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Ranking the 20 Biggest NBA Draft Busts of the Last 20 Years
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- Ranking the 20 Biggest NBA Draft Busts of the Last 20 Years
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The NBA Draft provides the biggest source of hope for franchises to turn things around. It's the most proven way of adding star talent in the NBA. Historically, bad teams wait for some draft lottery luck and hope to select the next franchise great to build their roster around.
Unfortunately, this doesn't always work out. Sometimes you land LeBron James or Victor Wembanyama at the top of the draft. Sometimes you end up as the butt of the joke for years to come. Let's take a look at teams who made a mess of their high lottery picks and ended up with the biggest draft busts in recent history.
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20. Johnny Davis - Washington Wizards , 2022, No. 10
Missing on a draft pick with the tenth overall selection is certainly understandable. But this was such a poor decision from the start that it needs to be on this list.
Davis was selected in the lottery as a prospect whose calling card was scoring. He averaged 19.7 points in his sophomore season at Wisconsin, but had shooting splits of 42.7/30.6/79.1. Everything else other than scoring in his game left plenty to be desired, and his scoring wasn't even particularly impressive.
Despite playing on one of the worst teams in the league for three seasons, Davis never cracked the rotation. He spent last season in the G League and wasn't dominant. He had more turnovers than assists, which led to his signing with a Turkish team this summer.
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19. Wesley Johnson - Minnesota Timberwolves , 2010, No. 4
Johnson had a better career than most of the players on this list, but given the expectations surrounding him when he entered the league, he was a big disappointment.
In his last season at Syracuse, Johnson was a game-changer. He wreaked havoc on both ends of the floor as a long, athletic wing who could do it all. In the NBA, he looked more like a backup who could do very little. He was fine defensively, but his offensive game never developed.
Johnson was out of the NBA by age 32 and spent a year playing for Panathinaikos before retiring.
18. Michael Beasley - Miami Heat , 2008, No. 2
Similar to Johnson, Beasley's career wasn't a complete dud. Despite his struggles on and off the court, Beasley carved out an 11-year career for himself, playing for seven different teams.
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Coming into the league, Beasley was seen as a can't-miss superstar. The only reason he wasn't No. 1 was Derrick Rose .
While Beasley could still put points on the board, his waxing and waning effort level, disciplinary issues, and inconsistencies forced him out of Miami after two seasons. He was able to find himself later and became an alright bench scorer at various points in his career, but he could never live up to expectations.
17. Joe Alexander - Milwaukee Bucks , 2008, No. 8
After three seasons at West Virginia, Alexander emerged out of nowhere to become a lottery pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. He had impressively worked his way up from being an under-recruited lower-level prospect to one of the most athletic players of his draft class. Many thought that he could become a high-end athletic power forward for years to come.
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Instead, the Bucks gave up on him after one season. He was traded to the Chicago Bulls in his second season in the NBA, but only appeared in eight games with his new team. He flamed out of the NBA after two seasons before embarking on a journeyman's career overseas.
16. Zaccharie Risacher - Atlanta Hawks , 2024, No. 1
Risacher's story is far from over as he is only entering his third season in the NBA. But it's almost impossible to imagine him living up to the hype of a first-overall pick. The fact that the Hawks already traded him for a veteran role player like Lu Dort proves where the franchise that drafted him saw him.
The French forward has the size, mobility, and ball skills to be a versatile rotation player, but he has to put it all together. His best-case scenario seems like a lower-level starter, which is a bad outcome for a top pick in any draft, even a weaker one like 2024.
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15. Killian Hayes - Detroit Pistons , 2020, No. 7
The Pistons needed to find their long-term point guard and franchise star after winning only 20 games in the 2019-20 season. In a draft that had LaMelo Ball , Tyrese Haliburton , and Tyrese Maxey drafted in the first round, the Pistons ended up with Killian Hayes.
The French-American guard was never able to establish himself as an NBA-worthy player. He was underathletic, and his shot never came along. He is still trying to stick around in the NBA, but the chances of him being anything more than a backup are slight to none.
14. Thomas Robinson - Sacramento Kings , 2012, No. 5
One pick before Damian Lillard in the 2012 NBA Draft, Thomas Robinson entered the league as one of the best collegiate players of the previous season. He was very dominant in Kansas and seemingly had all the physical and athletic tools to succeed in the NBA.
