Worst Draft Pick of the Last 20 Years?

[pipfan]

Which single pick was the worst decision of any team? It has to be a top pick. After the top 10, the draft becomes a real crapshoot. Take into account how good the player pick right after or a few picks after, and how good the player picked turned out to be.

[Wallace_Wallace]

Anthony Bennett was like a WTF moment for me.

Most mock drafts had Thabeet and Darko at their respective draft positions, so picking them initially were not mistakes.

[KGtabake]

Flynn over Curry becomes a no brainer if you think that in the same draft they also drafted Rubio over Curry.
Wolves picked 2 guards over Curry. You can't beat this.

[Texas Chuck]

it's early but Bagley over Luka is looking incredibly stupid.

[Johnny Fontane]

Darko

[Tim Lehrbach]

Tskitishvili over anybody.

[Dupp]

The worst pick is clearly Bennett in terms of him being the worst player picked so high.

However mistake wise they didn’t miss out on someone like curry.


I’d personally say Dario over wade but Oden over kd and Flynn over Steph works to.


Also another angle is philly picking Fultz is the worst because they would have been young and contending straight away for a long time. A career of a big 3. Honestly that’s probably the biggest blunder. Poor hinky.

[Swish1906]

Yeah why is Luka not on the list. Most scouted player of all time entering the draft, skillwise perfect for the way the NBA game develops and the guy goes #3

The Flynn pick was classic Kahn. It was a nobrainer to pick ONE of Rubio/Flynn and then you add the shooter Curry and you have your backcourt set for the future.

[rtiff68]

To me it's clearly Darko, because the next 3 guys drafted are all going to the HOF. Pretty much any other pick than the one they made would've been a HR, especially when you consider their roster at the time. That blunder might've cost them a mini-dynasty.

Flynn over Curry was obviously terrible, but Flynn's career was derailed by injury, not just pure sucktitude. Same thing goes for Oden, and to a lesser extent for Fultz (not totally worthless yet), MKG (was at least good enough to get a decent sized 2nd contract), and Parker. The Bennett draft was simply horrible-- it looked that way at the time, and it has turned out that way. Hard to fault a team too much for missing when the draft was full of duds (the polar opposite of the Darko situation).

Thabeet over Harden would be my 2nd choice.

Kwame over Gasol my 3rd.

[chitownsalesmen]

Anthony Bennett was like a WTF moment for me.

Most mock drafts had Thabeet and Darko at their respective draft positions, so picking them initially were not mistakes.

This. I'm not into the whole "draft tv show" stuff but yeah when Cleveland took Bennett that was a very, very strange pick.

Just compare the video.

Watch on YouTube

Noooooooo one expected that

versus

Watch on YouTube

Where as this selection was telegraphed and it was seen as the obvious pick by a lot the analysts etc and even 13 year old me remembers a lot of this type of speculation of Darko being a "reinvention of the great NBA center".

[UcanUwill]

Anthony Bennett was like a WTF moment for me.

Most mock drafts had Thabeet and Darko at their respective draft positions, so picking them initially were not mistakes.

How does drafting those 2 were not mistakes? Because internet told they suppose to get drafted high, those teams have entire scouting and managing sectors to not mistake, I didnt know all their job was to look at draftexpress. And I know its snake eating its own tale, that interntet projects what teams already think, but yeah, those were still huge mistakes by every metric.

[dacrusha]

Absolutely no one knew that Curry would turn out the way he did, so not sure why people are so harsh with the Wolves drafting Flynn and Rubio.

Rubio in fact was touted as a prodigy and potential all-timer and if he actually showed as such AND Flynn didn’t get injured, those picks could have been gold.

The Darko pick was also the right pick. He was rightfully placed as a potential next tier star after LBJ in that draft.

My personal (Raptors) worst pick is Rafael Araujo over Andre Iguodala for too many reasons to count.

[prophet_of_rage]

To me it's clearly Darko, because the next 3 guys drafted are all going to the HOF. Pretty much any other pick than the one they made would've been a HR, especially when you consider their roster at the time. That blunder might've cost them a mini-dynasty.

