Darko, Oden among pack of worst picks Tuesday, December 29, 2009 | Print Entry Posted by Chad Ford The NBA Draft can be quite a crap shoot. Highly regarded players in college, high school or international play can end up being busts in the NBA. When a team takes a bust in the early lottery, it can have devastating effects for teams. Here's a look at 10 of the worst draft picks from the past decade. Virtually all of the draft picks have one thing in common -- a team swung for the upside fence and ended up striking out. 1. Darko Milicic, Detroit Pistons, No. 2 overall in 2003 Darko Milicic's name will forever live in infamy in Detroit and on my personal Wikipedia page. Milicic was a super talented 17-year-old Serbian big man who was known as an athletic, 7-foot-1, forward who could play in the paint and shoot it from the perimeter. I traveled all the way to Serbia to see him in November 2002, along with a number of NBA scouts and we were all wowed by his skill to size ratio. An amazing workout in front of Pistons GM Joe Dumars and myself in New York the day before the NBA Draft lottery convinced us both that he was going to be a star. Long-time Pistons scout Will Robinsion (the guy who discovered Dumars and Grant Hill) compared him to a young Wilt Chamberlain. The Pistons were so enthralled that they ended up drafting Milicic ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Alas, just a few months after getting drafted, Darko's name became more punchline than legend. Head coach Larry Brown had no need for Darko on his NBA Championship team. Milicic would play only in blowouts or at the end of games, and fans anointed him the Human Victory Cigar. During his third season in the league, the Pistons gave up on him and traded him to Orlando for a future first round pick. Milicic began to show some promise in Orlando alongside Dwight Howard, but Orlando decided to go in a different direction when Milicic hit free agency and Darko signed with the Grizzlies, expecting big playing time. It never happened. He now earns regular DNPs at the end of the New York Knicks bench and has recently indicated that he wants to return to Europe next year -- ending his NBA career and sealing his destiny as the worst bust of the decade. 2. Kwame Brown, Washington Wizards, No. 1 overall in 2001 Michael Jordan may be the greatest player to ever play the game. But as a GM, he got off to a shaky start when he took Brown with the No. 1 pick in the 2001 draft. Jordan was wowed by Brown's size and body. In a workout, the day before the draft, Brown dominated another top prospect, Tyson Chandler, in a one-on-one workout and afterwards told Jordan that if MJ drafted him, he'd never regret it. Yeah, right. Brown got off to a shaky start with head coach Doug Collins and eventually slid into the abyss. His confidence shattered by Jordan and Collins' rapid-fire criticism, Kwame never really developed. While he had a ton of physical abilities, his bad hands and lack of self-esteem have kept him from ever living up to his potential. Had Jordan drafted Pau Gasol (who went No. 3 that year) his reputation in the front office may have been much, much better. 3. Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Denver Nuggets, No. 5 overall in 2002 New Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe famously drafted Tskiitshvili without ever actually seeing him play. Vandeweghe had been the guy behind Dirk Nowitzki's development in Dallas and based on Mike D'Antoni's glowing reports about Skita (D'Antoni was Tskitishivili's head coach in Italy), Vandeweghe decided to gamble. Unfortunately for the Nuggets, Skita was more myth than player. He had all the physical tools you want in a forward, but had no real basketball IQ. He was a kid who looked terrific in workouts and clueless in an actual game. Four picks later, the Phoenix Suns drafted Amare Stoudemire. Stoudemire went on to win Rookie of the Year honors. Skita was out of the league four years later with a career 30-percent FG percentage. 