NBA Draft 2012: Andre Drummond and More Overrated Busts Lurking in Lottery

Busts are an unavoidable part of the NBA draft. If you were to go back and analyze every single class in history, you would see each one has a number of players that never panned out in the league—for various reasons—and were selected far too early. 

Rest assured, 2012 will be no different. Let’s take a look at the potential busts that are likely to go in the lottery this year.

Andre Drummond

Drummond has proven he has an NBA-ready body and not much else to contribute. He’s not even that tall, standing at just 6’10”, 270 pounds.

In the biggest game of his collegiate career, the UConn product slapped together a two-point, three-rebound, four-block performance before fouling out with just 26 minutes played. This was during the first round of the NCAA tournament against Iowa State.

If Drummond cannot dominate lesser competition like the Cyclones, it is doubtful he can figure out how to excel against bigger and stronger NBA players.

Tyler Zeller

It’s likely that Zeller goes in the lottery because he’s a seven-footer. Not because he has the skills and ability that many of the other top picks possess, but only because of his unique size.

That isn’t a good recipe for success in the NBA, but time and time again, franchises will draft a big based on the mantra: “You can’t teach size.”

Zeller is a senior that has almost no upside and looks to be a role player at best in the pros.

Damian Lillard

There aren’t too many tweener guards lighting it up in the NBA. Lillard is a 6’2” scorer that doesn’t actually have a defined position.

At Weber State, he’s been asked to do nothing but put the ball in the basket. It is unlikely he is going to learn to be a facilitator at the next level.

Some teams believe they can use Lillard at the 2 or 3, which is just ridiculous considering how small he is.

Lillard’s ceiling is going to be an energy scorer off the bench.