Greatest player who didn't meet pre draft expectations?

[knicksfan974]

LeBron?

LeBron all expected to be great but dude turned out to be GOAT. How is this not meeting the expectations?

[Pantsman]

Carmelo is the first that comes to mind. He was suppose to be the 1B to LeBron 1A. But he never really hit that level. Great scorer but could never get over the hump.

[Sixers in 4]

Derrick Coleman
Joe Smith
Kenyon Martin

[dhsilv2]

Not the greatest one, but Wiggins was someone who had enormous hype before the draft and was heralded as a sure fire star. Looking back he's had a nice career, made 1 all-star team, and won a chip, but he's fallen way short of what was expected.

I mean...its' hard to argue he actually deserved the allstar bid. And some metrics show him for multiple years as the worst rotation player in the NBA. His total career value is likely still neutral to negative.

A guy I haven't seen mentioned who'd make more sense is a guy like Camby. Solid career but he went first in a draft with 3 future MVP's and a draft many consider to be a top 3 draft of all time. That feels more reasonable than a Wiggins who was just so bad for so long.

[dhsilv2]

Wasn't Ewing top 3 prospect ever? At least thats what I learned from RealGM, I wouldn't know.

There have been about 12 of those in the past 10 years

At the time of his draft, he might have been arguably that.
Even now, the top tier of prospects I can remember, post merger, is:
Sampson
Akeem
Ewing
Robinson
Shaq
Timmeh
LeBron
Oden
Davis (maybe, probably a tier below)
Wemby

You could argue KD and Oden were seen as BOTH on this level which made that draft special.

[dhsilv2]

Is there an argument for Zo? As great as he was, it feels like he was just short of the generational, all-time talent that he was expected to be.

How do we address his kidney issues? Is that outside of scope or not? That said I think as noted Ewing was better than him.

[UcanUwill]

There have been about 12 of those in the past 10 years

At the time of his draft, he might have been arguably that.
Even now, the top tier of prospects I can remember, post merger, is:
Sampson
Akeem
Ewing
Robinson
Shaq
Timmeh
LeBron
Oden
Davis (maybe, probably a tier below)
Wemby

You could argue KD and Oden were seen as BOTH on this level which made that draft special.

In recent history, I feel only Wemby and maybe Zion were seen as real generational prospects. I think people neither either forget, or in denial of how high pre draft Zion was. His career so far been huge disappointment, but he was legit prospect.

Wemby tho is on another level, we could argue he would be number 1 all time as pre draft prospect.

[dhsilv2]

At the time of his draft, he might have been arguably that.
Even now, the top tier of prospects I can remember, post merger, is:
Sampson
Akeem
Ewing
Robinson
Shaq
Timmeh
LeBron
Oden
Davis (maybe, probably a tier below)
Wemby

You could argue KD and Oden were seen as BOTH on this level which made that draft special.

In recent history, I feel only Wemby and maybe Zion were seen as real generational prospects. I think people neither either forget, or in denial of how high pre draft Zion was. His career so far been huge disappointment, but he was legit prospect.

Wemby tho is on another level, we could argue he would be number 1 all time as pre draft prospect.

Agree on Zion. Wemby is a weird one. His POTENTIAL is/was seen as all time. But even at the time the worries about his frame and holding up in the league were extremely high too. I'm not sure how you judge "can't miss if he holds up". Nobody was really thinking "Zion will be an all time great if he doesn't eat himself out of the league" or at least I didn't read that.

But yes this are the two most hyped guys perhaps since AD.

[UcanUwill]

You could argue KD and Oden were seen as BOTH on this level which made that draft special.

In recent history, I feel only Wemby and maybe Zion were seen as real generational prospects. I think people neither either forget, or in denial of how high pre draft Zion was. His career so far been huge disappointment, but he was legit prospect.

Wemby tho is on another level, we could argue he would be number 1 all time as pre draft prospect.

Agree on Zion. Wemby is a weird one. His POTENTIAL is/was seen as all time. But even at the time the worries about his frame and holding up in the league were extremely high too. I'm not sure how you judge "can't miss if he holds up". Nobody was really thinking "Zion will be an all time great if he doesn't eat himself out of the league" or at least I didn't read that.

But yes this are the two most hyped guys perhaps since AD.

Zion I remember had just as much injury woes as Victor, Victor cause he is 7'5 athlete, and Zion, just cause of how he played. I was super high on Zion, I could understood someone not being high on him cause of injury woes, but I didn't see his conditioning problems coming. Some Zion doubters were just dumb tho, they compared him Anthony Bennett

AD was hyped, but I do not think he was that hyped, II think ZIon and Victor had far more hype, IDK, maybe I am wrong. ADs hype was similar to Cooper hype, huge, but not at all time level. I wasn't following draft at a time, but I feel Oden and KD and even guys like Mayo were hyped up more. Mayo supposed to be new Kobe, remember those days?

