The Draft Blunders That Ruined an NBA Franchise..

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Throughout NBA history, there's been plenty of draft picks and decisions teams regret to this day. Back in 2009, one of the biggest mistakes ever happened. The 0-9 draft clash showed plenty of potential, and Blake Griffin went number one to the Los Angeles Clippers, but the next pick ruined what could have been. With the Clippers selecting Blake Griffin, this ended up putting a dent in the Grizzlies' draft plan, where they went on to select Ashim Thabeat, because he was supposed to be the next best player overall. The Memphis Grizzlies took a huge risk at the beat, and they must have seen something in his game, and imagined he'd be a great producer for the team. Turns out, the beat would barely play over a thousand minutes for the Memphis Grizzlies, even though he was considered a high-rod draft pick. He was a shot-blocking machine in college, but it never followed him into the NBA. He had no definitive offensive skill either, which made him a non-factor on both ends of the court. Ultimately, he had zero motor and lacked the drive to improve, which is why he's unheard of today. To make matters even worse, he was never selected for an NBA All-Star team, and his entire NBA career only lasted five seasons. With the very next pick in the 2009 draft, Oklahoma City Thunder selected James Harden, a player who'd become sixth man of the year, and helped push him to a finals appearance. And then after being traded to the Houston Rockets for the 2012-13 NBA season, James went on to become a starter, and this showed everyone why he'd be considered the superstar. Still be considered in his prime, Harden continues to prove why he's one of the best players in the league present day. In 2018, Harden led the NBA in scoring, and even captured the MVP award. And in the 2019-2020 season, he's putting up 38 points, seven assists to six rebounds per game. Was Ashim Thabeed in this situation? He's in the NBA's G League with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. He knows he's classified as one of the biggest draft bust of all time, but when he's asked about it, Ashim said, I go and look at it, I think, wow, why did you go the way you went? But I can't focus on that. I have to focus on the now. Ashim's still optimistic that he can make an NBA comeback constantly working out. Now, with Kobe Bryant being one of the most loyal players ever staying with Los Angeles his whole 20 year career, one of the biggest draft mistakes in NBA history is what caused this. Back in 1996, the Charlotte Hornets at the 13th pick, and that's where they selected Kobe. But with the Hornets at the time already having plenty of guards and forwards, they felt the trade was necessary. The deal went down immediately, and they did a swap for Vlaid Devlok from the Lakers. This deal seemed like a solid idea at the time, because Bryant was unproven and Devlok was already establishing himself. But all along, the Lakers GM at the time had seen something special in Kobe that no one else could see. Kobe himself went into detail later on in his career looking back on his draft days saying, Charlotte never wanted me. Cohen told me he didn't want me. It wasn't a question of me even playing there. They had a couple of guards already, a couple of small forwards already, so it wasn't like I'd be off the bench much. I mean, I'd grown up watching basketball. I knew who Dave Cohen was and was pretty excited to play for him. Then I was like, oh, all right. I quickly transitioned from a smiley kid to killer instinct. Then Cohen told me, we don't really need you here. Kobe coming into the NBA draft fresh out of high school, pretty much nobody ever put themselves in this type of situation before him. Him beginning his career at 18 years old was seen as a huge risk, but LA was comfortable in what his upside could be. On top of trading Vlaid Devak for him, they cleared enough cap space to go off to the biggest free agent that summer, Shaquille O'Neal. The pair ended up bringing multiple championships to LA, and they both were commemorated by the Lakers. Kobe even played 20 years, putting himself in a position to be considered one of the greatest scorers, one of the greatest shooting guards, one of the clutches players, and arguably one of the greatest players of all time during his two decades with the Lakers. At this point in time, Kevin Durant's continued to be one of the biggest names around the NBA for quite some time. His time with the Sonics, Thunder, and the Warriors cemented him as one of the greatest scorers ever and one of the most unguardable players of all time as he won an MVP in two championships. Present day, Katie's teamed up with Kyrie Irving and Brooklyn with the Nets, and it's still yet to be seen what this duo can become. But it may have never gotten to this point if it weren't for one of the biggest draft mistakes ever. Back in 2007, there was plenty of hype surrounding the two potential top picks in Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. Both were showing extreme promise at