Hornets Happenings | The Five Worst Hornets Draft Picks Of All Time

This is the second in a series of articles in which I analyze the best and worst of the Hornets since the team's inception.  Today, I look at the five worst draft picks of all time.

Like the first article in this series which looked at the five best draft picks of all time,  the ground rules are simple:

1. The Hornets had to have drafted the player

2. The quality of the draft pick is evaluated on a) how poorly the player performed over his NBA career, not necessarily his performance just for the Hornet , and b) how brief of a career the player had.

3. The draft pick is considered for the relative position of the draft pick and who was drafted above and below the pick.

1. Kirk Haston

Kirk Haston was selected 16th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2001 draft. In two years he spent more time on the injured reserve list than the active roster. Haston averaged 1.2 points per game, playing in 27 games. He also averaged one rebound per game while recording no steals.

The Hornets passed on Tony Parker, Gilbert Arenas and Mehmet Okur to select Haston.

2. Jiří (George) Zídek, Jr.

In 1995, the Hornets slected Jiří (George) Zídek, Jr., with the 22nd overall pick of the draft . Zidek played in three NBA seasons for the Hornets, Denver Nuggets and Seattle SuperSonics, averaging 3.4 points per game in his NBA career. 

He averaged less than ten minutes of playing time per game. Zidek played collegiately at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was a member of their 1995 NCAA championship team.

3. Cedric Simmons

Three picks after Hilton Armstrong in the 2006 draft, the Hornets  selected power forward Cedric Simmons. After appearing in 43 games for the Hornets, Simmons was traded to the Cavaliers for guard David Wesley.  Simmons has averaged just over two points per game and just under two rebounds per game in his three season career.

4. Hilton Armstrong

With the 12th overall pick in the 2006 draft, the Hornets selected UConn center Hilton Armstrong.  He had a rather unremarkable college career,  averaging less than 4 points in each of first 3 seasons at UConn. He did improve his senior year averaging 9.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks.

Although the jury is still out on Armstrong, many people, including this writer were rather surprised with this pick.  Some other players that the Hornets passed over to select Armstrong are Rajon Rondo, Jordan Farmar, Leon Powe, and Ronnie Brewer.

5. Tony Delk

In the 1996 draft, the Hornets selected Kobe Bryant with the thirteenth overall selection, and immediately traded him to the L.A. Lakers for Vlade Divac. 

In the Hornets defense, no one really knew much about Kobe. Coming straight out of  Lower Merrion High, Kobe worked out for only one team - the L.A. Lakers.

Some infamous players that were drafted before Kobe include Samaki Ijuma Walker, taken by the Dallas Mavericks with the 9th overall pick—acquired from the Celtics and Vitaly Nikolaevich Potapenko taken by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 12th overall pick that was acquired from Washington.

The Hornets had another pick in the first round of that draft. With the 16th overall pick, acquired from Miami, the Hornets selected shooting guard Tony Delk from the University of Kentucky.

Delk was not a horrible player.  He had a solid career as a backup guard, playing for nine teams over his ten year career. What induced me to include Delk on this list were the players that the Hornets passed on to pick him.

Among the future solid players that the Hornets turned their noses up to in order to select Delk are Jermaine O'Neal, Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, Dontae Jones, and Derek Fisher. Ben Wallace signed as an undrafted free agent by Washington.