The worst draft pick in history for each NBA team

Hope springs eternal for each NBA franchise during the NBA Draft, but that promise can get crushed pretty quickly if a top pick doesn’t reach their potential. Every team has had some embarrassing swings and misses throughout their history, and we’ll call out the worst ones for each organization. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

This felt questionable even at the time. Williams wasn’t even a starter for the University of North Carolina in his college days, but the Hawks felt compelled to take him over the likes of Chris Paul and Deron Williams. Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo Sports wrote that the selection was “a mistake on several basketball levels.”

The post Michael Jordan era was a rough one for the Bulls, as they desperately tried to find their next franchise cornerstone. While there were a few draft misses in that era, Fizer’s had to be the most glaring. The Ringer’s Justin Verrier wrote, “Fizer, meanwhile, probably couldn’t have cut it in any era.”

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The 76ers have had a bunch of high draft picks blow up in their face, which makes it tough to land on just one as the worst ever. Okafor’s selection gets the slight edge over the Evan Turner pick earlier in the decade. It’s hard to imagine what Philadelphia was thinking, as Okafor would never have been a strong fit next to Joel Embiid. Okafor had all the post moves at Duke, but wasn’t going to be able to unleash them in the NBA.

Hopson’s potential was viewed as a sky-high prospect coming into the NBA, but never lived up to the billing. He rubbed elbows with a real star when he played for the Chicago Bulls later in his career. However, Michael Jordan apparently was pretty intense towards Hopson. Their former teammate Scott Williams told Basketball Network, “He (Jordan) verbally and physically beat this man down ‘til he was a shell of the player that he was.”

Morrison was a walking bucket at Gonzaga University, but that offensive firepower did not translate to the NBA. Bleacher Report noted that he was expected to become the “next Larry Bird.” That never happened, as Morrison struggled to make a name for himself. However, like Bird, he won NBA championships. Morrison collected two rings as an end-of-the-bench player for the Los Angeles Lakers.

In theory, Bargnani was the prototypical player to take Toronto to the next level in a new era of basketball. At seven feet tall, he could shoot and dribble. However, Bargnani offered next to nothing as a defender, and never really got used to the physicality of the NBA game. David Barbour of Bleacher Report called him the worst number one overall pick since 1998.

While Barbour’s point is well taken, he may have forgotten about Brown’s tumultuous career to that point. ESPN commentator Shannon Sharpe said Brown was “on Mount Rushmore of bust NBA players.” What hurt the most for Brown’s supporters was that Michael Jordan himself handpicked Brown as a franchise cornerstone with the Wizards, but it became clear that was not his destiny.

One of the most egregious misses in more recent draft history came when the Kings decided that Bagley was a more worthwhile pick than Luka Doncic. Bagley is still in the NBA trying to find a home, but he’s not going to come close to reach the heights that Doncic has in his career. Kings general manager Vlade Divac said he didn’t want to draft another point guard with De’Aaron Fox on the team.

Bender only ended up playing 187 games in the NBA, averaging 5.4 points and 3.9 rebounds. The New York Post called him “undoubtedly one of the riskier prospects than others in the top ten due to his lack of athleticism at his size.” The team realized their mistake almost immediately, as they let him walk as a free agent.

The Warriors have had so much success in the last decade or so that it’s hard to remember a time where they struggled mightily. Back in the mid 1980s, Golden State thought they had a building block with Washburn, but he ended up washing out of the league. Marc Spears told Andscape about the tale of Washburn’s drug use, and how that cost him a long NBA career.

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It’s legitimately difficult to identify draft picks that blow up in San Antonio’s face, as they’ve had such a strong record of developing talent. However, one that surely didn’t work out was Primo. The franchise released him about a year after taking him, as he was not a model citizen in the building. The Primo pick seemed like a bit of a reach at the time as well.

Unfortunately, the Blazers are notorious for missing out on Hall of Famers in the NBA Draft. They picked Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan in 1984, and took Oden in 2007 instead of Kevin Durant. We’ll give the Oden decision a slight nod as Portland’s worst ever, as he admitted as much himself. He said on The OGs Podcast, “Number one pick. Injured all the time. I rarely played. (Kevin Durant is) just so great. Technically, when you look at it, I’m one of the biggest busts.”

Enes Kanter (now Enes Freedom) wasn’t a bad player in the NBA, but he was probably born a little bit too late. His basketball skill set consisted of scoring and rebounding in the paint, which he proved to be very good at throughout the course of his career. However, he didn’t play one ounce of defense, which made him hard to play for long stretches.

The Pelicans thought they had a dynamic duo in 2012 when they brought Anthony Davis and Rivers into the fold. It turned out they went one for two, as Rivers never became the type of lead guard they hoped he would. Rivers would eventually carve out a decent career, but not in the role many had envisioned for him.

