Derrick Coleman, was he a bust?

[loot]

Was checking out this SI list of top 20 busts, #17 Derrick Coleman. I am 29, and always thought he was a decent player, but this analysis paints a different picture. So was DC a bust?


DC enjoyed a 15-year career, averaging a double-double five different times, while making the All-Star team in '94. That's nothing to sneeze at, unless you consider that he did all this while expending the least amount of effort possible, gliding by on an NBA-ready body and a superior touch. He also drove a series of coaches to the unemployment line and to multiple types of therapy. Coleman could have been the best power forward ever; instead he played just well enough to ensure his next paycheck.

Top 20 bust (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/06/24/gallery.nbabusts/content.4.html)

[32MJ32]

Was checking out this SI list of top 20 busts, #17 Derrick Coleman. I am 29, and always thought he was a decent player, but this analysis paints a different picture. So was DC a bust?



Top 20 bust (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/06/24/gallery.nbabusts/content.4.html)

As per the article, he didn't do his potential justice, so it depends on your definition of "bust." I've seen Chris Webber labelled a bust for similar reasons and he was a near-MVP in Sacramento. When you're 6'10" 250, super athletic and super skilled, people expect the world of you and Coleman generally delivered an atlas (Webber a globe. A really nice, free standing globe made of gold, that you might see in the office of a super villain or dictator). When you look at what some players have done with far fewer natural gifts, it's not hard to see why.

For mine, neither are busts, a bust is a guy like Rafael Araujo, who went #8 in the draft, played 3 seasons, did nothing, then vanished. It's not fair to lump Coleman with a guy like that

[bdreason]

A lot of people thought Coleman had the potential to be one of the best. I never really buy-in to that philosophy, because for me, the mental side of the game is just as important as the physical side. Some people have it, and some people don't. The greats have both.

[Xiao Yao You]

One of the biggest underachievers ever.

[Trumpin]

A career average of 16/9 as a first pick isn't good but when you look at the draft he was in it wasn't a good one only Gary Payton became better so I wouldn't say he was a bust.

[Djax12]

Used to be one of my fave player in the 90s.
With Kenny & Petrovic I thought they were on the verge of something special.

I don't think he's a bust considering his peak (all star game, all nba teams, USA 94), but surely a disappointment that his peak is too short & things went south after 1994.

Sometime I wonder if Petrovic didn't have that tragic accident, would his leadership influenced DC to be a (mentally) better player?

[Horatio33]

Yes he was a bust. Charles Barkley said he should have been the GOAT PF. He had all the tools, great scorer, great rebounder, great passer, great handles for a big man, played good D. He was immature (whoop de****ing do story), got too much money too early. Had Chuck Daly as coach right after he coached the bad boys and he still failed.

If you look at his numbers they look great, but if you look at his skills you can see it was wasted.

[kennethgriffin]

some people make the hall of fame with worse career averages than 16/9


above average player = yes

bust = no

[bmd]

Every time I hear Derrick Coleman, I always remember when I was a kid and I went to my first Rockets game when they were playing against the 76ers.

These two drunk guys next to us were heckling Derrick Coleman all game. (of all the people to heckle).

They said "DC, you suck!" about 50 times.

[Horatio33]

some people make the hall of fame with worse career averages than 16/9


above average player = yes

bust = no

Basketball isnt just about numbers. Go on YouTube and watch some videos.

[El Kabong]

As per the article, he didn't do his potential justice, so it depends on your definition of "bust." I've seen Chris Webber labelled a bust for similar reasons and he was a near-MVP in Sacramento. When you're 6'10" 250, super athletic and super skilled, people expect the world of you and Coleman generally delivered an atlas (Webber a globe. A really nice, free standing globe made of gold, that you might see in the office of a super villain or dictator). When you look at what some players have done with far fewer natural gifts, it's not hard to see why.

For mine, neither are busts, a bust is a guy like Rafael Araujo, who went #8 in the draft, played 3 seasons, did nothing, then vanished. It's not fair to lump Coleman with a guy like that
Dunno if Araujo can be rated as a bust since no one rated him to begin with.

[senelcoolidge]

I would not call him a bust, he's under the category of underachieving. Sort of like Shawn Kemp..could have been great, was very good..but just an underachiever. DC was lazy as hell. My dad and I would laugh at the guy when we watched him play. Just lazy as fu#k.

