Fansided

The worst NBA Draft picks for every team

By Jonathan Macri

PORTLAND, OR - 1985: Sam Bowie #31 of the Portland Trailblazers warms up prior to a game played circa 1985 at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1985 NBAE (Photo by Brian Drake/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - 1985: Sam Bowie #31 of the Portland Trailblazers warms up prior to a game played circa 1985 at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1985 NBAE (Photo by Brian Drake/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images) /

24. Houston Rockets: Eddie Griffin

You could definitely see what the Rockets were thinking here.

The Rudy T years were coming to a close. Hakeem was a few months away from being traded to the Raptors. The team had a young Steve Francis, who would go on to make the first of three consecutive All-Star appearances the following season, but little else. They were still a solid team — 45 wins in 2000-01 — but they just missed the playoffs, and with three first rounders, had enough draft ammunition to make a swing big enough for a star that could reboot the franchise without bottoming out. They thought Eddie Griffin would be that guy.

He wasn’t. Griffin struggled with substance abuse until the Rockets released him just two years after trading all those picks to take him seventh overall. After a year in rehab and three forgettable seasons in Minnesota, Griffin died when a car he was driving struck a moving train, ending one of the sadder stories in NBA history.

What makes this trade so bad is less about what happened to Houston, who ended up with Yao Ming the following June, and more about how it benefitted the team they traded with on draft night in 2001, the New Jersey Nets.

With the three picks, they took Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong. Armstrong was forgettable, but Collins was a regular starter on two Finals teams and Jefferson is still the second leading scorer in Nets postseason history. Along with the trade for Jason Kidd, the draft night deal with Houston resurrected the franchise to heights not seen since it was in the ABA.

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