they showed tons of promise and looked like future stars but instead of continued success came the bitter taste of wasted potential these are the 10 recent NBA players who looked to become franchise players but instead ended up as one season wonders after being named Big 12 Player of the Year and a consensus first team All-American as a senior at Kansas Devonte Graham had a harsh reality check the 23-year-old 6'1 point guard fell to the 34th spot in the 2018 NBA draft and in his rookie season for the hornet he saw little meaningful action as the third string point guard Graham averaged just 14 minutes in 46 games playing behind kembell Walker and Tony Parker but then Kemba got traded to Boston and Parker retired which left plenty of opportunity for Graham and he seized it to the fullest Devonte averaged 18. 2 points and 7. 5 assists per game which tied James Harden for the seventh best Mark in the NBA Furthermore with 218 made threes Graham was fifth in made three-pointers and at times he looked like the second coming of Steph Curry the highlights of his coming out season included a 40.
7 threes performance in a win over the Nets and a huge gamewinner against the Knicks in the garden the world expected Graham to continue to improve and become a perennial 20-point scorer and maybe even surpass kemell Walker who made three all-star teams as a hornet but it never happened Graham's numbers decreased across the board in 20121 and when Charlotte traded him to New Orleans his output vanished slowly but surely Graham efficiency scoring assists and rebounds dropped year after year and he's currently not even on an NBA roster which is astonishing for a player who just five years ago was top 10 in assists in made threes but Devonte Graham isn't the only point guard who shined in 2020 and is now out of the NBA after going undrafted in the 2018 NBA draft Kendrick nun played one year in the g-league where he caught the eye of the Miami Heat who signed him for the 2019 2020 NBA season none was supposed to be a rotation filler but then he dazzled in his preseason debut putting up 40 points against the Rockets the highest point total in a preseason game in the last 20 years by a Heat player Out of the Blue Nun had burst onto the scene starting every game for Miami in the regular season with the averages of 15. 3 points and 3. 3 assists per game nun finished second in Rookie of the Year voting behind John Morant he played big minutes on a team that made the NBA finals and his 18 points in game one of the 2020 finals was the most points scored by a rookie Off the Bench in a Finals game since Elden Campbell's 21 points in 91 it seemed like the heat had found another uncut Gem and turned him into a diamond but then nun dropped off even though his efficiency improved nun's numbers decreased and Miami didn't extend his contract still everyone else saw a ton of potential and the Lakers signed nun to a 2-year $10 million contract only to see their investment fizzle out Kendrick missed the entire 2022 season due to a knee injury it it was clear that he wasn't the same player so the Lakers quickly shipped him to Washington where he mostly played in garbage time and just 4 years after a remarkable rookie season and playing in the finals nun was out of the NBA signing a deal with the Greek team pananos there he won the Euro league and was named the MVP of the Greek Championship so it's safe to say he's doing well and maybe we'll even see him on an NBA roster again but while being out of the league certainly isn't a nice feeling it's much easier if you're still receiving an NBA paycheck like Davis bton bton aka the lvan laser came to the NBA in 2016 and for three years he was a solid bench player for the Spurs justifying his nickname by hitting over 40% of his threes however the best he ever averaged in San Antonio was eight points per game but after he got traded to Washington and got more shooting opportunities Berton exploded at times the 6'10 power forward looked like the second coming of Dirk Nowitzki making 42% of his threes which ranked sixth in the NBA and hitting 200 threes in a season the eighth best result across the entire league the laian laser averaged 15.
