NBA Draft: 30 Worst No. 1 overall picks in league history (Updated 2023)

30 worst No. 1 overall picks in league history: 22. John Lucas

Stats:

• 10.7 points
• 7.0 assists

John Lucas is, by all accounts, a wonderful man. A longtime coach and current assistant coach of player development with the Houston Rockets, Lucas runs a substance-abuse recovery program for young athletes and is a mentoring presence for many players.

The reason why Lucas shows up on this list and didn’t play his way off of it was his own personal struggles with drug abuse. Lucas was a national phenom at the college level, starring for the Maryland Terrapins and making an All-American team three times, twice on the first team. He was a deserving pick first overall by the Houston Rockets.

While never a prolific scorer, Lucas was a gifted and willing passer. For his career, he averaged 7.0 assists per game, and he dishes as many as 10.7 per game in 1983-84 to hit a career-high. He played just two seasons with the Rockets to start his career before they flipped him to the Warriors for the rights to sign Rick Barry.

Lucas played well for a number of years after that, but would often miss games and struggled with his substance abuse. It came to a head in 1986 when Lucas, back with the Rockets, failed two drug tests and was waived by the team, missing their run to the NBA Finals. Thankfully Lucas was able to get help and resume his career a year later, playing four more seasons and even averaging a career-high 17.5 points per game in 1986-87.

In total Lucas played 928 games, starting just 266 of them. He does rank 28th in NBA history in career assists, seven times finishing in the top 10 in assists. He totaled 53.7 win shares; after him, that number will take a dive as we step from the “pretty good” tier of our list to the “not good” and “downright bad” tiers.

Should have picked: Robert Parish (8th), Adrian Dantley (6th), Alex English (23rd), Dennis Johnson (29th)