Remember when Chris McCullough was a projected lottery pick? With a week until the NBA Draft, that’s no longer the case.
A lot has happened since those times. McCullough went on a cold streak before his season was cut short by an ACL tear. Now, the former Syracuse big man is already projected to be a bust in the NBA.
ESPN Stats and Info uses an advanced formula (that I would be happy to explain if I had any idea how it worked myself) to project how a prospect’s career will turn out. ESPN says that in any one draft class there is one superstar, 10 starters, and 25 role players. The other 24 drafted players are busts. The odds of McCullough fitting into any of those roles, according to ESPN, are as follows:
Superstar: 0.7%
Starter: 19%
Role Player: 29%
Bust: 51%
So you’re telling me there’s a chance?
These projections, of course, are assuming that McCullough ever makes it to the NBA. Chad Ford has McCullough going to the Brooklyn Nets with the 29th pick of the draft, and he doesn’t want to fall much further than that. Second round draft picks aren’t guaranteed contracts, they have to earn their spot in the summer. If McCullough went in the second round, he wouldn’t be healthy in time to play in the Summer League. A team could always take a leap of faith with McCullough (which is what any team signing a player coming off an ACL tear is doing anyways), but I’m sure he’d be more comfortable with the sure thing.
As for Rakeem Christmas, he’s shot up draft boards after impressing at the Combine. Christmas is projected to go #38 to the Detroit Pistons.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
