NBA stars who were bad early in their in career

[FuShengTHEGreat]

Ben Wallace.....in fact the only thing I remember of him in the 90s was getting posterized by Kobe as a rookie in a exhibition game 0 impact as a Wizard. I never heard anything of him as a Wizard.

I still have the SLAM magazine cover from his legendary 96 draft class and he wasn't even a blip on the radar to anyone.....and he ended up surpassing a lot of guys on that cover

Talk about a guy that really flew under the radar.

Played for some no name college and unlike some other guys here he wasn't even drafted. He toiled in relative obscurity and didn't play in the playoffs like his first 6 or so years.

Was considered just a shoe in to Detroit in the Hill trade and no one in a million years would've thought the Pistons were the ones that'd end up getting such a return for that trade.

Entered the NBA a unheralded player.....to spending many years having little to no impact......to having his Jersey retired and probably in the HOF.

[Rapcity_11]

Dirk's rookie season was pretty horrid, but his improvement during his sophomore yar was significant (if I recall correctly he was second in the MIP race), so not sure if he counts as far as 'early years' go. Steve Nash is probably the best example; the lockout season was awful and in the 1999-00 season he was losing the starting spot to Robert Pack of all people (a great dunker though).

Pretty hard to say Nash was bad when he had a 15.6 PER and 56% TS in his 2nd year (22 MPG). He did weirdly decline the next 2 years though. So yeah, maybe.

Whiteside seems like the best example. Dude couldn't even get a look at a roster for a while.

Draymond was atrocious as a rookie but jumped up considerably in year 2 and 3.

I don't think it's fair to include HS players here.

[sp6r=underrated]

Pretty hard to say Nash was bad when he had a 15.6 PER and 56% TS in his 2nd year (22 MPG). He did weirdly decline the next 2 years though. So yeah, maybe.

Nash fans can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he was a total party boy early in his career who didn't take care of his body at all.

[Rapcity_11]

Pretty hard to say Nash was bad when he had a 15.6 PER and 56% TS in his 2nd year (22 MPG). He did weirdly decline the next 2 years though. So yeah, maybe.

Nash fans can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he was a total party boy early in his career who didn't take care of his body at all.

Nash seems to deny that. What I would guess happened was he was a typical NBA player in terms of taking care of his body and turned into a freak about it once he got to Phoenix. His relative lack of explosive athleticism makes that more glaring than most players.

[Colbinii]

Pretty hard to say Nash was bad when he had a 15.6 PER and 56% TS in his 2nd year (22 MPG). He did weirdly decline the next 2 years though. So yeah, maybe.

Nash fans can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he was a total party boy early in his career who didn't take care of his body at all.

I don't know enough about that situation, but to me it seems like he didn't put enough effort into his body during his early years. Maybe he did party? No idea, but I feel like it has more to do with a change in mindset, "growing up", as you will.

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[Andy_BBall]

Chauncey Billups.

He wasn't really that bad, but he never really got the opportunity until he got to Detroit.

[sp6r=underrated]

Pretty hard to say Nash was bad when he had a 15.6 PER and 56% TS in his 2nd year (22 MPG). He did weirdly decline the next 2 years though. So yeah, maybe.

Nash fans can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he was a total party boy early in his career who didn't take care of his body at all.

I don't know enough about that situation, but to me it seems like he didn't put enough effort into his body during his early years. Maybe he did party? No idea, but I feel like it has more to do with a change in mindset, "growing up", as you will.

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I'm not an expert in Nash's career or especially his earlier years but I remember something about him being a bit of a lush. I could be off here which is why I put in the disclaimer.

[Colbinii]

Nash fans can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he was a total party boy early in his career who didn't take care of his body at all.

I don't know enough about that situation, but to me it seems like he didn't put enough effort into his body during his early years. Maybe he did party? No idea, but I feel like it has more to do with a change in mindset, "growing up", as you will.

Sent from my SM-G920P using RealGM mobile app

I'm not an expert in Nash's career or especially his earlier years but I remember something about him being a bit of a lush. I could be off here which is why I put in the disclaimer.

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me. Us soccer players enjoy that kind of stuff!

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[sp6r=underrated]

I don't know enough about that situation, but to me it seems like he didn't put enough effort into his body during his early years. Maybe he did party? No idea, but I feel like it has more to do with a change in mindset, "growing up", as you will.

Sent from my SM-G920P using RealGM mobile app

I'm not an expert in Nash's career or especially his earlier years but I remember something about him being a bit of a lush. I could be off here which is why I put in the disclaimer.

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me. Us soccer players enjoy that kind of stuff!

Sent from my SM-G920P using RealGM mobile app

I'm surprised soccer players can get away with it with how important endurance is for the sport.

[FuShengTHEGreat]

Chauncey Billups.

He wasn't really that bad, but he never really got the opportunity until he got to Detroit.

He played very good for Minnesota in the playoffs.
Unfortunately Dirk went bezerk in that series.

