys that were drafted in the lottery that I've never even heard of. Kwame Brown gets too much flack since he was the #1 pick, but he's come into his own lately and contributed. I honestly wouldn't mind having him on the Rox if his contract was less expensive. Darko is still in the NBA whether its based on the hope that he'll eventually come into his own, or merely the fact that he's apart of the Grizzlies. While I don't think he would have flourished much even if Ben Wallace and Sheed weren't **** blocking him from getting more experience, his production might be better because of it. I think the above two get too much flack though. You can't fault either for getting drafted so high. Blame it on the GMs that felt they were worthy of it.
I'd rather call the GM that drafted Same Bowie a bust, more than just blaming it on Bowie. I've never heard of Sam Bowie being a lazy ***hole locker room cancer, so I can't really fault the man for his injury problems and playing within his own NBA limitations. Blame the GM. Not the player when it comes to where they're drafted. The only difference between a NBA player and a GM though is a GM messing up is forgiven much faster (especially if their track record is good), than a player who never really pans out.
#1 Darko Milicic I remember the heavy words he used for the referees after the loss from Greece in 2007 Euro Championship. Here it is: (english subbed) <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ci3j363HWQM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ci3j363HWQM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> btw i perfectly understand Serbian (it's good sub, but...) and what is he saying is O M G!
Disagreed. That's like saying if an employer hires a bad employee that all the blame goes to the employer. Where's the accountability for employee that wasn't any good --or -- in this case, the draftee that didn't pan out? Mega-busts like Bowie, Darko, Kwame and others aren't just randomly selected to go that high. Through any combination of scouting, workouts or whatever they're ranked accordingly. It's not like picking names out of a hat. For a player like Darko to flop to this magnitude either clearly indicates flawed scouting (THANK YOU, CHAD FORD) and/or misjudging how good the player really was. Disagreed also. What about Isiah Thomas, exec version Michael Jordon, Weisbrod, McHale or any other notoriously bad GM/exec out there? Those guys get roasted no matter what they do. I see what you're saying and I agree to an extent, but there's still plenty of bad stigma out there for a GM's that are perceived as incompetent.
As an employee you get fired and go to a different situation. In the nba, the team has a couple years to see what you are and they can simply not pick up your option or trade you. That's plenty of accountability. Most of the time these guys are busts because they simply don't have the physical/mental tools to be what everyone thought they would be. If they've done everything asked of them when they get to the league what can you say. The player was always bad, it's the GM/scout/exec's fault for not realizing this. If you buy a crappy product, it's your fault for not doing the necessary research to find the quality you wanted. I don't understand what you can say a guy like Kwame Brown has done wrong. If he was a 2nd rounder he would probably be getting praised. So the only difference here is where the TEAM picked him. I could see if he had played like an all-star then got lazy.
That's just how the term "upside" goes in basketball. Generally, you take these Kwame/Darko/Skita type projects and hope through a combination of hard work, good coaching and development both on/off the court that this player will eventually materialize. Clearly, that's not always the case. Does that make the approach wrong, though? Absolutely not. Most NBA stars have panned out using that very same approach. RARELY do you see a player coming into this league ready to dominate on Day 1. You're being wayyyyy too naive here. You make it sound as if it's not okay to draft anybody that you may have the slightest doubt about. Again, these mega-busts aren't just names that somebody pulled out of a hat. These are big-time prospects that possess the tools necessary to succeed on the NBA level provided that they maximize their potential or at least come close to that which is why they were ranked then consequently drafted where they were at. Staying with the Kwame example, let's pretend for a moment that the Wizards didn't take him with the 1st pick or that each of the other 29 NBA teams could have had that #1 pick that year-- each and every team would have taken Kwame with a top pick in that draft. Does that mean that EVERY major scout/exec/GM in this league didn't do the "necessary research" (as you put it)? Or....is that more likely indicate that the player being discussed, which possessed the tools needed to succed, simply flopped and wasn't good enough?
Um... yes, you are -- if you're the one who takes copyrighted material from someone's site and posts it somewhere else without permission. This is something I deal with nearly every day in my line of work and have at times had to threaten lawsuits (and even actually file them) against people who assume if something is published on the Internet, it's okay to reprint it elsewhere. A radio DJ in Toledo used the same exact words I bolded above when I politely asked him to stop using copyrighted material from my website as if he'd written it himself. He changed his tune after having a new one ripped by my intellectual property attorney.
if you're going to be petty and semantic about it you're entirely wrong... Pointforward didn't post the article ergo he didn't steal it and his statement is semantically correct and you are incorrect. Even if posting copyrighted material is illegal, reading is not, which is what he was doing. The larger point is that if this thread isn't posted, he gets fewer clicks, so in light of the reciprocal nature of the relationship, and the fact that the OP probably didn't mean to maliciously harm the content owner, YET ANOTHER heads up probably would have been cooler (and gotten him more clicks in the long run) than him spazzing out, unless the poster specifically had previously posted entire articles by the dude repeatedly. Bowie got hurt. You can't include people whose performance or careers were cut short by acts of God as "busts." For example no one in their right minds is going to call Len Bias a draft bust even though he set back the Celtics for years... the dude just died. A lot of players did coke, like none of them died as a result of that on draft night except Bias. Busts are dudes like Yi who through their own fault cannot perform or Kedrick Brown who simply didn't have tools for the league.
i think shelden williams or ike diogu should be there instead of yi... maybe a top 15 list would have been better?
Except Dwyer's response wasn't for this thread, it was in another thread where the OP did post the entire article. Someone else copied Dwyer's response from another thread and posted it in this one, confusing anyone who didn't read the other thread.
Interesting read. As always, Kelly -- thanks. (clicked the link a couple of times ). Not sure I'd include anybody drafted at No. 10 or higher. Not over Jay Williams, and Eddie G. It's a crapshoot by then. But KD's criteria may have been different.
I've been giving heads-up on this site, over two names, since 2000. Be they on my articles, or others'. Over and over and over again people refuse to read, listen, or own up to internet protocol most of us learned in the Clinton administration. How many more years do I have to put up with it before people stop acting like idiots? Sorry I'm not "cool" enough for you, "bloop."