4. Adam Morrison, Charlotte Bobcats, No. 3 overall in 2006 -- over Brandon Roy Chalk Morrison up as Michael Jordan's second devastating mistake as a GM. This time the scene moves to Charlotte, where Jordan had just bought a stake in the Bobcats and was named the team's vice president. The Bobcats were in desperate need of a 2 guard and Roy looked like the perfect fit for the Bobcats. However, Jordan was wowed by Morrison's career at Gonzaga, loved his workout and decided to gamble on the athletically challenged Morrison. The results have been disastrous for Charlotte. Morrison was awful as a rookie. He missed his entire sophomore season with a serious knee injury and then was ultimately traded to the Lakers. Meanwhile Roy has gone on to be one of the best 2 guards in the game. 5a. Marvin Williams, Atlanta Hawks, No. 2 overall in 2005 -- over Chris Paul Marvin Williams was the consensus upside pick in the draft. He was incredibly skilled for a player his size and had just put on a terrific performance in the NCAA Tournament. However, every scout in the league knew that Paul was going to be special and was a perfect fit in Atlanta. The Hawks had a gaping hole at the point guard position and had drafted two athletic forwards -- Josh Smith and Josh Childress -- the year before. Paul would've been the perfect complement to them. Even Paul knew it and a few days before the draft he campaigned for the Hawks to take him at No. 2. In a move that only Billy Knight could pull off, Knight ignored all of the context and selected Williams over Paul. At the time, a source inside the Hawks front office told me that Knight believed Paul was too small and that he really only liked big point guards. Paul has gone on to be one of the best point guards in the history of the game. Williams has been an average player who has especially struggled of late after inking a five-year deal as a free agent this summer. 5b. Shelden Williams, Atlanta Hawks, No. 5 overall in 2006 -- over Rajon Rondo One year after the CP3 debacle, Knight had a chance to redeem himself. Washington guard Brandon Roy looked like he could play some point guard in the league. Kentucky point guard Rajon Rondo looked like the perfect type of point guard to push the pace and play smothering defense. But Knight balked at both Roy and Rondo and instead took Williams about 10 places higher than any other GM had predicted he would go. Of course, the Hawks had already drafted three other forwards in the past two years and while the thinking was that Williams could play some center for them, it didn't work out. The Hawks gave up on Williams a few years later. Meanwhile Roy is a two time All-Star and Rondo has a championship ring and huge contract extension with the Celtics. 6. Yaroslav Korolev, Los Angeles Clippers, No. 12 overall in 2005 Head coach Mike Dunleavy has historically done a lot of the Clippers scouting over the years. In 2005 Dunleavy took a disastrous trip to the Euroleague Final Four in Moscow. There he saw an international Juniors tournament that featured a young Russian named Yaroslav Korolev. Korolev was the Russian equivalent of Dunleavy's son, Mike Dunleavy Jr. He had a high basketball IQ, moved well, shot the ball with range and could play the point guard in a pinch. Dunleavy fell in love and promised Korolev that he'd take him with the 12th pick -- never thinking that a player like Danny Granger might slip all the way down to 12th. Korolev turned out to be a disaster. While he did look great in that Juniors tournament, he had no real experience playing at the highest levels of the game and was completely overwhelmed. 7. Fran Vasquez, Orlando Magic, No. 11 overall in 2005 This list is beginning to read like the perils of drafting international players. In this case, GM Otis Smith just didn't do his homework. Vasquez was a big, bouncy forward in Spain having a breakout season. Every scout in the league was high on him. But there was a problem. Several weeks before the draft Vasquez began having doubts about playing in the NBA and started getting lucrative offers to stay in Spain. Virtually every team in the league got the message and Vasquez plummeted on our Big Board. The Magic didn't know what was going on, didn't interview Vasquez before the draft or talk to his agent and then -- surprise! -- found out a few days after drafting him that Vasquez didn't really want to play in the NBA. Five years later, Vasquez is still in Spain and still doesn't have any real desire to play in the league. Players the Magic passed on to get Vasquez include Danny Granger, David Lee and Monta Ellis. 8. Rafael Araujo, Toronto Raptors, No. 8 overall in 2004 Newly minted Raptors GM Rob Babcock didn't take long to screw up the Raptors. The Raptors had just landed Chris Bosh in the 2003 draft and had been playing him at center. Bosh wanted to move to the four so Babcock began scouring the draft for a center. The problem was, there weren't any great centers other than Dwight Howard and Emeka Okafor in the 2004 draft. Instead of taking the best player available (i.e. Luol Deng or Andre Iguodala) or taking a risk on a young, athletic big like Andris Biedrins, Babcock selected Araujo, a 24-year-old Brazilian who had put up good numbers at BYU. Most scouts had him ranked somewhere between the mid- to late-first round on the draft boards. The Raptors reached and then watched Araujo flounder for two years before sending him in a trade to the Jazz. Araujo played just 28 games in his third season before falling out of the league. 