4 points per game on insanely good efficiency which landed him A $64 million extension in The Following Season his shooting plummeted his scoring average dipped to 11. 5 points per game and due to his defensive deficiencies it soon became obvious that Bon had one of the worst contracts in the NBA the lafian Sharpshooter never shot that sharp after signing his deal [Applause] and after the 2024 season he got waved by the Hornets but on the bright side bton is still getting money from Charlotte who will pay him $5. 25 million for the 2025 season and bton is not the only player to put up big numbers in a contract year it's actually an extremely common thing but what about those players who were only good for a couple of playoff series and still landed a monster contract while the poster boy for that scenario is bismack dbo who had the luck of becoming a free agent in 2016 when the NBA entered the first season of their 9-year $24 billion deal with ESPN and TNT as a result of that TV money the salary cap spiked from 70 million to 94.
1 million a 32% increase and the largest in NBA history this rise in salary cap allowed the Warriors to sign Kevin Durant but other players like Tima mozgov Lal Deng and biombo also benefited earning an amount of money that would have been baffling just one season earlier biombo spent the first four years of his career in Charlotte where he averaged just 4. 4 points and six boards per game and in the 2016 regular season with the Raptors he only slightly improved to 5. 5 points and eight rebounds per game but then in the 2016 playoffs biombo helped the Raptors reach the Conference finals against LeBron's Cavaliers where Toronto was just two wins away from getting to the finals biombo excelled on the defensive end and cleaned the glass better than ever before averaging 9.
4 rebounds in just 20 25 minutes across 20 playoff games the African Center drew a lot of attention during that two-month playoff run and when the floodgates opened in the 2016 offseason and every team had salary cap space your Orlando Magic decided to use theirs on bomo Biz got a 4-year $72 million contract which is insane for somebody who averaged just five points per game since he signed bomo never reached the same Heights as he did during the 2016 playoffs averaging just 5. 4 points and 5. 4 rebounds for the rest of his career but unlike bomo who was really just a high energy guy and never developed much skill this next player was supposed to be a generational player and the next great NBA superstar Jabari Parker was the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA Drft and he was the complete package standing at 6'8 250 lbs with a solid jumper and great handles for his size Parker could seemingly do everything on the court in 2017 his third year in the league Parker averaged 20.
1 points 6. 2 rebounds and 2. 8 assists shooting 49% from the field and 37% for three with Giannis Chris Middleton and Parker the Bucks were flying and it seemed like they had their big three for the next decade but then Parker's kneee crumbled Parker first tore his ACL in 2014 during his rookie year and just two years later the same ACL gave out again and Jabari was never the same player after that the size and skill were there but his agility and explosiveness were gone and over the next 5 years Parker appeared in just 158 games averaging 12.
5 points not terrible by any means but far below his previous success Jabari was eventually forced to continue his career overseas where he signed a contract with Barcelona a similar fate struck this next player who got drafted by the best team in the NBA or at least so he thought in 2020 after 5 years of making the NBA finals and winning three championships the Golden State Warriors became the worst team in the NBA KD was gone Klay was out for the season due to injury and so was Steph who broke his hand in the fourth game of the season all the Warriors had left was an uninspired Drymond Green and a bunch of young guys with seven rookies including Jordan P but from all those Young Guns there was one guy who showed more promise than anybody and he looked like a future Cornerstone of the Warriors franchise it was Eric Pascal a 6'6 physical power forward and a 2018 NCAA Champion with Villanova selected 41st overall in the 2019 draft Pascal settled into the NBA even better than anyone expected averaging 14 points 4. 6 rebounds and 2. 1 assists per game while shooting 50% from the field Pascal finished sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting and made the all rookie first team so everyone expected him to only improve in The Following season but with the return of Curry Pascal regressed averaging nine points per game in 2021 after which he got traded to Utah with the Jazz the young power forward never found his footing and after just one season he was out of the NBA and is now playing in Europe but while there were many players who made their name over one season and then faded away nobody did it more spectacularly than Jeremy Lynn despite dominating at Harvard where he averaged 17 points and five assists with excellent shooting splits Lynn was stereotyped and nobody wanted to take a chance on a skinny Asian point guard Lynn eventually signed with the Warriors as an undrafted player but still he got barely any playing time and was soon cut and the same story repeated with the Houston Rockets his NBA Dram was on Shak legs and Lynn was sleeping on his friend's couch in New York while playing on a minimum contract for the Knicks but then it happened in 2012 the Nicks were plagued by injuries and were especially thin at the point guard spot out of desperation coach Mike Danton gave Lyn a chance on February 4th against the Nets it was the first time in his career that Lynn had played over 30 minutes in a game and just the fourth time he played over 20 but Lynn seized the opportunity to the fullest erupting for 25 points and seven assists in the next game he had 28 and 8 and the game after that 23 and 10 then came a game against Kobe and the Lakers where Lynn scored 38 points after which he became the biggest Sports story in America on February 14th with less than a second remaining in the game Lynn made a game-winning three-pointer in the Knicks 90 to 87 win over Toronto five four Renn for the win got it and Lyn sanity was born just two weeks after after he was sleeping on a friend's couch and feared getting cut from the NBA Jeremy became one of the most popular athletes on the planet for the season Lynn averaged 14.