Milicic will live in infamy as the player selected after LeBron James, and before the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. At that time, the Pistons were in the midst of trying to contend for NBA titles, so they thought they could afford to stash and develop Milicic slowly. They did so at the cost of missing out on future Hall of Famers.

2008 came down to Beasley and Derrick Rose for the top overall pick. The Chicago Bulls ended up taking the hometown kid, and the rest, as they say, was history with Beasley. There’s no denying that the forward was immensely talented, but he didn’t contribute to winning. CBS Sports’ Colin Ward-Henninger noted the expectations that Beasley had coming into the league, and failed to meet them by a wide margin.

Right after he was taken by the Bucks, Parker told Slam Magazine that he was “trying not to be that second pick bust.” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Injuries took their toll on Parker from his rookie year onward, and he was never able to establish any sort of rhythm. Parker played for six teams during his NBA career.

The Pacers pinned their hopes to Stipanovich in the early 1980s, thinking he could be their man in the middle for a long time. Indiana would find their answer in Rik Smits a few years later, as Stipanovich failed to live up to the hype. Sports Illustrated noted that Stipanovich accidentally shot himself in the foot while he was in college, which may have been a sign of things to come.

Hezonja wasn’t worth the price of admission relative to his draft status, but don’t tell him that. He told Tatar Inform, “I didn’t get as much respect on the court as I deserved. In addition, in my opinion, basketball in the NBA is more of a show than a game.” What potentially didn’t help was his steadfast arrogance in the eyes of many.

Sweetney spoke about the mental health struggles he faced coming into the NBA in recent years, which he did not bring up at the time. He told the New York Post, “if your mind isn’t right, your body will follow.” Sweetney battled weight issues and never flashed the potential that some saw from him coming out of Georgetown University.

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Familiarity was supposed to help Mercer’s transition into the NBA. His former coach at the University of Kentucky, Rick Pitino, had taken the Celtics job, and he selected Mercer to help turn the team around. He wasn’t a terrible player, but Boston had no patience or interest in developing him. The team also passed on high schooler Tracy McGrady to select Mercer.

This is one of the biggest busts in sports history. Sporting News’ Kyle Irving noted that Bennett’s career 1,905 minutes played and 658 points scored rank dead last for any number one NBA pick since 1989. Bennett said on draft night, “I’m just as surprised as everybody else. I had no idea. When they said my name, that’s when I knew.”

The Timberwolves had two chances to take Stephen Curry in 2009, and missed on both. Granted, they did get Ricky Rubio with one of their picks, but Flynn never panned out in the NBA. In addition to skipping over a generational player like Curry, many wondered why Minnesota took two point guards with back to back picks.

Olowakandi’s name comes up a lot when NBA Draft busts are discussed. The Clippers became enamored with the big man, who played his college ball down the road at Pacific. Los Angeles general manager Elgin Baylor told the Los Angeles Times, “You always take the good big man over the good little guy.” That rule got Baylor in trouble.

The Lakers have been a formidable team for most of their history, and haven’t had all that many top draft selections as a result. It’s hard to pinpoint one colossal pick that backfired, but perhaps that’s the right word to use when addressing Crittenton’s career. He only spent one season with the Lakers, and is best known for a gun-wielding incident when he played with the Washington Wizards.

Smith only ended up playing five seasons in the NBA. He was a scoring machine at the University of Missouri, averaging over 23 points per game. He didn’t come close to matching that level of production in the pros. YardBarker noted that the power forward shot 42 percent from the field, which tells fans all they need to know.

It might be hard for a lot of fans to pronounce his name, but it became “synonymous with draft bust,” according to The Denver Post. He left the NBA in 2006 with career averages of 2.9 points and 1.8 rebounds, averaging 11 minutes per game. It was a mistake from the moment his name was called at the draft.

The Grizzlies were understandably tantalized by Thabeet’s size and potential to protect the rim at the NBA level, just as he did at the University of Connecticut. His former college coach Jim Calhoun told Bleacher Report, “He is the poster boy for a changing era in basketball. He just got left behind.”

Like a couple of other teams in the league, the Rockets have not had many high profile misses in the NBA Draft, mostly because they haven’t had top picks. Houston was trying to hang on to contender status in 1998, and thought Dickerson would help them do that. He was highly touted out of the University of Arizona, and had decent NBA numbers, but was out of the league in five years due to injury.

The Thunder’s draft history dates back to the picks made by the Seattle SuperSonics, who took Sene in 2006. Writing about Sene, Adam Fromal of Bleacher Report wrote, “when a top-10 pick should have gone undrafted, that’s when you know we’re well within ‘bust’ territory.”

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