Out of guys who weren't number one picks, Euros Rubio and Luka were also very hyped up. Luka probably had most hype in that draft, despite him not being number one pick.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Not the greatest one, but Wiggins was someone who had enormous hype before the draft and was heralded as a sure fire star. Looking back he's had a nice career, made 1 all-star team, and won a chip, but he's fallen way short of what was expected.

I mean...its' hard to argue he actually deserved the allstar bid. And some metrics show him for multiple years as the worst rotation player in the NBA. His total career value is likely still neutral to negative.

A guy I haven't seen mentioned who'd make more sense is a guy like Camby. Solid career but he went first in a draft with 3 future MVP's and a draft many consider to be a top 3 draft of all time. That feels more reasonable than a Wiggins who was just so bad for so long.

Camby was second, Iverson was first

[Ryoga Hibiki]

At the time of his draft, he might have been arguably that.
Even now, the top tier of prospects I can remember, post merger, is:
Sampson
Akeem
Ewing
Robinson
Shaq
Timmeh
LeBron
Oden
Davis (maybe, probably a tier below)
Wemby

You could argue KD and Oden were seen as BOTH on this level which made that draft special.

In recent history, I feel only Wemby and maybe Zion were seen as real generational prospects. I think people neither either forget, or in denial of how high pre draft Zion was. His career so far been huge disappointment, but he was legit prospect.

Wemby tho is on another level, we could argue he would be number 1 all time as pre draft prospect.

That's Alcindor, as he was older and incredibly accomplished.
Probably the best player in the world while at UCLA

[Ryoga Hibiki]

In recent history, I feel only Wemby and maybe Zion were seen as real generational prospects. I think people neither either forget, or in denial of how high pre draft Zion was. His career so far been huge disappointment, but he was legit prospect.

Wemby tho is on another level, we could argue he would be number 1 all time as pre draft prospect.

Agree on Zion. Wemby is a weird one. His POTENTIAL is/was seen as all time. But even at the time the worries about his frame and holding up in the league were extremely high too. I'm not sure how you judge "can't miss if he holds up". Nobody was really thinking "Zion will be an all time great if he doesn't eat himself out of the league" or at least I didn't read that.

But yes this are the two most hyped guys perhaps since AD.

Zion I remember had just as much injury woes as Victor, Victor cause he is 7'5 athlete, and Zion, just cause of how he played. I was super high on Zion, I could understood someone not being high on him cause of injury woes, but I didn't see his conditioning problems coming. Some Zion doubters were just dumb tho, they compared him Anthony Bennett

AD was hyped, but I do not think he was that hyped, II think ZIon and Victor had far more hype, IDK, maybe I am wrong. ADs hype was similar to Cooper hype, huge, but not at all time level. I wasn't following draft at a time, but I feel Oden and KD and even guys like Mayo were hyped up more. Mayo supposed to be new Kobe, remember those days?

Out of guys who weren't number one picks, Euros Rubio and Luka were also very hyped up. Luka probably had most hype in that draft, despite him not being number one pick.

I just want you guys to go back and watch some highlights of Duke Zion.
He never got close to be in that kind of shape, in the NBA.
That thing had everything to be the best player in the world.

[UcanUwill]

Agree on Zion. Wemby is a weird one. His POTENTIAL is/was seen as all time. But even at the time the worries about his frame and holding up in the league were extremely high too. I'm not sure how you judge "can't miss if he holds up". Nobody was really thinking "Zion will be an all time great if he doesn't eat himself out of the league" or at least I didn't read that.

But yes this are the two most hyped guys perhaps since AD.

Zion I remember had just as much injury woes as Victor, Victor cause he is 7'5 athlete, and Zion, just cause of how he played. I was super high on Zion, I could understood someone not being high on him cause of injury woes, but I didn't see his conditioning problems coming. Some Zion doubters were just dumb tho, they compared him Anthony Bennett

AD was hyped, but I do not think he was that hyped, II think ZIon and Victor had far more hype, IDK, maybe I am wrong. ADs hype was similar to Cooper hype, huge, but not at all time level. I wasn't following draft at a time, but I feel Oden and KD and even guys like Mayo were hyped up more. Mayo supposed to be new Kobe, remember those days?

Out of guys who weren't number one picks, Euros Rubio and Luka were also very hyped up. Luka probably had most hype in that draft, despite him not being number one pick.

I just want you guys to go back and watch some highlights of Duke Zion.
He never got close to be in that kind of shape, in the NBA.
That thing had everything to be the best player in the world.