6 points per game 6. 2 assists and 1. 6 steals which unfortunately would remain his career highs in all three categories even though Lynn had a solid career averaging 11.
6 points and 4. 3 assists across nine Seasons he never recaptured the magic from the Lin sanity era in what was arguably the biggest one season Wonder of all time and for this next player the biggest reason why he was only a one season Wonder was his age if Jalil Okafor had been born 10 years earlier he could have been one of the best players in the NBA if he had been born 20 years earlier he could have been a Hall of Famer see okaf for was an old school center with phenomenal footwork huge hands and a soft touch around the basket jalo was a master of scoring in the post with his back to the basket which made him the third pick in the 2015 NBA draft in 2016 his rookie season okaf for averaged 17. 5 points and seven rebounds per game but unfortunately for him the revolution of the three-pointer had already started and he couldn't keep up pace and space wasn't okaf for's game and even though he could make quick moves in tight spaces he couldn't guard anybody especially when he played against bigs that could shoot and drag him out of the paint based on his polished post moves and the lack of a defensive 3 second rule okaf for would have been a great player in the 9s and early 2000s when teams used to dump the ball in the post on every possession and you didn't have to switch and run after Steph Curry's of the world on defense but he was born too late and after he averaged 11.
5 points as a sophomore okaf for never reached double figures in scoring for the rest of his career he bounced around the league usually playing garbage time minutes before he was forced to move from the NBA and continue his career in China and almost four years since his last NBA game completely out of the blue okaf for returned to the NBA he signed a 10-day contract with the Pacers and it was great to see him on the court again but also Bittersweet since okaf for really could have had a much better career and an almost identical scenario happened to another former sixer who had a phenomenal rookie season and then completely fell off Michael Carter Williams was the 11th pick of the 2013 NBA draft and he had one of the best debuts in NBA history against the defending Champion Miami Heat MCW post 22 points seven rebounds 12 assists and nine steals which even got Magic Johnson excited it was the most steals ever in an NBA debut and the most ever by a rookie and because he was also close to a quadruple double with only one turn over Carter Williams quickly put his name on the NBA map despite not being very efficient MCW finished his rookie campaign strongly averaging 16. 7 points 6. 2 rebounds 6.
3 assists and 1. 9 steals dominantly winning rookie of the year but just like okaf for Carter Williams peaked too soon and never replicated the success he had as a rookie he just Couldn't Shoot to save his life and the Sixers got rid of him less than 6 months after he won Rookie of the Year Michael was decent enough to stay in the NBA for 9 years but he never reached the level everyone expected from him after his 2014 season and 2014 was also the career year of a player most famous for blowing into LeBron james' ear of course it's Lance Stevenson AKA Born Ready who at one point looked like one of the most versatile guards in the NBA in 2014 Stevenson played a big role on a Pacers team that went to the Conference Finals averaging 13. 8 points 7.
2 rebounds and 4.
