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The players drafted from 2020 to 2022 are still young and have plenty of time to turn things around if their career hasn’t started off well. So I’m asking you to go out a limb: which player drafted in that span are you willing to 100% take it to the bank say is a bust? You have to be willing to eat your words if you’re wrong and that player turns it around. I’m not including 2023 because it seems wrong to call a player a bust before they’ve played a single regular season game.

I guess the most obvious answer to this James Wiseman. He already busted for the Warriors, he was terrible in a few injury plagued seasons for them and they didn’t even get a lot by trading him away. Especially considering they could have had LaMelo Ball. He could turn it around in Detroit, but it’s not been a good start for him.

Which player are you 100% certain is a bust already? And are you willing to eat crow if you’re wrong?

Apologies for making this it’s own post, it’s a small question but we don’t have a thread for those. I’m curious what people think about this.

What is the minimum amount of All-Star appearances someone needs to have before you’ll consider them a 100% Hall of Fame lock?

Take Yao Ming for instance. He only played nine seasons, so a relatively short career for a Hall of Fame player. He also never took the Rockets past the second round. Yet of his nine seasons, he was an All-Star in eight of them. So I figure if Yao Ming is in despite his short career and lack of postseason success, anyone who has made at least eight All-Star games must also be a Hall of Fame lock.

What would you say is the minimum number? Is it eight or some lower number?

I’m going to use Donovan Mitchell as an example of a young player who has made several All-Star teams but not had much postseason success (I could have also used Jayson Tatum but he’s had more postseason success). He’s been named to four All-Star teams already. Let’s say Donovan Mitchell plays three more years before he hangs them up (I know he’ll play for longer than that, but just hypothetically). He makes the All-Star team two of the three years, but never wins MVP and never goes anywhere in the playoffs.

In this hypothetical scenario, Mitchell would have retired with six All-Star appearances in nine career seasons. So similar resume to Yao Ming. Is Donovan Mitchell a Hall of Fame lock in this scenario?

I overexplained a bit my question boils down to the title: what’s the minimum amount to All-Star appearances before you’ll consider someone a Hall of Fame lock?

I’m a fairly new NBA fan so obviously I didn’t follow the league when these guys got drafted. But I’ve done reading up on it and Anthony Bennett, Greg Oden, and Darko Milicic are the three that probably come most readily to mind when I think about this question.

My question is who are some of the sneaky draft busts? The guys you consider huge busts that don’t really get talked about as much when this question comes up. I’d love to hear about some of those guys and learn some more about NBA history.

So I'm a fairly new basketball fan. I didn't follow the NBA at all in 2019. I knew that the Warriors were one of the best teams and I knew who Stephen Curry and Lebron James were, but that was about as far as my basketball knowledge went. I certainly didn't know who Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or even Paul George were back then. So just today I was reading through Shai's Wikipedia article and found out that not only did he used to play for the Clippers, but he was traded to Thunder for Paul George.

Just to refresh your memory, the Clippers sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and five future first round picks to the Thunder in exchange for George. At the time Gilgeous-Alexander had just completed his rookie year, in which he started 73 games for the Clippers but averaged only 10 points and 26 minutes per game. Now, he was just named to the All-NBA first team with the Thunder.

So I'm curious what you thought of the trade then and what you think of it now. What did people generally think of the trade at the time? Was it panned or did people think it was a good deal? For me, I think the Clippers made a mistake. Paul George is still good and I'm certainly not saying he's washed, but he's a full eight years older than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Shai could easily play 10-15 more years, while George has 5 years left at best. If the Clippers had won a championship with George, you could argue it was worth it, but they haven't. I think that the Clippers with Kawhi Leonard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and whatever they could have turned those five first round picks into certainly would be better than just Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Thunder on the other hand, with their young core of SGA, Giddey, and Holmgren, could look pretty scary in 2-3 years. I certainly think the Thunder got the better end of the deal.

What did you think of the trade at the time? Have you changed your mind in retrospect?