9. Greg Oden, Portland Trail Blazers, No. 1 overall in 2007 -- over Kevin Durant This may be very premature, but after Oden went down with his second season-ending injury the question has to be asked -- did the Blazers blow it when they drafted Oden over Kevin Durant? The short-term answer is a definitive yes. Durant has turned himself into one of the most dominating scorers in the game. Oden, by the time the season is over, will have missed two of his first three seasons with injuries. The long-term answer is a little harder. Oden was beginning to look worthy of that No. 1 pick early this season before the injury. If he can ever find a way to stay healthy, he still has the size and defensive instincts to be a great NBA center. But with so many questions swirling around his long-term health, it's becoming impossible to justify Oden over Durant. 10. Jordan Hill, New York Knicks, No. 8 overall in 2009 -- over Brandon Jennings This one, too, may be a bit premature. We are only a third of the way into the season and big men, especially big men like Hill, take longer to develop. However Hill can't find any minutes on a lottery team while Jennings has been terrific in the early going. Given Jennings' strong play it seems like a stretch to say that the Knicks drafted the right guy. It could be a costly mistake. The Knicks are trying to lure LeBron James as a free agent this coming summer. They need to convince LeBron that they have enough young talent around him to make them contenders. Having Jennings on the roster could make a pretty impressive case. Hill? Not so much.
Oden: by that rationale, the worst pick in history was Len Bias. They didn't even get a summer league out of him. But can you fault the Celtics for taking him? Of course not. So it's a bad rationale.
I will admit it is tough watching Durant rack those kind of numbers up. There is no way he does that with LA and Brandon here. I think in the long run, Greg is still the player to take us to the next level, it just might take longer then we planned.
Even if Oden exploded tomorrow, it would still be stupid to say it was a "bad pick". You can say Portland had bad luck after they picked Oden, but the pick itself made perfect sense and would have been made by at leat 90% of GMs. You probably can't say that about Bowie, because he had already had serious injuries in college, and because Jordan was almost certainly obviously the better talent in college. By contrast, Darko, Kwame Brown, Tskitishvili et. al. were very risky picks given how little was known about each player.
Really? If I were a Celtic fan, darn tooting I would fault the team for drafting a guy with that level of a drug problem.
I was only a couple months old when it happened.. did they know he had the problem when they drafted him?
Immediately following the Pau Gasol pick, the Chicago Bulls drafted Eddie Curry. I think Kwame Brown is getting lots more PT than Curry these days.
Might be interesting to read an article on the Decades BEST PICKS. Who might be on that list? I think Minnesota might win this one...then within an hour, be the feature of yet another article; Decades worst Draft Day Trades!
Ford just said in his chat that the four categories he considered while making the BEST list were: First overall, best non-first overall, best late-first round, and best second round. He mentioned LeBron, DWade, Parker, and Redd. http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/30108
BUT: Curry at least showed some talent ONCE. (I was going to say that Curry got traded for more than Kwame, but then I remembered that the Lakers gave up Caron Butler for Kwame Brown...)
Supposedly not...which makes you wonder how carefully they scouted the kid. After-the-fact, the official story was that Bias had never used hard drugs before the night of his death. I know very few people who believe that.
That's your counter-argument? Are we going with that? There's people who don't believe we landed on the moon. There's people who don't believe OJ did it. Someone who hangs out with those people can use that as a counter-argument, too!
I think it's fair to say we made a mistake. At the time, sure, we made the right pick. Hindsight is a bitch. He could come back and look like he did before the injury but for how long? He missed two of his first three seasons! With him it's like not if he gets hurt again but when.
There were reports prior to the draft that raised serious concerns about Oden's health. So the analogy to Bias is not a good one, IMO.