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In reality, arguably no team has given up on a top-five pick quicker than the Kings gave up on Robinson. After the emergence of DeMarcus Cousins , Sacramento couldn't find a big enough role for Robinson, so halfway through his rookie campaign, they traded him to the Houston Rockets .
Robinson last played in the NBA in 2017 with the Lakers . Since then, he has been on a global basketball tour, playing professionally in Indonesia, Russia, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
13. Jarrett Culver - Minnesota Timberwolves, 2019, No. 6
After emerging as an all-around offensive engine in his second season at Texas Tech, Culver was supposed to help Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins carry the Timberwolves to the next level.
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The problem was that Culver couldn't shoot, and he wasn't a good enough athlete or a ballhandler to consistently create shots for himself. In his two seasons in Minnesota, Culver shot 40.6% from the field, 28.8% from three, and a miserable 50.3% from the free-throw line. His four-year career remains one of the least efficient stints in NBA history and is a big reason why he spent last season with the Sendai 89ers of the Japanese B.League.
12. Jonny Flynn - Minnesota Timberwolves, 2009, No. 6
The Timberwolves selected two point guards with their back-to-back picks in the 2009 NBA Draft: Ricky Rubio at No. 5 and Jonny Flynn at No. 6. The seventh-overall pick was a man named Stephen Curry .
While Rubio had a successful career, Flynn did nothing in the NBA. He was traded away after two seasons in Minnesota. He played out the rest of his rookie-scale contract (not having his 2012-13 team option picked up) before playing in China, Australia, and Italy. But his professional career was cut short by injuries in 2014.
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11. Josh Jackson - Phoenix Suns , 2017, No. 4
Jackson was drafted between Jayson Tatum and De'Aaron Fox. Coming out of Kansas, he was seen as a two-way athlete who could make his presence felt all over the court. NBADraft.net listed his pro comps as Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler .
Other than his three-point shooting accuracy resembling Butler's, there wasn't anything Kawhi or Butler-like in Jackson's NBA career. He flamed out quickly as an inefficient scorer and has been out of the league since the 2021-22 season.
10. Dragan Bender - Phoenix Suns, 2016, No. 4
Before Josh Jackson, there was Dragan Bender. Four picks after Bender, the Suns selected Marquese Chriss . This meant that in a two-year span, the Suns drafted three players in the top eight, with none of them earning an extension after their rookie-scale contracts.
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Bender was seen as a jack-of-all-trades international prospect. He could dribble, pass, and shoot despite his seven-foot frame. But he was never able to put it all together. He was out of the NBA by 2020, and injuries forced him to retire early. He hasn't played since the 2022 season.
9. Jahlil Okafor - Philadelphia 76ers , 2015, No. 3
Okafor was supposed to be a core member of the Process-era Sixers. After being an excellent interior scorer in his lone season at Duke, the talented big man continued to put up a lot of points for Philly.
But it became obvious relatively quickly that Okafor wasn't suited to the modern NBA. He was slow-footed, couldn't shoot, and didn't protect the rim. There was simply not as much need for a traditional post scorer.
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Plus, Joel Embiid started to emerge as a potential star, and Okafor became expendable. He was out of the league in 2021, bouncing around several lower-level overseas leagues, before making a brief return to the NBA in the 2024-25 season. He last played in the Japanese league.
8. Derrick Williams - Minnesota Timberwolves, 2011, No. 2
This is the fourth Timberwolves draft pick on this list, which explains why Minnesota had a 13-year playoff drought between 2004 and 2018.
Williams had a very productive two-year stint with the Arizona Wildcats as a scoring combo forward. Combining physical and athletic tools with a nice scoring touch, Williams was effective both in the post and facing up. But he was never able to do much other than score in the NBA. His lack of defensive chops, passing, and shooting was a lot to overcome in the changing NBA.
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He was traded to the Kings in his third season in the league, before bouncing around until the 2017-18 season. He has had a pretty successful career in the EuroLeague, but he was never able to live up to the hype of a second-overall selection.
7. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - Charlotte Hornets , 2012, No. 2
In a draft that had Anthony Davis , Bradley Beal , Damian Lillard, and Andre Drummond in the top 10, the Hornets ended up with Kidd-Gilchrist with the No. 2 overall pick.
This was an ambitious pick, as Kidd-Gilchrist was seen as an offensively limited, defense-first wing in Kentucky. That reputation continued in the NBA. He played eight seasons in Charlotte before injuries derailed his career, but more than that, it was the lack of a jump shot and scoring ability.
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6. James Wiseman - Golden State Warriors , 2020, No. 2
After Kevin Durant left and Klay Thompson suffered an ACL tear, the Warriors had a transition season in 2019-20. They tanked successfully and landed the No. 2 overall pick. Instead of trading the pick or selecting a more NBA-ready player who could contribute right away, the Warriors selected talented but raw big man James Wiseman.
On a team that had championship aspirations, Wiseman was never able to establish his career. He struggled to catch the ball offensively and was never able to make an impact defensively. Golden State insisted that he was going to be a core member of their future, even after missing the entire 2021-22 season with injury, but they eventually had to trade him to Detroit.
Since then, he has been bouncing around the league trying to hang onto a roster spot.
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5. Hasheem Thabeet - Memphis Grizzlies , 2009, No. 2
Thabeet was the most dominant defensive player in college basketball in his three seasons at UConn. He drew comparisons to Dikembe Mutombo, towering over everyone with his seven-foot-two frame and massive wingspan.
The Grizzlies drafted Thabeet over James Harden and Steph Curry, but it became obvious that he was a bust when he was sent down to the NBA Development League as a rookie. He never ended up playing as much as he did as a rookie, averaging 13 minutes per game in 68 games for Memphis.
4. Markelle Fultz - Philadelphia 76ers, 2017, No. 1
It's still not clear what exactly happened to Fultz. An electrifying offensive force as a Washington Husky, Fultz seemingly lost all of his talent when he stepped into the NBA.
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There were conflicting reports about Fultz's health throughout his tenure with the Sixers, and a mysterious shoulder injury forced him to change his shooting mechanics. He was never able to shoot the ball the same way, making him one of the least efficient offensive players in the league.
Fultz was able to carve out a career for himself thanks to his defense, becoming a decent reserve for the Orlando Magic , but he currently remains a free agent with less than a month left before the season.
3. Greg Oden - Portland Trail Blazers , 2007, No. 1
One of the biggest "what ifs" in NBA history, Oden was supposed to be the next great big man. He was a dominant two-way force in college, but his pro career was ravaged by injuries.
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Chronic knee injuries derailed his NBA career and kept his Blazers career to 82 games. He made a brief comeback attempt with the Miami Heat in the 2013-14 season, but his body once again failed him.
2. Marvin Bagley - Sacramento Kings, 2018, No. 2
Bagley hasn't had as bad a career as many of the names on this list. But the fact that he is this high on this list is due to who was selected behind him.
Even though Luka Doncic was broadly considered the more talented player, the Kings thought that, because they already had De'Aaron Fox, Bagley was the better selection. This immediately proved to be a mistake, as Doncic proved that he was a superstar in the making in his rookie campaign.
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Bagley has been an alright bench player throughout his career, and he will get minutes on the Nuggets next season, but he will always be remembered as the guy Sacramento passed on Luka Doncic for.
1. Anthony Bennett - Cleveland Cavaliers , 2013, No. 1
When Bennett's name was announced as the top pick in the draft, Bill Simmons yelled an infamous "Whoa". Nobody, including Bennett himself, expected him to be the No. 1 overall pick.
The top of the draft was considered to be wide-open, but Victor Oladipo , Otto Porter Jr., or Nerlens Noel were considered to be more likely options than Bennett.
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Bennett didn't just look like a bad first-overall pick right away; he clearly looked like he didn't belong. At no point in his four-year NBA career did he look like a future rotation player. It took the Cavs one year to pull the plug on the experiment, and they traded him to Minnesota ahead of his second season in the league.
He was out of the NBA after his fourth season and he hasn't made much of a career overseas, either.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/superlatives as Ranking the 20 Biggest NBA Draft Busts of the Last 20 Years .
