The 2011 NBA Draft is upon us. In its honor we teamed up with Milton Un to create The NBA Top Ten Draft Busts infographic. Milton put together the amazing illustration and we added video of some of the player career low-lights. Who’d we miss?
It was pretty funny going back and watching video on some of these guys. You would think an endorsement from Tom Arnold would have solidified Marcus Fizer as a perennial force. Shows what we know.
Milton sent along some of his thoughts throughout the creation process:
The possibilities and potential for these young guys is beyond the imaginable. There’s so much hype, analysis, expectation, and hope built around each player that we forget about the inevitable: The BUST.
History tells us that there is a player somewhere in the draft that will not live up to the hype. A team that decides to choose the big man with the wobbly shins, but the potential to be a Moses Malone, over an athletic 6’6″ shooting guard with a suspect outside shot, and has been restrained under the system of his coach.
It’s really one of the most exciting and vulnerable moments in the season.
Be sure to check out Milton’s work at his website and follow him on twitter at @Miltonun. We love showing off new work from talented folks like Milton here at Hoopism.com. If you have an idea for a cool project you would like to debut or for a potential collaboration, reach out to us at contact@hoopism.com.
I hate seeing Oden in lists like theses. When he played healthy he was looking like a monster. I still am hoping that modern health technology will somehow allow him to play in the NBA consistently and have a good career.
Well done to whoever did this, however I need to point out that Marcus Fizer was the #4 pick in the 2000 draft behind Martin, Swift, and Miles.
EDITORS NOTE: Our bad. Fixed.
It still amazes me that Darko went as high as he did. You’d think that the lack of reliable footage would have been less willing to buy into the hype. It would’ve been interesting to see what would have happened had he actually seen some meaningful minutes while in Detroit.
Seriously awesome piece.
I know this goes back a ways, but larue martin has to be on this list:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/martila01.html
Drafted #1 overall. Only lasted 4 seasons, averaging 5.3 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 41% from the field. Drafted before Dr. J, bob mcadoo, and paul westphal. Definition of a draft bust.
Oden isnt really a bust, just a walking injury. When healhy he’s awesome. Definitely doesn’t deserve to be there over hasheem thabeet.
Really like this. Great job!
At any rate, everything looks flawless, except for one tiny detail. The Blazers didn’t add the silver stripe to their uniforms until around 2003, or 2004, making that Bowie jersey inaccurate.
EDITORS NOTE: Thanks! Been fixed.
Awesome work guys! As I said on Twitter I don’t agree with all but hey that’s actually a great sign of a top 10 list. I would say a glaring missing player is Bargnani. Every dig against Morrison applies and tack on Aldridge (who despite a slow start actually played rather well last season)
One other point is looking at Oden and Bowie. If a player like Morrison is a strike (flat out missing) then I’d call Oden and Bowie foul balls. In the ideal case they’d have worked but they weren’t bad players the team got unlucky with health. I’d actually rank Sam Perkins in the 1984 draft pretty poorly. He was picked in front of Charles Barkley, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, Alvin Robertson and John Stockton! Perkins actually did play well but man some greats were missed with that pick. . .
Amazing how Chris Washburn isn’t number 1 on the list and left off completely.
http://www.databasebasketball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=WASHBCH01%20
Dc,
Wow awesome one! I didn’t even realize that one. Follow up, he played fewer than 700 minutes and was drafted in front of Arvydas Sabonis, Nate McMillan and Dennis Rodman. Sure a lot of people missed on those players too but man that draft actually had a few Gems and to pick a complete miss with a 3rd pick is harsh.
“Olowokandi” has three O’s and one A, not the other way around. You could make the argument he has no ‘O’ but we won’t go there.
EDITORS NOTE: Thanks! Been fixed.
Love the list, but love the ARTWORK even more
Adam Morrison has 2 more rings than lebron
Just wanted to point out that, though Shawn Bradley was admittedly never a great player, he did average 2.5BPG for his career… Good enough for 9th ALL-TIME.
A guy who challenges every shot is going to get dunked on. Furthermore, most of those dunks in the video posted were him trying to help after a teammate got burned.
How could you leave out Frederic Weiss? Worst. Pick. Ever. At least with Oden, the only thing you could really say is he should have gone 2nd. Nobody was arguing that he wasn’t one of the top two. But Weiss? He sucked in France, he would have been beyond terrible here.
tickyburden4ever, maybe because weis was selected 15th in the draft, and didn’t have the expectations anywhere close to any of the other players mentioned? It was a bad pick no doubt, but mid first round picks aren’t typically locks to be productive NBA players. Plenty of other players have suffered the same fate. Doesn’t really garner top 10 busts of all time status. I’ve always wondered how long artest would’ve lasted in NY had they actually picked him, though.
good list but there is one glaring omission that needs to be added:
Bryant “Big Country” Reeves to the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995. This selection was one of the main reasons the Grizz could never succeed and it ultimately destroyed the franchise for Vancouver.
