My Top 15 NBA Draft Busts from 1995- 2010

Darko Milicic
Source: www.interbasket.net

Year in and year out, there will always be a lottery pick or even a bunch them who will turn out to be busts. In other words, these are the guys who are drafted high but don’t get to live up to the expectations. But the question is, should the blame really be put on the players? Or is it more logical to say that the blame should be put on those who drafted them based on potential. Let us evaluate this together as I name my top 15 draft busts from 1995- 2010. (Note: Feel free to add any player whom you think should have been included in the list)

15) Joe Smith (Drafted 1^st overall, ’95 draft): It was very hard not to go for Joe at #1 during the ’95 draft. He had a stellar career at Maryland and the Warriors badly needed to replace the void left by Chris Webber. Unfortunately, the only thing that people will remember from Joe Smith is how much he bounced around from team to team.

14) Raef LaFrentz (Drafted 3^rd overall, ’98 draft): Honestly, Raef had a decent run with the Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks. It was just that during the ’98 draft, Paul Pierce, Antawn Jamison, Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter were all available when Raef was selected at #3.

13) Greg Oden (?) (Drafted 1^st overall, ’07 draft): I put a question mark beside Oden’s name because he is still young and he can still turn it around. But, seeing Kevin Durant, whom Portland could have taken at #1, is more than enough for me to put Oden on this list.

12) (Tie) Adonal Foyle and Tony Battie (Drafted 8^th overall and 5^th overall respectively, ’97 draft): Both were bench warmers throughout most of their careers. They were at best, role players. And both of them were taken ahead of Tracy McGrady.

11) (Tie) Lorenzen Wright, Kerry Kittles, Samaki Walker, Erick Dampier, Todd Fuller and Vitaly Potepenko (Drafted 7^th overall to 12^th overall respectively, ’96 draft): This is very simple, all of these guys were taken ahead of the greatest basketball player in our generation, Kobe Bryant. I didn’t mention the first 6 players taken in the ’96 draft because they turned out to be excellent players as well.

10) Robert Traylor (Drafted 6^th overall, ’98 draft): Who would ever forget that Milwaukee traded the rights of reigning finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki to Dallas to get Robert Traylor some 13 years back.

9) Kwame Brown (Drafted 1^st overall, ’01 draft): When MJ drafted Kwame Brown at #1, everyone knew that it was one of those things that could really go well or could really go bad. Unfortunately for Michael, Kwame did not really pan out the way he envisioned him to.

10) Joe Alexander (Drafted 8^th overall, ’08 draft): He impressed everyone during the NCAA tournament, but his game didn’t translate well in the pros. He is currently a star in the D- League.

9) Dajuan Wagner (Drafted 6^th overall, ’02 draft): He started like a house on fire. Yet, after teams started playing D on him, the former high school phenom started struggling and was out of the league eventually.

8) Jonathan Bender (Drafted 5^th overall, ’99 draft): He was injury prone and he never produced the way he was expected to. One more thing, the Pacers traded Antonio Davis for this kid.

7) Frederic Weis (Drafted 15^th overall, ’99 draft): Even though I didn’t want to mention guys taken in the teens, the Knicks did pass up on a local kid named Ron Artest to draft Mr. Weis. All we can remember from this French dude was how Vince Carter posterized him during the Olympics.

6) Marcus Fizer (Drafted 4^th overall, ‘00 draft): Big time scorer in college but he had a hard time in the NBA because he was a “tweener”. He was too small to play the 4 and was too slow to play the 3.

5) Adam Morrison (Drafted 3^rd overall, ’06 draft): Michael did it again when he drafted Morrison. He was “The Superstar” in college basketball together with J.J. Redick. Even Stephen A. Smith thought that Adam Morrison would be great. Yet, as we all know, the guy is no longer in the league. At least, he was able to garner two championship rings from the Lakers.

4) Stromile Swift (Drafted 2^nd overall, ’00 draft): Mr. Dick Vitale was so high on this guy. Yet, Stromile never lived up to the hype. He put up nasty dunks but those could never cover up for his lack of production.

3) Michael Olowokandi (Drafted 1^st overall, ’98 draft): The “Kandi Man” remained a myth in spite of all the hype. Aside from being injury prone, he bounced around the league and he never produced the monster numbers that the Clippers had hoped for.

2) Hasheem Thabeet (Drafted 2^nd overall, ’09 draft): Major bust. The only consolation that Memphis got from Thabeet was that he was traded to Houston for Shane Battier this past season.

1) (Tie) Darko Milicic (Drafted 2^nd overall, ’03 draft) and Nikoloz Tskitishvili (drafted 5^th overall, ’02 draft): I was one of those who were tricked by Darko’s size and age. Of course, Darko was a major bust especially with Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade all available during that time. As for Mr. Tskitishvili, the Nuggets drafted him even if they haven’t seen him play. At least, even if Tskitishvili turned out so bad, it helped the Nuggets get one of the worst records, and they were able to draft Carmelo Anthony the following year.