Yeah, he was shotblocker in college, now he rarely even dunks, he is just faster z bo almost. Dude supposed to be Lebronish not z-boish

[dhsilv2]

In recent history, I feel only Wemby and maybe Zion were seen as real generational prospects. I think people neither either forget, or in denial of how high pre draft Zion was. His career so far been huge disappointment, but he was legit prospect.

Wemby tho is on another level, we could argue he would be number 1 all time as pre draft prospect.

Agree on Zion. Wemby is a weird one. His POTENTIAL is/was seen as all time. But even at the time the worries about his frame and holding up in the league were extremely high too. I'm not sure how you judge "can't miss if he holds up". Nobody was really thinking "Zion will be an all time great if he doesn't eat himself out of the league" or at least I didn't read that.

But yes this are the two most hyped guys perhaps since AD.

Zion I remember had just as much injury woes as Victor, Victor cause he is 7'5 athlete, and Zion, just cause of how he played. I was super high on Zion, I could understood someone not being high on him cause of injury woes, but I didn't see his conditioning problems coming. Some Zion doubters were just dumb tho, they compared him Anthony Bennett

AD was hyped, but I do not think he was that hyped, II think ZIon and Victor had far more hype, IDK, maybe I am wrong. ADs hype was similar to Cooper hype, huge, but not at all time level. I wasn't following draft at a time, but I feel Oden and KD and even guys like Mayo were hyped up more. Mayo supposed to be new Kobe, remember those days?

Out of guys who weren't number one picks, Euros Rubio and Luka were also very hyped up. Luka probably had most hype in that draft, despite him not being number one pick.

Couldn't more strongly disagree with Mayo. I don't recall anything like that. First thing I saw looking up his draft profile, form bleacher report. Add in AD was a full 5 points (101 vs 96) higher on his nbadraft.net profile. I think you were watching his high school hype which is different.

At 6'4" he is going to be a 'tweener in the NBA. Ben Gordon or Chauncey Billups are the types of players that come to mind when I see Mayo.

As for AD, by the time we were ready for the draft and coming off a national title, he was seen as the best defensive prospect since Oden and was getting Duncan like shot blocking potential while many had him compared to KG. He was a massively hyped guy coming into the draft. He just didn't have the same level of hype over the season like some others.

And true on zion, there was the risk he'd jump so high he'd hurt himself. Which is a whole other kinda crazy fear based on just how stupid good he could be lol.

[UcanUwill]

Agree on Zion. Wemby is a weird one. His POTENTIAL is/was seen as all time. But even at the time the worries about his frame and holding up in the league were extremely high too. I'm not sure how you judge "can't miss if he holds up". Nobody was really thinking "Zion will be an all time great if he doesn't eat himself out of the league" or at least I didn't read that.

But yes this are the two most hyped guys perhaps since AD.

Zion I remember had just as much injury woes as Victor, Victor cause he is 7'5 athlete, and Zion, just cause of how he played. I was super high on Zion, I could understood someone not being high on him cause of injury woes, but I didn't see his conditioning problems coming. Some Zion doubters were just dumb tho, they compared him Anthony Bennett

AD was hyped, but I do not think he was that hyped, II think ZIon and Victor had far more hype, IDK, maybe I am wrong. ADs hype was similar to Cooper hype, huge, but not at all time level. I wasn't following draft at a time, but I feel Oden and KD and even guys like Mayo were hyped up more. Mayo supposed to be new Kobe, remember those days?

Out of guys who weren't number one picks, Euros Rubio and Luka were also very hyped up. Luka probably had most hype in that draft, despite him not being number one pick.

Couldn't more strongly disagree with Mayo. I don't recall anything like that. First thing I saw looking up his draft profile, form bleacher report. Add in AD was a full 5 points (101 vs 96) higher on his nbadraft.net profile. I think you were watching his high school hype which is different.

At 6'4" he is going to be a 'tweener in the NBA. Ben Gordon or Chauncey Billups are the types of players that come to mind when I see Mayo.

As for AD, by the time we were ready for the draft and coming off a national title, he was seen as the best defensive prospect since Oden and was getting Duncan like shot blocking potential while many had him compared to KG. He was a massively hyped guy coming into the draft. He just didn't have the same level of hype over the season like some others.

And true on zion, there was the risk he'd jump so high he'd hurt himself. Which is a whole other kinda crazy fear based on just how stupid good he could be lol.

As said, I didn't really follow the draft at a time, so I am probably wrong, just remember some people being super high on Mayo, maybe overall he was not hyped as much.