[JohnnySic]

Underachiever, not a bust. Busts are players like Darko and Kwame.

[Raz]

Unfulfilled potential? Yes.

Bust? No way. That term is reserved for guys like Thabeet or O'Bannon

[jbryan1984]

A bust for a number one pick for sure. Along the lines of a Joe Smith.

[9512]

He stopped caring after he signed his lucrative contract.

[swi7ch]

He was an all-star and member of TEam USA and he's classified as a bust? *** me, I'd like to be a bust too then!

[Raz]

A bust for a number one pick for sure. Along the lines of a Joe Smith.

FOT (**** Outta Town)

[fatboy11]

"Underachiever" is a better term.

Anyone who would consider someone who played 15 years in the NBA and averaged 16 and 9 over that span a "bust" is trying to be too cute with their analysis.

He had the talent to be a Hall of Fame player, but he clearly fell short there. Still, though, two time All-NBA, Rookie of the Year and an All-Star. Not a bust. He actually had a GREAT NBA career.

[9512]

Of my time watching NBA ball (20 years), it seems like every single #1 pick of every draft has to become the next great thing, if not they are busts?

[get these NETS]

Used to be one of my fave player in the 90s.
With Kenny & Petrovic I thought they were on the verge of something special.

I don't think he's a bust considering his peak (all star game, all nba teams, USA 94), but surely a disappointment that his peak is too short & things went south after 1994.

Sometime I wonder if Petrovic didn't have that tragic accident, would his leadership influenced DC to be a (mentally) better player?

2 things happened to that Nets team

i think either in last game of year or in playoffs..john starks injured kenny anderson's wrist

and then petro died in car accident


kenny and dc started the all star game that year if i recall..and petro should have been on that team but nba politics gave joe dumars the knod

he also made 2nd team all nba over kenny anderson..but politics is politics

petro and dc made 3rd team all nba


I think DC was a headcase, and petro's skills surely would have made the game even easier for coleman but he was a dickhead

DC reminds me of T.O...in the sense the originally I thought media resented talented guys who spoke their mind and didn't kiss ass. which made me like them even more....but eventually the veil is lifted and you see that dudes really are assholes...and just don't have winner's mentality.

[Raz]

I think DC was a headcase, and petro's skills surely would have made the game even easier for coleman but he was a dickhead


I remember my coach in high school summing it up nicely - if Coleman had Malone's worth ethic, he would have Jordan's rings - this was in 1996

[get these NETS]

Was checking out this SI list of top 20 busts, #17 Derrick Coleman. I am 29, and always thought he was a decent player, but this analysis paints a different picture. So was DC a bust?




Top 20 bust (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/2005/06/24/gallery.nbabusts/content.4.html)

sports reporters just make up stuff because they have deadlines...

for reasons already mentioned here

DC was most surely NOT a bust

within 4 years in the league he was legitimately one of the four best power forwards in the game barkley/malone/larry johnson/dc/kemp alternate the order depending on the year

considering that 2 of the guys on that list are legit alltime greats at the position

hard to, wth a straight face, write that coleman was a bust


BUST is reserved for highly touted high draft picks who never justify their selections

the only guys who should be on a list of busts are players who were out of the league, not due to injury, within a short amount of time


guys like joe smith and kwame brown...technically...never lived up to hype but play(ed) in the NBA for a long long time

[JellyBean]

It is funny that DC's name appears in ISH just after I read the SLAM article on him. I love SI but no way was DC a bust. Underachiever? Oh yeah. Lazy? Yes, sir. Funky attitude? Right again. But a bust? Depends on how we define "bust". Compare him to Pervis Ellison, Kwame Brown, or a Michael Olowokandi, DC wasn't a bust. He was, a classic underachiever.

[Chalkmaze]

If you take his whole career into account then I'd say he pretty much was a bust. It's not that he didn't have skills, it's that he was a bit of a mental case that lacked heart and work ethic. Mr. Hang Nail, Mr. Glass Jaw. He was a key reason most of his teams were bad to mediocre. Way overpaid as well.

Let's take a look at how many games he played, keeping in mind many of the games he DID play he got to kind of coast and play light because he was coming off an injury, they were always trying to give him time to get back into game shape in fear he might re-aggravate his pinky arthritis.

74, 65, 76, 77, 56, 11, 57, 59, 37, 74, 34, 58, 64, 34, 5

That's a major crap career for a guy with his potential.

