Five Most Bust Likely NBA Draft Prospects
By Joe Nardone
Joel Embiid — Kansas Jayhawks
NBA Draft. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Talk about going after some low-hanging fruit here. Listen, this is easy because of the recent foot injury Joel Embiid suffered. Between that and the growing myth of his back being more fragile than Glass Joe’s jaw, I get it. If you decide to couple his track record of recent injuries with the historical disasters that are injury riddled big men, then that would put him on this list alone.
I think Embiid is great. His footwork is years ahead of where it should be, his defense is outstanding and center prospects as good as him just don’t exist in the world we live in today. Really, you are far more likely to find someone who can’t beat Super Mario Brothers Level 1-1 than you are to find any seven-footer with the capabilities that Embiid encompasses.
The injury issue is real, though. There is a chance, because big men have proved it in the past, that Embiid can be done as an NBA player before he ever really got his career started. That doesn’t mean it is going to happen, it just means that his comparisons to Hakeem Olajuwon and the possibility of him being out of the league due to injuries, makes his bust to great rate extremely high.
Personally, I think a team should still take a flyer out on him. He has just too much talent to pass up. With that being said, though, I write for a college basketball blog and don’t work in an NBA front-office, so I’m not exactly the authority on his current medical situation.