Former NBA Lottery Picks On the Verge of Early Retirement

Sep 26, 2014; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings forward Derrick Williams (13) during media day at the Sacramento Kings practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA Draft can be a hit or miss for rebuilding teams, especially in the lottery.

Often times, it’s a great opportunity to find hidden talent that can bring winning back to a struggling franchise. But there’s also the chance that a team will get stuck with a bust instead, wasting both their time and valuable draft pick.

For every Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony, there’s a Bob Nash, Sam Bowie and Darko Milicic.

And unfortunately the trend hasn’t changed.

In recent years there’s been a handful of lottery picks that have failed to live up to expectations, slowly but surely carving themselves a path out of the league and into basketball oblivion.

Jan Vesely, Greg Oden and Michael Beasley were the most recent lottery picks to share that awful fate, but which other players will be forced to follow in their footsteps once the regular season concludes?