NBA Draft 2024: 10 biggest lottery "busts" from the past 10 years

2. Georgios Papagiannis – Phoenix Suns (2016: Pick 13)

Papagiannis was born and raised in Greece but actually spent one of his high school years playing in Pennsylvania. Still, he returned to Greece and would actually play professionally in that country before getting his shot in the NBA. He was still a teenager while playing for Panathinaikos before declaring for the NBA Draft after a pair of seasons. He had potential in an NBA frontcourt, but few expected him to become a lottery pick.

Considered at the time something of a reach, the Phoenix Suns grabbed him with the 13th pick of the 2016 NBA Draft before later trading his rights to the Sacramento Kings. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a ton to his NBA career. As a rookie he had decent moments for the Kings but would last just two seasons in the NBA, including a single game with the Portland Trailblazers in 2018. In fact, he was back to Panathinaikos just a few months later.

Grabbing Papagiannis with a lottery pick was clearly an abhorrent mistake, using it on a guy who’d play just 39 games in the NBA in his entire career. More productive players like Juancho Hernangomez, Caris LeVert, and Pascal Siakam were taken later in that first round and the Kings found themselves on the wrong side of another draft-day trade in this regard. Papagiannis continues to play in Europe but hasn’t found interest in a return to the NBA.