[dhsilv2]

Zion I remember had just as much injury woes as Victor, Victor cause he is 7'5 athlete, and Zion, just cause of how he played. I was super high on Zion, I could understood someone not being high on him cause of injury woes, but I didn't see his conditioning problems coming. Some Zion doubters were just dumb tho, they compared him Anthony Bennett

AD was hyped, but I do not think he was that hyped, II think ZIon and Victor had far more hype, IDK, maybe I am wrong. ADs hype was similar to Cooper hype, huge, but not at all time level. I wasn't following draft at a time, but I feel Oden and KD and even guys like Mayo were hyped up more. Mayo supposed to be new Kobe, remember those days?

Out of guys who weren't number one picks, Euros Rubio and Luka were also very hyped up. Luka probably had most hype in that draft, despite him not being number one pick.

Couldn't more strongly disagree with Mayo. I don't recall anything like that. First thing I saw looking up his draft profile, form bleacher report. Add in AD was a full 5 points (101 vs 96) higher on his nbadraft.net profile. I think you were watching his high school hype which is different.

At 6'4" he is going to be a 'tweener in the NBA. Ben Gordon or Chauncey Billups are the types of players that come to mind when I see Mayo.

As for AD, by the time we were ready for the draft and coming off a national title, he was seen as the best defensive prospect since Oden and was getting Duncan like shot blocking potential while many had him compared to KG. He was a massively hyped guy coming into the draft. He just didn't have the same level of hype over the season like some others.

And true on zion, there was the risk he'd jump so high he'd hurt himself. Which is a whole other kinda crazy fear based on just how stupid good he could be lol.

As said, I didn't really follow the draft at a time, so I am probably wrong, just remember some people being super high on Mayo, maybe overall he was not hyped as much.

Mayo's hype was more out of high school where he was the number one prospect. He then fell to 3 in the draft, so again if we're going by draft expectations he's not in the conversation. If you want to include the high school hype, then that's more reasonable with him. Mayo and AD are kinda the opposites. Both may have been the top high school prospect but Mayo was certainly the "sexier" guy coming out. But by the end of college they were world's apart with AD suddenly being this mega star prospect after having been more or less "yeah he's a top 3 guy" all season with most leaving him in the 1 slot wait for a reason to adjust.

[ballzboyee]

I'll say guys like Elton Brand and Marcus Camby fit the bill. The hype for both coming out of college was insanely high. Both had very good careers but were expected to be HOF guys.

Sean Eliott at Arizona was a two-time All American, won the the Wooden Award, Adolph Rupp Throphy, AP Player of the year, and finished as the all-time leading scoring in PAC 10 history. For those that don't know, his prolific scoring broke the now relatively unknown Lew Alcindor's college record who of course eventually became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He also broke a ton of state records in high school. Elliott was simply one of the greatest high school and college players ever, and the expectation was that he would be superstar in the NBA. Unfortunately, early his pro career Elliott developed kidney disease. Absolutely, he had a solid career in the NBA, but it simply did not work out due to his health.

[Bankai]

Thought Anthony Davis had GOAT potential. Big Man with PG speed and skills who put up insane stats. Then injuries and Nikola Jokic came.

[UcanUwill]

Couldn't more strongly disagree with Mayo. I don't recall anything like that. First thing I saw looking up his draft profile, form bleacher report. Add in AD was a full 5 points (101 vs 96) higher on his nbadraft.net profile. I think you were watching his high school hype which is different.



As for AD, by the time we were ready for the draft and coming off a national title, he was seen as the best defensive prospect since Oden and was getting Duncan like shot blocking potential while many had him compared to KG. He was a massively hyped guy coming into the draft. He just didn't have the same level of hype over the season like some others.

And true on zion, there was the risk he'd jump so high he'd hurt himself. Which is a whole other kinda crazy fear based on just how stupid good he could be lol.

As said, I didn't really follow the draft at a time, so I am probably wrong, just remember some people being super high on Mayo, maybe overall he was not hyped as much.

Mayo's hype was more out of high school where he was the number one prospect. He then fell to 3 in the draft, so again if we're going by draft expectations he's not in the conversation. If you want to include the high school hype, then that's more reasonable with him. Mayo and AD are kinda the opposites. Both may have been the top high school prospect but Mayo was certainly the "sexier" guy coming out. But by the end of college they were world's apart with AD suddenly being this mega star prospect after having been more or less "yeah he's a top 3 guy" all season with most leaving him in the 1 slot wait for a reason to adjust.

Yeah, I guess it was highschool hype. Similar to Barrett, he was number one recruit, Zion was Dukes third ranked recruit before season started.

[Lalouie]

so you mean who was the most overrated
the consensus is right - it's ewing

no hands

nyk was only good because of the coaching pitino>riley>jvg

classic non-deliverer of the goods

not a winner