[caliman]

Underachiever, not a bust. Busts are players like Darko and Kwame.


this

[caliman]

A bust for a number one pick for sure. Along the lines of a Joe Smith.



No f*ckin way!!!! Busts don't have 3 years of 20 and 10, and 4 other seasons with at least 17 and 10. He left a lot on the table, so that would make him an underachiever, not a bust.

[Chalkmaze]

No f*ckin way!!!! Busts don't have 3 years of 20 and 10, and 4 other seasons with at least 17 and 10. He left a lot on the table, so that would make him an underachiever, not a bust.

But Coleman was all offense and zero defense, so his numbers are deceiving. Seriously, the 12th man on the team was probably a much better defender than Coleman most years. He was truly "turrable" as a defender.

[get these NETS]

But Coleman was all offense and zero defense, so his numbers are deceiving. Seriously, the 12th man on the team was probably a much better defender than Coleman most years. He was truly "turrable" as a defender.
how would you assess or evaluate what kind of defender he was?

in his peak years he was probably an average defender for his position

he was a high iq player so that should/would translate into defense..

[DCL]

a bust is total garbage in my book.

dc was not up to potential, but he wasn't garbage. not a bust. he played well enough to earn big money.

[Chalkmaze]

how would you assess or evaluate what kind of defender he was?

in his peak years he was probably an average defender for his position

he was a high iq player so that should/would translate into defense..

My opinion is based on watching him play the games. His feet were planted in stone, he had guys blow right by him all the time. You can be the smartest defender in the world, but if you apply no effort you'll suck. He played one end of the court, that's it.

[caliman]

But Coleman was all offense and zero defense, so his numbers are deceiving. Seriously, the 12th man on the team was probably a much better defender than Coleman most years. He was truly "turrable" as a defender.


Like I said, an underachiever. Bust status is reserved for guys that can't play at all.

[Owl]

It really depends how one defines bust.

Most conventionally he'd be called an underachiever and a dissapointment. Then again people slap the bust label on Shawn Bradley and he was taken with a lower pick and Bradley had a career close enough to be traded for Coleman (and a trade which recall sources saying New Jersey won). Coleman was a tremendously skilled player but even in New Jersey (where he put up his best numbers) he typically shot poorly, became overconfident in his range and was a poor teammate and defender.

Bust should probably be reserved for very high picks who are really dissapointing e.g. LaRue Martin, Michael Olowakandi, Adam Morrison, Thabeet. Perhaps also for lower lottery picks who just can't play in the league e.g. Rafael Aroujo, maybe Ed O'Bannon (though that was injury related) and it seems Johnny Flynn.

Does bust have to imply potential (or that people believed that there was potential)? Could you call Wesley Johnson a bust if no one expected him to be that much more than what he has become (obviously this example is imperfect in that Johnson may still get better, though he was already reasonably old upon entering the league)?

[DuMa]

not a bust. Lamar Odom reminds me of Derrick Coleman. could have been so much more if he had the desire to be great.

[Chalkmaze]

It really depends how one defines bust.

Most conventionally he'd be called an underachiever and a dissapointment. Then again people slap the bust label on Shawn Bradley and he was taken with a lower pick and Bradley had a career close enough to be traded for Coleman (and a trade which recall sources saying New Jersey won). Coleman was a tremendously skilled player but even in New Jersey (where he put up his best numbers) he typically shot poorly, became overconfident in his range and was a poor teammate and defender.

Bust should probably be reserved for very high picks who are really dissapointing e.g. LaRue Martin, Michael Olowakandi, Adam Morrison, Thabeet. Perhaps also for lower lottery picks who just can't play in the league e.g. Rafael Aroujo, maybe Ed O'Bannon (though that was injury related) and it seems Johnny Flynn.

Does bust have to imply potential (or that people believed that there was potential)? Could you call Wesley Johnson a bust if no one expected him to be that much more than what he has become (obviously this example is imperfect in that Johnson may still get better, though he was already reasonably old upon entering the league)?

Also, do you take the guys contract into account and how much it ends up hurting the team. It's one thing to be a high pick that can't play but never got a huge contract, and another to be a player that show glimpses of greatness and get signed to a HUGE contract but never going anywhere after that. The one that signs the huge contract hurts his team a lot more.

