North Carolina Basketball: Biggest Tar Heels draft busts this century

Tier 5: A lottery pick and a late selection

10. Tyler Hansbrough, 13th overall pick

Tyler Hansbrough was a terrific college player. He is perhaps the greatest player to play for the Tar Heels this century. The 2008 National Player of the Year was a three-time consensus first-team All-American selection (2007-2009). Carolina retired his #50 jersey.

Hansbrough hasn’t had an outstanding NBA career. However, he is still active and has seven years of NBA experience. He was selected with the #13 overall pick by the Indiana Pacers in 2009. Hansbrough spent the 2016-17 season with the Fort Worth Mad Ants.

The 6’9″ power forward played his first four seasons with the Pacers.  He has also played for the Toronto Raptors and the Charlotte Hornets. Hansbrough has averaged 6.7 points along with 4.2 boards a game to go along with a 14.2 PER and 20.2 win shares.

What makes Hansbrough a semi-bust is that he was probably selected a little too high for his true ability. Jrue Holiday, as well as Jeff Teague, were selected behind Hansbrough and have had significant better careers. James Johnson, Ty Lawson, Darren Collsion, Omri Casspi, Taj Gibson, Wayne Ellington and DeMarre Carroll are also still in the league.

No. 9 J.P. Tokoto, 58th overall pick

Jean-Pierre Tokoto is Carolina’s biggest draft pick surprise this century. Tokoto never produced double figures in three seasons for the Tar Heels. He averaged 8.7 points along with 5.6 boards and 4.3 assists in 2014-15.

It is hard to include second round draft picks on this list. But some players shouldn’t have been drafted.

Tokoto was selected with the 58th pick in 2015 by the Philadelphia 76ers. The 23-year-old will likely never play in the NBA. He has spent the last two seasons with the D-League’s Oklahoma City Blue and Rio Grande Valley Vipers, respectively.