I know a lot of us like to brag about the prospects we knew would be great pro's when others were doubting, but there's a flipside to that... all of our draft "misses." Who were some guys that you thought would be great pro's that would up being flops? Do you think they could have been better pro's in another situation, or did you just put too much faith into them? I think my list's gotta look something like this - 2005 - #29 Wayne Simien - Yeah, he was undersized, but how many undersized PF's have gone onto great pro careers? A First Team All-American, averaging something like 20/11 at a major program like Kansas... sounded awfully similar to Carlos Boozer's situation. I was sure that he'd at least be a serviceable backup, but well, he barely lasted two years in the league and is now retired from basketball. 2005 - #44 Martynas Andriuskevicius - Never seen him play... bought into the hype and his "top 5" status in mocks a year prior... basically chugged the Euro kool-aid. 2006 - #3 Adam Morrison - Wasn't as gung-ho about Morrison as a lot of people were, but I always thought he could have had a Kevin Martin-esque roll in the league. The way I saw him just absolute tear my Spartans apart sold me on his play convinced me of that, and I'm still convinced, to this day, that maybe if he had more of a vote of confidence from the coaching staff in Charlotte, he would have developed in to a capable scorer. 2006 - #25 Shannon Brown - He's not a bust like a lot of guys on this list, but I expected him to be a flat-out superstar in the league. Back in this board's JBB days, I used to always call him Baby Dwyane. A lot of that is just homerism as an MSU fan, but shit, the guy was the biggest recruit we'd had in decades. The only players ranked ahead of him out of HS?... LeBron James and Luol Deng. Besides, it's not like he didn't perform at MSU. As the third option as a junior, he was by far the best player on the team, and his statistics got skewed because he was put in a lot of situations where Ager couldn't create his own shot, so Brown had to pull "bail-out" duty with only a few seconds left on the shot-clock. I mean, he was a straight up highlight reel at State, made good decisions, and played great defense - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFLJiXfX9qc I still think he can be a team's first option, but I doubt he'll ever get that chance in his career. 2008 - #2 Michael Beasley - Don't feel that bad about this one, because he could be an absolute superstar in the league if he wasn't such a headcase. There are several more, but those are the ones that jump out. There are also guys in the last four drafts that I thought would have done better, but I still think it's too early to really shit on any of them...
Man, I know it's early, but I thought Thomas Robinson last year was going to put up some numbers......was I wrong or what? Sent from my baller ass iPad FAMS!
Yeah, I did too. That's why I sorta cut off my list at '08 though... there's still time for guys like Robinson and Turner... I was really confident in Evan Turner too, but it's not like his career is over... he actually had a great year last year. 13.3/6.3/4.3 at 24 ain't bad. I'm sure most teams would love to have a player that well rounded on their squad. He's got another 10 years or so in his career (barring injury)... so I'm just going to wait to see how those turn out. How do you consider Love a "miss" though?
I hear ya. Robinson and Waiters were my two favorites behind Davis last year, and neither really showed much. Jury is probably still out on Waiters, I guess. Bennett and Oladipo are my two favorites this year, so I might be early condemning them.
I thought The Love Boat wasn't going to do shit! Slow, undersized, white guy....... No way did I think he would do what he's done! But I was right on about Morrison! Sent from my baller ass iPad FAMS!
Ah man, got ya... didn't even consider the guys that did better than you thought they would... was just thinking about the guys that wound up disappointing... I think Al Horford's that guy for me though... never thought he merited a top 3 pick... thought he was being overdrafted because of Florida's tournament success...
Ya, my bad. Those other guys I named I thought would be good and ended up sucking! Sent from my baller ass iPad FAMS!
In a very similar vein, I was SO annoyed by Joakim Noah that was absolutely dead-set opposed to the Blazers drafting him when he was the projected #1 pick and we had the most ping pong balls. I was ecstatic when he surprisingly went back to Florida. Now I'd kill to have him on the team.
In my defense, my annoyance was with his hair and personality. I never got around to projecting whether I thought he'd be a good player...
I'm with you on Noah. I've never pulled a 180 on a player like I have with Noah. He went from my most hated player in the game to one of my favorites. That Florida team was not just obnoxious, but they weren't even the most talented team in '06 or '07, yet they still won both years back-to-back. Really, UConn and Ohio State should have banners right now from '06 and '07, respectively, but that's the tournament for ya... Honestly, the guy off those teams that I thought would have the best NBA career was Corey Brewer. He's turned out to be a decent pro, but I was still pretty damn wrong with that one... it was just hard to get behind and be unbiased about any Florida Gator back then... BTW - Who was this great big man that completely dominated Florida's Horford/Noah frontcourt in '07? Seems like he should be an all-time great by now... [video=youtube;Wts9V9kIKH4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wts9V9kIKH4[/video]
I remember having a big time argument with Denny leading up to that draft about whether Love or OJ Mayo would be the better NBA player. I took Love, Denny thought Mayo would be better. Good call, me! Ones I didn't get: Steph Curry- Wasn't buying him as a true 1 and thought he'd end up like Redick, Fredette, etc. where the guy is damn near useless except when he frees himself up for the occasional spot up 3. Johnny Flynn, Acie Law, and DJ Augustin- Don't know why I lumped them in together but I was big fans of all 3. Ryan Anderson- watched him a LOT at Cal and loved his skills but I thought there's no way in hell a 6'9, slow, very lightweight PF can make it in the NBA. Bobby Jones- Second round guy I really liked for his defense and all around game for a wing. Thought he'd for sure stick as a defensive role player. Wesley Johnon- self explanatory.
