Wasted NBA Talent

A subject that comes up a lot in sports. Here was my take on some of the most wasted NBA talents. If you enjoy it, hop onto Quora and vote it up.

Read Quote of Andres Alvarez’s answer to Sports: What are some best examples of wasted talents in sporting history? on Quora

14 Responses to "Wasted NBA Talent"

Hoopdon says:

January 18, 2013 at 7:11 pm

Comparing Grant Hill to Wade was a bit of a stretch, but otherwise I enjoyed the article.

Check out the latest rebounding data for the 2010-2011 season. It breaks down correlations between shot locations and rebounding, skilled rebounding teams, and some interesting findings as we compare two full years of data (2010-2012).

hoopdon.weebly.com
julienrodger says:

January 18, 2013 at 9:43 pm

Few other mentions

Chris Webber – Should’ve been an absolute monster. Almost a perfect combination of athleticism, perimeter skills, feel and IQ.

Penny Hardaway – I believe he was more talented than Grant Hill. His combination of size, athleticism, ballhandling and feel for the game is a miniature version of Lebron’s.

Rasheed Wallace – Had a solid career of course, but like Webber I think he’s in the top 20-25 range for most talented NBA players of all time and just didn’t come close to that, so I call him a wasted talent of sorts. Should’ve been neck and neck with KG and Duncan as a player with elite skill, range, size/athleticism and IQ making him a monster on both ends

Baron Davis – One of the most physically gifted PGs ever with creativity and range to burn. Talent wise he has everything Deron Williams does but with more athleticism. This is a guy where I’m shocked he didn’t have at least a “enigmatic but still a perennial all-star” career like Webber, Amare, Vince, etc. Really gifted guard

Lamar Odom – Could’ve been a franchise player with his skills, feel and athleticism for sure

David Thompson – Going way back but he has to be one of the biggest ‘wasted talent’ cases ever. Was set to be one of the faces of the league and then drugs got in the way. It would be as if Kevin Durant after the 2009-2010 season had his career and stats fall apart because he got into coke
Andres Alvarez says:

January 18, 2013 at 9:46 pm

Julien,
Jeeze! I had read about David Thompson in Loose Balls. It’s hard to know how much is accurate (people recounting other players) but man! http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/t/thompda01.html You’re not kidding! As a shooting guard he was getting 58% true shooting and pretty decent other stats. You’re not kidding, starts out like Durant and then bam falls apart like Brandon Roy.
dynamo.joe says:

January 19, 2013 at 2:48 am

I would think Len Bias would at least get an honorable mention here and what about Bill Walton? He had a 10 yr career in which he managed to play 5 seasons worth of games. And he made it to the HOF. Imagine if he had Kareems health/longevity.
Samuel Chd says:

January 19, 2013 at 3:18 am

What about Josh Smith? I think all things considered, he could have been at least as productive as LBJ (if not more). While I don’t ever think he could have been the scorer LBJ is, there are two things he’s naturally better at: Rebounding and shot blocking. And this is where it gets real interesting, because despite weighing less and being (barely) shorter, Smith has managed to be a mediocre rebounder for a power forward (but superior to LBJ on a per min basis), and an absolute terror from the weakside (he’s got a better knack for swatting shots, and it’s not even close), all this while looking (many times) completely disengaged while out on the court (almost seems like he doesn’t want to be out there sometimes). And we all know blocking shots and rebounding are big time hustle plays. As much as it’s an art/skill, there’s also an energy to it that you need to have, and Smith almost always looks lackadaisical. Really makes you wonder, how good could he have been?

Had Smith focused on: Rebounding more, his ball-handling (imagine something like a 50 percent decrease in turnovers), better shot selection (imagine Smith taking it inside a majority of the time, shooting mid-50’s from the floor), and just being more conservative overall with his team’s offensive possessions. Dude could have been a monster.
Andres Alvarez says:

January 19, 2013 at 3:24 am

Joe,
Hah! I said not comprehensive and should be obvious my names were more contemporary (I’m not that old, am I? I mean just because I remember 8-bit Nintendo and New Kids on the Block…moving on) Wow, Len Bias’ college numbers (even though he stuck around for the full four) were pretty ridiculous.

Dave mentioned Bill Walton to me and yes, that one was a major miss. Only MVP to win with fewer than 2500 minutes played, MVP and 6th man? Yeah, talent in a bottle. A brittle broken bottle that was cared for by the witch doctors in Portland.
Ivica Pezelj says:

January 19, 2013 at 3:27 am

Well how about Arvydas Sabonis?
One of the best european players ever.
Started playing in the NBA on his “downswing” years.
A quote from this Grantland piece ( http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6867508/arvydas-sabonis-long-strange-trip ):
Whitsitt asked Portland’s team physician, Dr. Robert Cook, to take a look at Sabonis’ X-rays before he arrived. Cook asked Whitsitt if he was sure his new player could play. “He said that Arvydas could qualify for a handicapped parking spot based on the X-ray alone,” Whitsitt said.

Played only 7 seasons with ws/48 of .233, .205, .200, .207, .203, .138 and .196.
But you have to wonder what would have been possible if he had been able to come to the NBA in the 80’s
Andres Alvarez says:

January 19, 2013 at 3:28 am

Samuel,
I did not say LBJ = Josh Smith. Want that clear to any other commenters. That said, wow good one. Josh Smith had one good season in 2010 but has pretty much stayed near average. Clearly he has the skills to be productive, but nope. It should also be noted, he came into the league at 19 (Young as LeBron) was more productive than Bron as a rookie but never seemed to mature. He’s younger than Bron and yet seemingly on the decline.
Andres Alvarez says:

January 19, 2013 at 3:29 am

Ivica,
Excellent one! Yup, as an old player played great, missed his prime. Like a crazy inverted Yao. Put Yao + Sabonis’ tattered careers together and you have an amazing international center.
Ed Herzog says:

January 19, 2013 at 7:56 am

What about Drazen Petrovic? Came over from Europe at age 25, took a few years to get established, had a couple of big seasons for the Nets and then was sadly killed in an auto accident (the ultimate “injury”). A shooting guard with a career TS% of .589.

And there’s also Ralph Samspon of course.
Samuel Chd says:

January 19, 2013 at 11:15 am

@Dre Alvarez

Most definitely, because LBJ ≠ Josh Smith, and vice versa. Smith will likely never live up to his vast potential (at this stage it’s highly unlikely), and thus, will never be as productive.

That being said, I reallocated his numbers, minimizing turns (exponentially), increasing rebounds, increasing assists (marginally), and reappropriated his shooting numbers (from the floor). And Smith went from an overrated slightly above average cog, to a .300+ wp48 monster. It’s scary how good he could have been.

But I guess if everyone lived up to their enormous potential, we’d have a league of champions?
Mr. Clutch (@BornClutch) says:

January 19, 2013 at 10:36 pm

Greg Oden!
todd says:

January 20, 2013 at 12:45 am

Micheal Ray Richardson
someguy says:

January 21, 2013 at 9:08 pm

I live in NJ so I was like Micheal Ray Richardson, Drazen, and Brenard King. But when I went Basket Ball Reference and looked at WS/48 I saw that I might have been wearing NJ tinted glasses.

I thought Penny was a good nomination but the criteria seems to be good player on bad team then injured. He was on a good team.

I have a criteria change suggestion.

How about for some minimum minutes number highest WP48 vs lowest Wins Produced. Not sure how possible that is. But basically guys who produced over some non trivial sample size but never really got a chance to play.

Comments are closed.

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