[get these NETS]

My opinion is based on watching him play the games. His feet were planted in stone, he had guys blow right by him all the time. You can be the smartest defender in the world, but if you apply no effort you'll suck. He played one end of the court, that's it.


the few nets game that I saw back then.....and the game tickets were always DIRT cheap..

he would grab board.....throw it to pg....and then waltz up the court



thing is....I don't recall any 4s from that era playing defense at all.....maybe rodman...be interested to see who made the all defense teams those years and whether 2 sfs were picked...

barkley and malone surely...defense doesn't come to mind when you think of them and those years

[chocolatethunder]

I guess most people here are too young to remember him at his best or remember him at all but when he was young he was absolutely awesome. He was really fast, could dribble well, shoot really well, pass well, jump high, rebound well and was strong as an ox. He wasn't some skinny guy like Garnett or Kemp. He was very strong and could bully you in the post. He could step out for a mid range jumper or shoot at three. He was no slouch at all. He was though, pretty lazy. Very high bball IQ but really lazy and his own worst enemy. I remember him giving a blank check to Nets FO for violating dress code I think. If it wasn't that it was practice related but I think that it was for dress code. He was good for about his first four years or so. He played on kinda shitty teams with kinda shitty coaches and got a huge contract and just sort of coasted. At his best he was the best and at his worst he was useless. His early years he was absolutely awesome to watch. I don't buy into the whole "if Drazen hadn't died" bullshit. Nah, he was just lazy and stuck in a shitty organization and didn't give a shit. The dude absolutely knows basketball.

[Owl]

I guess most people here are too young to remember him at his best or remember him at all but when he was young he was absolutely awesome. He was really fast, could dribble well, shoot really well, pass well, jump high, rebound well and was strong as an ox. He wasn't some skinny guy like Garnett or Kemp. He was very strong and could bully you in the post. He could step out for a mid range jumper or shoot at three. He was no slouch at all. He was though, pretty lazy. Very high bball IQ but really lazy and his own worst enemy. I remember him giving a blank check to Nets FO for violating dress code I think. If it wasn't that it was practice related but I think that it was for dress code. He was good for about his first four years or so. He played on kinda shitty teams with kinda shitty coaches and got a huge contract and just sort of coasted. At his best he was the best and at his worst he was useless. His early years he was absolutely awesome to watch. I don't buy into the whole "if Drazen hadn't died" bullshit. Nah, he was just lazy and stuck in a shitty organization and didn't give a shit. The dude absolutely knows basketball.
Chuck Daly will be pleased to hear this.
Bill Fitch too, though perhaps you could argue the virtues of his coaching by that point in his career.

[Owl]

Also, do you take the guys contract into account and how much it ends up hurting the team. It's one thing to be a high pick that can't play but never got a huge contract, and another to be a player that show glimpses of greatness and get signed to a HUGE contract but never going anywhere after that. The one that signs the huge contract hurts his team a lot more.
Good point, as you say the latter is definitely more damaging to their team but that probably (and probably rightly) isn't considered within the term bust. I say probably rightly, because the contract offered isn't really within the player's control, though the effort they put is, so if their dogging it after a payday is why they don't improve they should have some perjorative term, if not specifically bust, attached to them.

[AK47DR91]

He was supposed to be in the Barkley & Malone class but instead he ended up in the 2nd to 3rd tier class. 2nd Tier- Rodman & Kemp, 3rd Tier- Danny Manning, Cliff Robinson, and Larry Johnson. Coleman was in-between the 2nd & 3rd tier.

[MiseryCityTexas]

A bust for a number one pick for sure. Along the lines of a Joe Smith.


Coleman was waaaay better than Joe Smith. Coleman actually had a couple of good seasons in the league. Joe Smith had one really good rookie year, then fell off the face of the earth.

[Round Mound]

He was supposed to be in the Barkley & Malone class but instead he ended up in the 2nd to 3rd tier class. 2nd Tier- Rodman & Kemp, 3rd Tier- Danny Manning, Cliff Robinson, and Larry Johnson. Coleman was in-between the 2nd & 3rd tier.

This

[chocolatethunder]

Chuck Daly will be pleased to hear this.
Bill Fitch too, though perhaps you could argue the virtues of his coaching by that point in his career.
Hahaha whoops! I was only thinking of Bill Fitch and totally spaced on Chuck. I apologize this was all from actual memory not from looking it up on the internet. Hahah you got me though, Chuck was a badass coach. And yeah at that time Bill Fitch was useless. He was old school which I liked, and he didn't go for Kenny Anderson's bullshit which I liked a lot too but yeah I totally spaced on Chuck.