Flynn over Curry was obviously terrible, but Flynn's career was derailed by injury, not just pure sucktitude. Same thing goes for Oden, and to a lesser extent for Fultz (not totally worthless yet), MKG (was at least good enough to get a decent sized 2nd contract), and Parker. The Bennett draft was simply horrible-- it looked that way at the time, and it has turned out that way. Hard to fault a team too much for missing when the draft was full of duds (the polar opposite of the Darko situation).

Thabeet over Harden would be my 2nd choice.

Kwame over Gasol my 3rd.

Yup. You have the most loaded draft class since 1996 with superstars up too and the second pick and you miss.

Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk

[Lenneth]

Close between Rubio/Flynn over Curry and Darko over Anthony/Wade/Bosh.

Wolves had two picks and they drafted two PGs. Only problem was that none of those two picks were Curry. Since Curry was drafted, Warriors won 3 titles, and Wolve's made PO once as 8th seed.

Darko draft was pretty significant too. Detroit had a championship core/defense and they could extend their run with any of future HOFers. Instead, they drafted Darko and whole thing fall apart in just few years.

[Swish1906]

Absolutely no one knew that Curry would turn out the way he did, so not sure why people are so harsh with the Wolves drafting Flynn and Rubio.

Because of the pairing. Why you picked both players? Because you think the Rubio/Flynn backcourt is going to be awesome? Thats why i wrote above you pick one of Rubio/Flynn and then the right player to complete the backcourt. And that was obv Curry, even when you had him in your ceiling projection as 50% of what he turned out

[rtiff68]

Absolutely no one knew that Curry would turn out the way he did, so not sure why people are so harsh with the Wolves drafting Flynn and Rubio.

Rubio in fact was touted as a prodigy and potential all-timer and if he actually showed as such AND Flynn didn’t get injured, those picks could have been gold.

The Darko pick was also the right pick. He was rightfully placed as a potential next tier star after LBJ in that draft.

My personal (Raptors) worst pick is Rafael Araujo over Andre Iguodala for too many reasons to count.

Flynn over Curry didn’t make my top 3, for the same reason you cited (Flynn’s injury).

That said, the Wolves aren’t excused from their piss poor decision, either. No, nobody knew how Curry would turn out. That said, they picked 3 PGs in the 1st round that year, which is a pretty curious strategy to begin with. I’m an enormous proponent of BPA as opposed to need when drafting, but you only dress 12 guys per game— lottery picks should be expected to be starters, and guys taken just outside of the lottery should be contributors, at least. Where were the minutes for those guys going to come from?

That, and consider this...

5) PG Ricky Rubio
6) PG Jonny Flynn
7) PG Steph Curry

10) PG Brandon Jennings

17) PG Jrue Holiday
18) PG Ty Lawson

Those were the PGs taken between picks 5 and 18 that year. To spend 3 picks in that range on PGs and to come away with Rubio, Flynn, and Lawson is more than just bad luck, it’s wretched incompetence.

As an armchair GM (I nerd out about the NFL and NBA drafts), I had that draft like this at the time (10).

1) Griffen
2) Evans
3) Jennings
4) Curry
5) DeRozan
6) Flynn
7) T. Williams
8) E. Clark
9) Harden
10) Holiday

I had Thabeet, Rubio, and Hill as the biggest top 10 busts (pretty good!). I also had some enormous whiffs (no need to explain that).

That said, if Kahn had used my board the Wolves franchise would likely be in a very different place right now.

I ranked “Flynn over Curry” out of my top 3 because, if we’re comparing that in a vacuum to the other options, there were certainly worse decisions. If we’re talking about who had the worst overall draft on net, it’s the Wolves in spades.

[prolific passer]

The entire 2000 draft

[camby23]

How about Marvin Williams over CP3 and Deron Williams?

[jimmy keys]

it's early but Bagley over Luka is looking incredibly stupid.

Something in my gut tells me he forced his way to Dallas, albeit quietly. I just don't see 3 teams passing on him because they thought Ayton, Bagley and Young were better prospects. That narrative doesn't add up. I think Luka looked at the top 5 teams picking and said to his agent find a way to get me to Dallas. Feels Kobe-esque to me. More info will come out in time.

[Time for Change]

To me this is Flynn over Curry. Yes Darko was a horrible pick, but Melo, Bosh and Wade were never MVP candidates. Curry won two MVPs and established a dynasty. I do wonder what the Pistons could have done if they picked Wade though, they won with Darko on the bench.