a young age, and either of them could have been the number one pick that year. But at that point in time, many felt Greg Oden was the better option for the future, as he could blossom into one of the best centers in the league, as expectations were set for him before this draft day. The Portland Trail Blazers, of course, acquired the first pick in the 2007 NBA draft, and they'd fall for the hype, which would lead to a mistake that still felt this day. The main reason Oden was considered the undoubted first pick everywhere was because of his pre-draft workout. Greg Oden entered the league as a big man with extreme athleticism. And during his pre-draft workout, he showed all the scouts he could run, jump, take up space on both ends of the court, and he was one of the strongest players out there. This was one of the only areas that Durant struggled with. Out of 80 draft prospects, Durant was the only one who couldn't bench press 185 pounds. Obviously Portland thought he was the safe pick, and by dazzling teams everywhere, who wouldn't have selected Oden to the number one spot? Kevin Durant's college coach was interviewed about Durant being a top prospect, and he went on to say, if they're looking for weight lifters to come out of Texas, that's not what we're producing. There's a lot of guys who could bench press 300 pounds in the NBA who couldn't play a dead cowboy in a movie. Kevin's the best player in the draft, period, any position. Greg Oden's NBA career would only last three seasons, and he'd only played two seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. Injuries continued to nag him throughout, and he never got the chance to show his true potential at any time, as anytime he was out there on the floor, people assumed he'd get hurt. Oden played in just 105 games during his career, which is barely a total season. He was forced into retirement and admitted it was hard. Greg said, I never thought this was going to be over. I thought I was going to keep on playing, and you never really look at the end while you're playing, but when you see it, you're like, Oh God, did I really prepare? Kind of caught me off guard. I went a whole month without really talking to people, without knowing what I was doing. To me, it was just a whole month of wake up and wondering what I'm going to do today. By the time I got back, I probably drank every day to basically numb myself to even get those feelings about how it was that it was over. Present day, Greg went on to take a new responsibility surrounding athletes becoming a financial advisor for young athletes. He talked about this and said, I'm not saying I did terrible things with my money or lost it all, but if I was a little bit more knowledgeable about my money then, I probably would have made some better decisions and went a little bit differently in my life away from the court. Some of the lessons learned were definitely hard, especially from my standpoint, which is what I think I bring to the team. You're making this money and you have these decisions and you're not as knowledgeable as you should be, but I never thought I wouldn't be playing the game or at this time I wouldn't be playing. It happens so quick. We need to be prepared for when the big checks actually do stop coming. Now, it's no doubt the 2003 class will forever be remembered as one of the greatest NBA drafts to take place. We've seen many players from this year's showcase turn into all-time greats, but one pick stood out above the rest and ironically, that's not a good thing. Obviously, in 2003, we saw LeBron James, the most hyped high school athlete ever, already being called the chosen one and the next Michael Jordan, coming into the unanimous number one pick. Rightfully so, seeing as he was already covering magazines and having his high school games played on ESPN. But the next pick in this draft will forever be remembered as well. The Pistons had the number two pick, and they went with an overseas player by the name of Darko Milicic. Darko Milicic present day is considered to be one of the worst draft picks ever for a top tier pick like this. He played three seasons with the Detroit Pistons, and he played a total of 11 seasons in his career. During his time with the Pistons, Darko averaged only five minutes per game and just 1.6 points per game, the lowest numbers from any top prospect ever. Bouncing around from team to team, Darko ended up with the Magics, Grizzlies, Knicks, Wolves, and Celtics, but only put up six points, four rebounds, and one assist per game throughout his entire NBA career. Now, who could have Detroit picked at that number two spot in 2003? Well, Carmelo Anthony went the very next pick at number three to the Denver Nuggets, and despite Mello's criticism over the years, during his prime years, he's considered unguardable and one of the greatest scoring forwards ever. Still being in the league today, his averaging numbers of Darko never came close to. That's when people say Carmelo's been washed. The number four pick that year ended up being Chris Bosh to the Toronto Raptors, and he became legendary as well. While with