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

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Nikoloz Tskitishvili. Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images for BIG3 /

Draft Bust No. 2: Nikoloz Tskitishvili. 2002

Our penultimate entry is Nikoloz Tskitishvili, who could have been the precursor to Giannis Antetokounmpo as a star European power forward with a long, tricky last name. Instead, he was the precursor to all of the European draft busts to come who would muddy the waters for every prospect coming out of Europe for years to come.

The 7’0″ big out of Georgia played for future NBA head coach Mike D’Antoni, winning a championship in the Italian League and showing enough to NBA scouts for him to go fifth overall in 2002. He came over immediately to join the Denver Nuggets…which was probably a mistake, for Denver and for Tskitishvili’s career.

He jacked up 3-pointers like he was Dirk Nowitzki as a rookie, hitting just 24.3 percent of them. After playing 81 games as a rookie his playing time went down precipitously, and he would play just 91 games combined over the next three seasons before he went back to Europe. For his career he averaged 2.9 points, 1.8 rebounds and his teams were walloped with him on the court.

Tskitishvili carved out a solid international career after his NBA troubles, winning multiple championships on a variety of teams. He even came back to the states to suit up for the BIG3 league. For the Nuggets, however, he was one of the most colossal draft busts in NBA history.

Just Missed: The Denver Nuggets got ahold of the No. 7 pick too and added Brazilian center Nene, who proved to be a much more successful player. Amar’s Stoudemire went ninth and Caron Butler tenth, while later on Carlos Boozer went 35th overall. In all, though this was one of the worst drafts, the only saving grace for the Nuggets in taking Tskitishvili.

Pistons that Year: If readers thought we were only picking draft years where the Pistons whiffed on their pick too, this should prove you wrong. The Pistons had the 23rd pick in the draft and took a senior out of Kentucky: Tayshaun Prince. He would go on to be a starter on their title team two years later and have a long career in Detroit and the NBA.