After watching Vince Carter . . . have a less than spectacular series. I wonder, What players do you feel totally underperformed for their career. Esp the ones you thought you say something in. I know I expect even more out of Horry and Cassel They both had great careers but . .. I thought they were even more special than that! Rocket River
Funny, but let's review: D. Langhi - yeah, I thought he would play - swing and a miss B. Nachbar - Said he would be a rotational player - solid single. V. Span - Mythical in belief vs. what I said....I hated Rafer, and thought he should have been playing to FIND OUT, if he could be part of the future -INC. V. Wafer - liked him for the right price - solid single. 3 out of 4 baby. As for the op's question......Marcus Fizer for me...had all the tools and none of the work ethic necessary. DD
Derrick Coleman Rasheed Wallace (good players, both of them were) Kenny Anderson (I think he could've done more in his career) Stephon Marbury (he had the talent to be a top notch point guard, if he could control his ego). Roy Tarpley Christian Laettner Nick Van Exel (he could've made LA greater, if his attitude was better) Pervis Ellison
Yao Ming. I thought he would take the Rockets to the 2nd round multiple times, but serious injuries have plagued him for half his career.
Darko Milicic looked like he had so much potential - still hoping he could break out but doesn't seem likely anymore Rasheed Wallace - more athletic than Duncan better shooter than Webber better post up game than Garnett but produced way less than any of the above Nick Van Exel Incredible shotmaker, nifty ballhandler, plus a great post up game although he was a 2nd rounder, watching him play made me wonder why he didn't accomplish much more
Wow how did this take so long to get mentioned? His first year in Houston Red, I thought he was as good or better than Kobe at the time.
I don't think that, apart from that Toronto fiasco, Vince Carter really underperformed at all. He was drafted 5th overall behind such all time greats as Michael Olowokandi, Mike Bibby, Raef LaFrenz and Antwan Jamison. Nobody really expected him to become anything else than a flashy, scoring 2-guard. He just doesn't seem to have the drive and the mental makeup to be the best of all time. He might have been one of the more physically talented guys but that is just one part of the puzzle. People seem to want their teams to get the most physically talented guys [cough*]Hassan Whiteside[/cough*] and then when they "underperform", they want to crucify them. Very logical.
LOL I think Tinman only visits this site to post articles about Dream and to hate on Tmac...even if he isn't on the team anymore :grin: Anyway back on topic, based purely on ability I think the most dissapointing of players really got to be Carter and Rasheed Wallace. Both of them were blessed with enough talent to give both Jordan and Duncan a run for their money as greatest PF and SG, however they lack even half of the mental toughness Duncan and esp. Jordan have. Of course that's a really big IF though because Jordan and Duncan's mental toughness and drive is the biggest reason why their the GOAT SG and PF on the first place.
I don't think anyone had high expectations of him, but for a top pick, Bargnani sure is underachieving.
I'll go a little further down the list and list some former lottery picks 2000-2007: Sure, most of them were not supposed to be all-stars but some of them didn't manage to contribute absolutely anything in the NBA: William Avery Kedrick Brown Rodney White Marcus Fizer Jerome Moiso Courtney Alexander Nikolas Tskitisvili Dajuan Wagner Marcus Haislip Luke Jackson Yaroslav Korolev Acie Law
Vince Carter just didn't live up to the hype after people started comparing him to Michael Jordan. He was picked 5th and in Toronto he proved that it was a good pick. For me I will say so far Michael Beasley. He's young so he has time but right now it doesn't look too good. He has been solid in the regular season but I thought he would be better than this.
Don't get me wrong, most of these guys had good NBA careers with multiple All-star appearance. Even Pervis Ellison was having a decent NBA career, pre-injury and a 20-10 player. Worth a first pick, still arguable. But in basketball, Louisville has been somewhat of a bust factory, most of their high draft picks have been disappointing in the NBA with lone expectation being . . . Wes Unseld.
What no mention of Rashard Lewis, if I paid a guy 20M he better dominate a game and not be a 14ppg role player.
Rashard Lewis is wild card, because I think Orlando simply overpaid him. Mainly, the market caused that, if it were any other year, he would not have gotten that kind of money. People knew his talent was not worth that much. The Magic are like the Clippers with better luck and more success . . .