Toronto, Chris began making a huge name for himself individually, and this led to him teaming up with his close friends to the draft in Miami later down the road to win multiple championships. And with that being said, the Miami Heat organizer drafted Dwayne Wade at number five that year. And as we all know, Dwayne became one of the greatest shooting guards in history, and he was a ridiculously explosive athlete to start his career. He stayed consistent throughout his years, being a prolific scorer, and he managed to rack up three championships with the Heat. But where's Darko? One of the most famous number two picks in history? Instead of retiring off the money he made in the NBA, he decided to work back home in Serbia. He invested eight million into an apple farm, and he planned for it to grow larger. He also has a lake on his property with over 10,000 fish. He traveled to Italy to study orchards, learning about soil, tree types, and apple varieties, and his farm produces over 10,000 pounds of fruit per year. His next plan is to grow cherries. Someone on ESPN actually spoke about Darko's farming and said, Darko's got into commercial farming and to basketball. Some athletes do real estate or clothing, Darko did fruit. They'll be confused. He has 125 acres filled with apple trees, and exports the apples to Dubai, Russia, and countries in Africa. Now, it's no doubt that recent draft classes have formed some players with extreme potential, that we've seen do amazing things present day. But with Luka Donicic emerging as a superstar in his rookie and sophomore years, many don't know that much about him. In the 2018 draft, there was a ton of hype surrounding players like Deandre Ayton, Marvin Bagley, and Trey Young, and people slept on Luka. A lot of skepticism emerged as Luka was considered to be a high draft pick, but after a trip to Spain, NBA scouts were concerned about Donicic's ability to translate his European success to the NBA level. The big question was around what they called a lack of elite athleticism, shaky defensive value, and occasionally losing his cool when faced with the problem. Many forget that Donicic started playing in the Euro League in 2015 at the age of 16 He was already playing against professional athletes as a high schooler, and in May of 2018, Luka would lead Real Madrid to a Euro League title while claiming MVP honors. Luka even got an opportunity to play in a preseason game against NBA players while he was still overseas and not even eligible to join the league. Not in 2018, Donicic could have easily stayed with Real Madrid and dominated the Euro League, gathering more experience, but Luka ended up declaring for the draft even though he was still under contract with Real Madrid because playing in the NBA was the ultimate goal. Leading into the draft, Luka started sliding down the draft board, but he didn't care. The draft started off with some selecting Deandre Ayton and the Kings picking Marvin Bagley, but the number three pick was none other than Luka Donicic. For many forgetters that it wasn't the Mavericks that drafted him. He was selected by the Atlanta Hawk, but just two picks later, Dallas selected Trey Young, in which they traded him straight up for Donicic. And in the interview after being drafted, Luka went on to say, The Mavericks have been talking to me. They were so nice to me, and I'm glad, you know, just happy to be in the NBA, just happy to be a part of that. And you know, I have a lot of ex-NBA players on my team. I played against a lot of ex-NBA players, and I've had some great teammates. They taught me so much, especially the NBA players. They've been talking to me about the NBA like this whole year. They knew I was coming, so I think I'm prepared. This trade will definitely go down in history as Luka turned himself from a heavily slept-on player to an emerging superstar in a year being in the NBA, already drawing comparisons to Lebron James during his rookie season. Dajic took the league by storm, showing that he was the real deal, and during his first season, he put up 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. This led to Luka being named the Rookie of the Year, but this is just the beginning. His second season, things got way more interesting. Dajic turned things up a notch. He started putting up nearly 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists per game, which is unheard of for a 20-year-old unless they go on to become legendary. Luka's no doubt exceeded expectations so far, and up to this point, he's even impressed himself. He recently talked about how good he thought he'd become, and he said, I mean, honestly, I had faith. I knew I was gonna be good, but not that good for sure. I didn't think I was gonna play like this. I didn't expect that, but I'm happy to play like this. Hello, friend. Click on this video, bro. What are you doing? You see this video on the screen right here, man? This video is amazing. It is a work of art. It's like the Mona Lisa in video form. That's how crazy this is. Trust me, bro. You just need to click on it, okay? Okay? Thank you. I appreciate it.