Knicks all-time draft bust starting 5

Knicks all-time NBA Draft bust starting 5

Despite always being near the top of the NBA Draft order, the Knicks have made a myriad of historically bad picks on draft night. The inept handling of draft picks for the Knicks has allowed us to draw up an all-time starting five comprised of their bust selections.

New York Knicks v Washington Wizards / Patrick Smith/GettyImages

3 of 5

Knicks all-time NBA Draft bust starting 5: SF, Renaldo Balkman

Taken just nine spots ahead of Mardy Collins, the Knicks selected Renaldo Balkman with the 20th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft. The Knicks 2006 draft will forever go down as one of the worst nights in Knicks history and NBA Draft history in large part because of how badly Collins and Balkman's time in New York went.

Balkman spent his first two seasons with the Knicks before being traded to the Nuggets in 2008 and then traded back to the Knicks as part of the deal that helped the Knicks land Carmelo Anthony in 2011. In his first two seasons, Balkman was a liability on the offensive end of the floor. He shot 18.5 percent from 3 in his first season and just 8.3 percent from beyond the arc in his second campaign while shooting below 60 percent from the charity stripe.

Despite the offensive struggles, Balkman was drafted as a high-energy player with a relentless motor. But that never seemed to come to fruition given that Balkman failed to average more than 15.6 minutes per game in a season. He fell out of the rotation in Denver rather quickly after the team traded for him in 2008 and appeared in just 22 games after being dealt back to the Knicks in 2011.

Home/New York Knicks