Biggest NBA Draft Gambles -

Isn’t any draft in and of itself a gamble? First off, it’s literally a lottery, made up of teams that didn’t make the playoff in the preceding season. There are ping pong balls involved and a machine that picks them. It sounds like a lottery to me.

Teams with worse records get the best possible chance to win the highest pick. Then, they have to pick from a pool of players that are still in a development stage, and no one can know for sure if they stay on the same upward trajectory. So, mistakes are bound to be made.

It might not be seen as unpredictable as casino gambling per se, but at least when you play at an online casino, they tell you the odds before you sit down to gamble. These platforms today offer an unmatched selection of slots on any theme you can think of, and they display the RTP.

RTP is the percentage of the money bet that the game will pay back to the player over time. So, they’re transparent about your chances, and even use Random Number Generators to make sure that each play is fair and equal. One of the sites that has all of these features, plus more is Casimba. To gain access to their services, all you have to do is register.

So, yes, the draft is a bit like gambling, so let’s see which big NBA bets paid off, and which didn’t.

Darko Milicic

You were likely expecting the famous Serbian to make the list. While Serbia is indeed known for producing quality players, the country’s reputation might have clouded the Piston’s judgment when they fell in love with this seven-footer.

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It’s got to sting when you pick a player who had a 6-point per game career average and retired in his mid-20s, instead of three Hall of Famers. That’s right. If you don’t know, Milicic was picked over Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh. Talk about an epic NBA bust.

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Greg Oden

A story of wasted potential due to multiple injuries, and one of the biggest draft busts in sports history, if not the biggest. Oden was a center at Ohio State and was drafted as the first overall pick in the 2007 draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.

However, despite his undeniable talent, he displayed a propensity to get injured throughout his college career. Nevertheless,he earned numerous accolades and showed great skill. The Trail Blazers decided to take a risk and sign him. Sadly, he immediately underwent knee surgery and missed his entire first season. It was down-hill from there.

Rafael Araujo

Though the 2004 draft was full of mistakes, Toronto took the cake by using their pick at spot eight, on Araujo. Especially when Andre Iguodala was there for the taking.

Araujo was playing for Brigham Young University in Utah and he was putting up impressive numbers, averaging 18.4 points per game. With his size, many scouts pegged him as a great addition to any team. The Raptors were betting on it, and they lost, as Araujo proved to be a major bust and left the league after only three seasons.