Fansided

NBA Draft: Every team’s least popular pick ever

By Cody Williams

CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 30: Anthony Bennett
CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 30: Anthony Bennett /
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NEW YORK, UNITED STATES: Nikoloz Tskitishvili of Georgia celebrates with family members after he was chosen as the fifth pick by the Denver Nuggets at the 2002 NBA draft 26 June 2002 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tskitishvili plays for the Benetton Treviso team in Italy. AFP PHOTO/Stan Honda (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES: Nikoloz Tskitishvili of Georgia celebrates with family members after he was chosen as the fifth pick by the Denver Nuggets at the 2002 NBA draft 26 June 2002 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Tskitishvili plays for the Benetton Treviso team in Italy. AFP PHOTO/Stan Honda (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images) /

Denver Nuggets – Nikoloz Tskitishvili (2002)

If there’s one thing that you realize when looking back at the history of the NBA draft, one of the things that you realize is that there were a ton of bad looks for several teams around the league in the early 2000s. The 2002 NBA Draft is not exempt from that at all and the Denver Nuggets were clearly one of the most egregious examples of that with their selection of Nikoloz Tskitishvili.

Considering that he was a 19-year-old player with ridiculous amounts of size and seemingly a high amount of versatility at that size with the ability to play on the wing as well, it’s not hard to understand why Tskitishvili was looked at as a valuable commodity in the draft. However, it turns out that this was nothing even remotely close to being a quality pick that fans could ultimately get behind for the Nuggets.

The Georgian forward ended up only spending 2.5 seasons in Denver before going elsewhere, but the location of the seven-footer in the NBA never really mattered. He wasn’t nearly skilled enough in any facet of the game to carve out a role or even develop the skills to carve out a role. He’s definitely a test case for looks not being everything when it comes to young prospects.

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