2017 NBA Draft: 5 potential busts
The 2017 NBA Draft is in the books, and teams are resting their hopes on newly drafted talent. Which players selected could turn out to be busts?
Every team wants to draft the next great player, turning every single selection into a positive contributor who outperforms his draft slot. Unfortunately, history tells us that many of the players chosen in the 2017 NBA Draft will turn out to disappoint or, at worst, wash out.
No draft slot is immune either, from top to bottom. In 2013 the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Anthony Bennett first overall, and he’s currently not on an NBA roster. The fifth pick in that same draft, Alex Len, has not been able to crack more than 23.3 minutes per game on a bad Phoenix Suns team. The ninth pick, Trey Burke, was only the fourth-best point guard on his own team and was traded for a late second-rounder to the Washington Wizards, just to fall to fourth on their depth chart as well.
The Sacramento Kings are intimately familiar with draft busts, from Jimmer Fredette to Nik Stauskas to Thomas Robinson to Ben McLemore — all selected in the top 10 sometime in the last six drafts, all underperforming their draft position if they are even still in the league.
Not every draft bust comes from a player failing to produce at a high level. Some picks become draft busts because of crippling injuries. This famously happened to Greg Oden, one of the best center prospects in recent draft history. At the time, Portland was completely justified in selecting Oden over Kevin Durant, but think about how their history would have changed if they had taken Durant instead.
In the 2014 NBA Draft, Joel Embiid fell to third in light of injury concerns; while those concerns are still present, when on the court Embiid has been the best player in that draft class. Jabari Parker, selected second overall in that draft, had a clean bill of health on draft night and has since torn his ACL twice. Busts aren’t always predictable, either.
As the lights are turned off at the Barclays Center and the 2017 NBA Draft comes to a close, what players have a greater chance to underperform the expectation of their draft slot and provide a poor return for their teams? More directly, which players have the potential to become busts?
Here are the five biggest potential busts of the 2017 NBA Draft class, ranked from lowest to highest draft position.