And the Wolves foolishly bided their future on aging Terell Brandon getting healthy again instead of handing him the keys to the full time starting PG spot.

[Atmanne]

Conley was meh at best early on and his first contract extension was roundly derided as an awful one.

[penbeast0]

Ben Wallace.....in fact the only thing I remember of him in the 90s was getting posterized by Kobe as a rookie in a exhibition game 0 impact as a Wizard. I never heard anything of him as a Wizard.

I still have the SLAM magazine cover from his legendary 96 draft class and he wasn't even a blip on the radar to anyone.....and he ended up surpassing a lot of guys on that cover

Talk about a guy that really flew under the radar.

Played for some no name college and unlike some other guys here he wasn't even drafted. He toiled in relative obscurity and didn't play in the playoffs like his first 6 or so years.

Was considered just a shoe in to Detroit in the Hill trade and no one in a million years would've thought the Pistons were the ones that'd end up getting such a return for that trade.

Entered the NBA a unheralded player.....to spending many years having little to no impact......to having his Jersey retired and probably in the HOF.

He played a lot for the Wiz, especially for an undrafted rookie. He was a banger and a hustler which coaches like but showed zero offensive skills (which is a good predictor of what his actual offensive career skills look like). The Wiz had two bangers sharing the backup center slot, Wallace and Jahidi White and decided they were close enough to equal that Wallace was expendable and dealt him (and 3 guys we weren't planning to keep) for Isaac Austin who had showed some offensive skills in his first few years before a down year in 99.

Classic dumb move by one of the worst GMs in NBA history (in his other 3 major moves, Wes Unseld made Juwan Howard one of the 3 highest paid players in the game, traded top 3 draft choice Rasheed Wallace for 29 year old headcase Rod Strickland AND a bad contract, and traded prime Chris Webber for aging Mitch Richmond AND a bad contract).

Detroit didn't get him as a throw-in, he was showing serious defensive chops and was the main compensation for Grant Hill, Chucky Atkins was the throw in.

[Kabookalu]

DeAndre Jordan is an underrated mention for me. I remember a time when I thought McGee and Jordan weren't that far apart from each other with Jordan only being slightly better. They were essentially the same player; hyper athletic beasts with an unbelievable physical profile but limited in their aptitude for basketball. Jordan wasn't as dumb, but his feel for the game was pretty poor. Over the course of his career though he's developed into a fine defensive anchor and an absolute monster on the boards while being super efficient.

For me I think it's harder for players with poor feel to develop good feel, than it is for unskilled players to develop skill. Players that have good feel but limited skills can still help their team because they know what exactly to do to execute whatever system they're playing in. Players with poor feel though can be liabilities because it takes all five guys to run the team's offense/defense, and if one of them is out of sync, it can feel like playing 4v5.

[clyde21]

DeAndre Jordan is an underrated mention for me. I remember a time when I thought McGee and Jordan weren't that far apart from each other with Jordan only being slightly better. They were essentially the same player; hyper athletic beasts with an unbelievable physical profile but limited in their aptitude for basketball. Jordan wasn't as dumb, but his feel for the game was pretty poor. Over the course of his career though he's developed into a fine defensive anchor and an absolute monster on the boards while being super efficient.

For me I think it's harder for players with poor feel to develop good feel, than it is for unskilled players to develop skill. Players that have good feel but limited skills can still help their team because they know what exactly to do to execute whatever system they're playing in. Players with poor feel though can be liabilities because it takes all five guys to run the team's offense/defense, and if one of them is out of sync, it can feel like playing 4v5.

Full circle. McGee has been looking like DeAndre Jordan-lite this season.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Pretty hard to say Nash was bad when he had a 15.6 PER and 56% TS in his 2nd year (22 MPG). He did weirdly decline the next 2 years though. So yeah, maybe.

Nash fans can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is he was a total party boy early in his career who didn't take care of his body at all.

Very early in his career he was promising but closed in Phoenix as the 3rd PG behind JK and KJ.
That's why Dallas traded for him giving away future likely lottery pick for him.
At the time he was projected to be a good starting PG though.
He had a bad lookout season and an injury plagued but already starter level 99/00 season.
Then the Sydney Olympics happened, he arrived healthy and he was most likely the best PG in the tournament (that's when I called him a future All Star).
After that moment, he was an All NBA level player in Dallas, but he had issues with durability. In Phoenix sure he improved his lifestyle and learnt how to bet take care of his body, both inside and outside the court. But at the same time he stopped playing for the Canadian NT, soemthing that never allowed him to properly rest during the summer.

Having followed his career, I would say that big part of it is that he improved as a player and as a professional, and he went from potential starter to MVP improving season by season with all the intermediate steps. That was really remarkable.

[Run DLC]

John Wall.

[Young_Star11]

Draymond Green. 2nd round pick who teams passed on. He showed signs of having the impact he has on the game today, but he couldn't score the ball and was a complete liability at that end.

[TheKingOfVa360]

John Wall.

He was never bad. Even as a rookie he was good.