Ranking Top 7 draft busts with the No. 5 pick in lottery era

Draft Bust No. 3: Jonathan Bender, 1999

In 1999 the concept of drafting players straight out of high school was still relatively new as teams tried to figure out how to gain an edge in getting to players ahead of their competition. That’s what happened with Jonathan Bender, a 6’11” wing out of Mississippi whose combination of size and skill rocketed him straight from Picayune Memorial High School to the No. 5 pick in the 1999 NBA Draft.

Bender’s size gave him plenty of chances in the league, but he never was able to capitalize on it. The Toronto Raptors drafted him and then traded him a month later to the Indiana Pacers for a veteran Dale Davis. He spent the next six seasons with the Pacers, never earning more than a minor rotation role. His shot came around (34 percent for his career) but never the rest of it, and he had nearly twice as many turnovers as assists for his career.

After he missed three seasons due to multiple knee injuries, he made it back for 25 games with the New York Knicks before officially retiring. He averaged 5.5 points per game across 262 career games and stands out like a sore thumb in one of the deepest Top 10s in draft history.

Just Missed: This draft had nine All-Stars come out of its ranks, six of which were drafted after the Raptors took Jonathan Bender. That included a powerful run right after Bender: Wally Szcerbiak, Richard “Rip” Hamilton, Andre Miller, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry. Add in Andrei Kirilenko and Manu Ginobili later on, and this pick stands out as a particularly poor one.

Pistons that Year: The Detroit Pistons traded their first-round pick that year to the Atlanta Hawks, who took Dion Glover. They had also traded their original second, but ended up taking Melvin Levett with a pick acquired from Indiana; Levett would never make it to an NBA game.