[Chalkmaze]

...

barkley and malone surely...defense doesn't come to mind when you think of them and those years

Malone was a great defender (although maybe not viewed as a key anchor because the Jazz couldn't afford to have him foul out, and they also wanted him to have enough energy left to score 30 ppg), Barkley was not, so I wouldn't have used that example but I get what you're saying. There were a lot of solid PF defenders though, (Buck Williams, Charles Oakley, Michael Cage, Larry Nance, Horace Grant). I'm not saying PF's had to almost be like an elite center or anything, but they had to at least let you know they were there.

Coleman didn't seem to care much at all, he would sort of guard his man right up until he had to exert any real effort, sort of like they weren't paying him to play defense and no one cares about that anyway. He was embarrassingly lazy.

Perhaps because I value defense it really bothers me. When I was a little kid playing soccer there was one kid on my team that always just waited down by the other goal so that he could score the points and win all the glory, while I was out there running all over the field busting other kids shins, getting grass stains, and giving it my all. Coleman was only out there to score points and hated defense because it's hard work and there's no spotlight there.

[CLTHornets4eva]

I remember when he got arrested after pissing on a table in a Charlotte strip club and proceding to DWI and crash into a tractor trailer. :facepalm

I'm not going to say the best PF ever because we never saw glimers of the best skill ever, but he could have been a top 8 NBA player.

[Rooster]

Unfulfilled potential? Yes.

Bust? No way. That term is reserved for guys like Thabeet or O'Bannon

Coleman just does not have the work ethic or the mentality to be great.

I don't classify O'Bannon as a bust. He could have been something if he did not tore up his knee twice in college. He was like the explosive version of Odom with a jumper before that unfortunate pick up game.

[Lebron23]

I don't think he was a bust. But he is kinda an under achiever. He was never the same player after he became injury prone. I think he was the first shooting forward in the NBA.

[Whoah10115]

I had an old almanac and a basketball book that I got for free at the end of a garage sale when I was a kid. They were from 95 and 94. The NBA book covered the 93/94 season and kinda previewed the next season. I remember a few things, including the Derrick Coleman part.

"Imagine if he practiced." is what I never forgot. Hard to say he was a bust. Joe Smith isn't a good comparison because Joe Smith never did anything special. Coleman was a great player for a few years, made two All-NBA teams. With Kenny Anderson by his side, he led the sorry Nets to the playoffs three straight seasons. Then he even put a couple real good seasons together in Philly.

But he should have been like Webber was at his absolute best, but with more athleticism, as Webber in Sacramento had definitely lost athleticism..at least by the time the Kings were in the hunt to actually win. He should be a hall-of-famer.

[HoopsNY]

As per the article, he didn't do his potential justice, so it depends on your definition of "bust." I've seen Chris Webber labelled a bust for similar reasons and he was a near-MVP in Sacramento. When you're 6'10" 250, super athletic and super skilled, people expect the world of you and Coleman generally delivered an atlas (Webber a globe. A really nice, free standing globe made of gold, that you might see in the office of a super villain or dictator). When you look at what some players have done with far fewer natural gifts, it's not hard to see why.

For mine, neither are busts, a bust is a guy like Rafael Araujo, who went #8 in the draft, played 3 seasons, did nothing, then vanished. It's not fair to lump Coleman with a guy like that

I like this analysis. I too don't think Derrick Coleman was a bust, especially when you watched him in the playoffs.

[3ball]

Not a bust, but one of the biggest "what could have beens" ever

For example, he was far better than Pippen, but needed to land in the perfect spot like Pippen did to realize his proper all-time ranking

Coleman had real talent that was underrated because he needed the right environment, while the winning spotlight overrated someone like Pippen, who landed in the best spot (ever)

[ClipperRevival]

Not a bust, but one of the biggest "what could have beens" ever

For example, he was far better than Pippen, but needed to land in the perfect spot like Pippen did to realize his proper all-time ranking

Coleman had real talent that was underrated because he needed the right environment, while the winning spotlight overrated someone like Pippen, who landed in the best spot (ever)

:roll::roll::roll:

You one obssessed SOB.

