Royce White: The Worst First Round Pick Ever?

Jan 27, 2014

Recently in an question and answer with Rocket season ticket holders,  the Houston Rockets general manager  Daryl Morey made a very interesting comment.

“I take some sort of pride that you could argue that Royce White is the worst first-round pick ever. He’s the only one that never played a minute in the NBA that wasn’t just a foreign guy staying in Europe. It just shows we swing for the fence.” said Morey

When I first heard that, I thought what about good ole Anthony Bennett? Hey why stop at Bennett this 2013 class as a whole is pretty bad right?  Worse than Kwame Brown? Remember Greg Oden? Marvin Williams? Ok not Marvin but hes still a scrub, but anyways that got me to thinking pretty hard who is the worst?

 

………..

Yeah well um………Royce pretty much is the worse.

Royce White was the number 16th pick in the 2012 NBA draft, that has produced a number of productive players. When you take a look at all the players picked just two years ago, there are countless recognizable names before and after White. A lot of these players are productive pieces on their current teams and looked at as pieces to build on for the future.

I want to list off all these guys but then I remembered this is why we have the internet :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_NBA_draft

White is the only first rounder to not play in the NBA, which is just rare in the NBA today. We all understood that he had mental health issues and a fear of flying but when he was drafted he said it would not be a problem. He effectively let that be the reason why he never played. The only option was bussing him across the country for games or only letting him play home games. That would pretty much isolate him from the team which is a huge problem when talking about team chemistry. Young players are not supposed to come in with that type of baggage and create problems, their supposed to shut up, listen to the veterans and cause as little problems as possible.

That was not going to happen with Royce. He let his mental health problems get in the way. It seems as though we are supposed to sympathize with him but he makes it pretty hard with the way he acted. He said he would do what was needed to make it work but you never got that vibe. Besides a few preseason games and D-League stints, White never played in the NBA.  He was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers last summer and waived during training camp. Unless he can get his act together this guy is done.

What makes White such a bad pick though is the fact that the Rockets had 3 picks in that draft and the other two have brought a lot of value to the franchise. They selected Jeremy Lamb with the 12th pick and they used him in the deal to get James Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder. I don’t have to say much about Hardens presence in Houston lets just say they are a top player in the Western Conference and now host the NBA’s best center Dwight Howard (he’s only the best by default, somebody has to step up). On the other hand the Rockets selected Terrence Jones with the 18th pick. Jones is currently the starting power forward in Houston and averaging around 11 points and 7 rebounds. Remember when trading Omer Asik was a huge priority for Houston? Well Jones play has made that not even a priority any more. Asik probably won’t even get traded, Jones has provided actually what they need at the position.

We could say that Anthony Bennett is the worst first rounder but at least he’s playing. He still has time to develop and has the D-League as an option if the Cavs give up on him. Plus I dug in my crystal ball and see him averaging 15 points and 8 rebounds a game on a very bad New York Knicks team in the future.

It is really sad to see how White’s career has gone. This guy was beast in college as point forward who could pretty much do it all on the court. Now he’ll just be remembered as a wasted first rounder who held himself back from being a productive NBA player. In a 2012 NBA draft with little down side to it, White has proved to be that one bad egg.