Still hurts after all these years, I want a team back! haha
If you’re including people like Oden, obviously injuries and accidents count towards bust status.
Why not Len Bias?
Speak of the devil! Regarding larue martin, posted today:
http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2011/06/real-sports-profiles-larue-martin/
ummmmm………..Yinka Dare?
I agree with dc
Chris Washburn!
(heartache for GSW fans)
Where’s Hasheem Thabeet? Oh yeah, D League.
Oden per 36-minute stats: 15 points and 12 rebounds. Career PER is 19.5. You should be careful including active players in lists like these, they could turn around to bite you.
And for the sake of his critics, I hope Greg does just that.
@Jay – all valid points. Obviously I’m just a Knick fan with a long-festering wound. I should also point out it all depends on how we define busts. For instance, I think Milicic was a worse pick than Oden, since there was far less objective evidence suggesting he was a better pick than Melo or Wade, and thus the pick was harder to justify. On the other hand, it’s hard to kill Portland for picking Oden over Durant based on the evidence. Durant was the better player, but they were considered 1 and 2. Sort of like Rose and Beasley.
I actually think this list is very poorly constructed. You guys took the easy way out and went for the low-lying fruit, the most widely known names, when you could have done some real research and identified guys who were picked in the top 10 who were never significant contributors to any NBA teams (Yi Jainli, Joe Alexander, Washburn, etc etc etc). As others have pointed out, it’s unfair (but lazy ane easy) to put Oden and Bowie on this list because they were felled due to injury. As another reader pointed out, unfair to put Bradly b/c although he was kind of a doofus, he was actually a signficant contributor on defense to several NBA teams. Are you really going to tell me that Shawn Bradley is a bigger bust than Joe Alexander? Fred Weis? Yi Jainli? Washburn? Thabeet? And we, the readers, don’t get paid to do this. Your karate is very weak….
@Liam yeah, when Oden is healthy, his PER is like a super star
After the finals, do we start including LeBrick?
Fantastic outwork! I love the detail in the drawings!
Add Washburn for sure. Dre must be some raptors fan whining about Bargnani not being on the list. Sure not much D as a center, but if you are averaging 20+ ppg, then you don’t belong on this list.
I don’t think Oden does either, as he could still come back and have a whole bunch of good years.
Ditto on Shawn Bradley. OK player, impactful but not a star.
He may have been selected a couple spots too high, but he lead the league in blocks, which gives him a BIG pass on being posterized. Some big men don’t even try to go for the block a lot of times.
And his point and rebounds were decent, though not stellar.
Name the 7’3 or bigger players who were better: Ming, Sampson, Sarbonis, and Big Z are the only “ultrabigs” who were noticably better.
And like Bradley (knee and foot) injuries hampered them all as the years went by.
DRE? How can you claim Bargnani is a bust? How many of the people on this list averaged over 20 pts in a season? Even if it was in his 5th season he was never a number one option and is on the upswing in his career. He shouldn’t have been a number one but he is a very effective offensive player and will continue to be…..go watch a youtube video or something.
I gotta major issue with banging on guys who got injured. They’re not busts. They didn’t play with broken bones, how is that their fault? It’s as hacky as a comedian with midget jokes.
How can T-Mac’s dunk on Shawn Bradley in the 2005 playoffs not be #1, let alone in the top 10 at all!?
i’m calling bs on oden’s inclusion. it’s unfair because the guy has a legitimate chance to reverse this because he has been beastly when healthy. if you’re putting oden, might as well put len bias. 82 games in 4 years > 0
Well, Greg Oden does belong on this list. He don’t get any benefit of doubt because he’s been injured. The point is, when it comes down to it, he’s not a productive part of his team. He can’t play huge minutes since the team don’t want him injured. On top of that since he was drafted back in 2007, he have played a full season yet. Since he came into the league he only played 82 games, that’s one season. Let me repeat, out of 328 regular season games, he only played 82, and most came within the last two seasons. Also Kandi Man was the worst pick of all time hands down. Some might say Sam Bowie but that’s only because he was drafted in front of three all-time greats. At least he still produced. But Kandi was drafted not only in front of multiple greats and all-stars, but he didn’t last long, and was unproductive.
SN: I’m not knocking Greg Oden, if he somehow get rid of those injuries I think he can last a long time in the league and be a pivotal big man.
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Where in God’s name is Derrick Coleman on this list?