[bizil]

HELL NO DC wasn't a bust!! Rookie of the Year, 2 time All NBA, 1 time All Star, won Gold Medal with Dream Team 2. The injury bug caught him in his late 20's and he was never the All Star type PF AGAIN!! He didn't reach that superstar level he was destined for. BUT he was on that path it seemed like. And even if he NEVER became a superstar and stayed at the next level under it, that still would have been sufficient enough. A BUST are guys like Darko, Kwame Brown, Anthony Bennett, etc.

DC hit the league with a bang! The injuries ****ed him up. Plus we didn't see guys HIS SIZE with his blend of overall attributes, athletic ability, and power. C Webb was really the next guy after DC had have that great blend of physicality, handles, athletic ability, and scoring skillset as package. Webb added that great passing ability on top of it. Kemp as a beast athletically of course. But guys like DC and Webb were more polished and technically sound in terms of their offensive skillset.

[jayfan]

He was the Herschel Walker of the NBA.


.

[Horatio33]

I commented on this on the first page. With hindsight I'd withdraw where I said he was a bust, and agree that he underachieved. He had all the tools to be an all time great, he didn't have the mentality to be great.

[Whoah10115]

HELL NO DC wasn't a bust!! Rookie of the Year, 2 time All NBA, 1 time All Star, won Gold Medal with Dream Team 2. The injury bug caught him in his late 20's and he was never the All Star type PF AGAIN!! He didn't reach that superstar level he was destined for. BUT he was on that path it seemed like. And even if he NEVER became a superstar and stayed at the next level under it, that still would have been sufficient enough. A BUST are guys like Darko, Kwame Brown, Anthony Bennett, etc.

DC hit the league with a bang! The injuries ****ed him up. Plus we didn't see guys HIS SIZE with his blend of overall attributes, athletic ability, and power. C Webb was really the next guy after DC had have that great blend of physicality, handles, athletic ability, and scoring skillset as package. Webb added that great passing ability on top of it. Kemp as a beast athletically of course. But guys like DC and Webb were more polished and technically sound in terms of their offensive skillset.

Less to do with injury and more of what Andrew Bynum lacked, which was professionalism and effort.

He was never well-conditioned, didn't practice well, was a jerk, didn't try enough (actually think it could have been "tried" rather than "practiced").

[Round Mound]

Coleman had the talent to be one of the best PFs ever but as u guys mention it was mostly mental that he didin´t (he maybe recieved too much money when young making him unmotivated). Here is a a video resume on him facing Sir Charles:

Charles Barkley (34p/16r/8a) vs Derrick Coleman (23p/13r) - Highlights 12/3/1993 Suns@Nets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB50xSknT3Y

[Horatio33]

Coleman had the talent to be one of the best PFs ever but as u guys mention it was mostly mental that he didin´t (he maybe recieved too much money when young making him unmotivated). Here is a a video resume on him facing Sir Charles:

Charles Barkley (34p/16r/8a) vs Derrick Coleman (23p/13r) - Highlights 12/3/1993 Suns@Nets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB50xSknT3Y

Great how you shoehorned Barkley into a thread about a different player. Didn't see that coming.

[Jay-B]

Had some decent years on the New Jersey Nets and got in trouble a lot, I’d throw him in the “somewhat of a bust” category. There’s been tons of bigger busts then him.

[Nowoco]

People can blame injuries but he was already underachieving long before he got them.

Comparing him to Shawn Kemp is nonsense. Kemp was one of the league's best players right up to the lockout season when he ballooned in weight.

[Nowoco]

However I wouldnt say it's as cut and dry as some are making out. Meaning there are a straight up garbage busts like Anthony Bennett and Hasheem Thabeet but Kwame Brown who everyone considers one of the all-time busts played 12 years in the NBA. Most players would kill for a 12 year career. There are also busts because of injury like Sam Bowie who you cant blame on them. DC unlike Kwame and Anthony Bennett, had great talents and was a justified #1 pick whereas those two were drafted way too high. And considering DC failed to live up to expectation through his own laziness and lack of desire, in some ways it is fair to call him a bust.

[DoctorP]

COleman was not a total bust but he did not live to the GOAT expectations of him.

:coleman:

[senelcoolidge]

One of the biggest underachievers ever.

This. He still had a good career, but he had all of the tools to be great. He was lazy and had a bad attitude.