Let’s compare him to another 3rd overall pick, using Hollinger’s new favorite stat Estimated Wins Added:
Owens Career EWA: 1.99
Dunleavy career EWA: 3.74
Expected EWA for a number 3 overall pick: 5.6

Although Owens numbers look worse because his career had a “long tail” of mediocrity, he was still pretty bust-o-rific if he can’t even compare to good ol’ Funleavy

By no means a monumental bust. He gave the league seven pretty productive years, more than a lot of guys can say. He was the third pick in ‘91… that sounds high, and is a bit high, but there weren’t a million superior players below him. Dikembe was hugely better, and Steve Smith and Terrell Brandon and Dale Davis were definitely better, but that’s about it. As the third pick, he was no worse than the 7th or 8th-best player in that draft. Many, many players have worse discrepancies than that.

Owens was a disappointment, and trading Mitch for him was stupid. But we shouldn’t let that completely warp our perspective. He was a productive player. If he was a bust, he was barely one, and certainly not a monumental one.

Now, I consider myself a pretty open person – that is, even when I disagree with others opinion I can at least see where they’re coming from.

With the “Owens was a monumental bust” people, I just don’t see where you’re coming from at all. He was a pretty good player for a few years (I think you could definitely say he was an average starter the first 5 years of his career), and had a 10 year career. That’s not bad. As for the EWA argument, I enjoy using those numbers for a broad discussion, but I hardly think they’re an accurate enough measure of a players performance to use to determine a single player is a bust. Maybe I just haven’t gone through the drafts looking for high picks that have done worse, but I’m pretty sure I could easily find a lot of people to place above Owens on a list of draft busts.

I also don’t think the Juan Dixon one is very fair – he wasn’t drafted that high because he was expected to be a good college player and not a good pro. If I remember correctly most people were surprised he was drafted as high as he was, as well. My initial thoughts were Danny Ferry shouldn’t be on the list, either, but then I checked out his stats…I don’t know why but I always thought he had a much better NBA career than he did.

The point is Owens, not that big of a bust. Had productive years. I just don’t see the other side of the argument. Am I missing something?

…to finally agree with the premise of one of Atma’s main page threads. I feel very warm and harmonious all of a sudden!

Calling Owens a bust in and of himself isn’t fair, I concur. I think that the length of his career at ten years is acceptable, although the thing that I think makes people call him a bust is how he petered out at the end. Generally a “bust” is somebody who projects to be a great NBA talent and falls flat on their face rookie season on down.

Owens seemed to come out of the gate at his best and then gradually lessened in value until he was out of the league at 31. The fact that he seemed to initially fulfill some measure of promise is why I think his decline caused people to pile on. Especially while Mitch Richmond went on to be one of the league’s greatest, under appreciated talents in Sacramento.

That said, I think given what the Warriors had in Richmond, it was a stupid trade. I’ll never, in all likelihood, have a change of heart about that.

I dunno if I’d call Adonal Foyle a bust, although I guess people were expecting bigger things from him. Just looking at his build I don’t know how anybody thought he’d hold down starter’s minutes at the 5. He basically did okay in the NBA at the one thing he was great at in college, but I think expectation has to play a role. Obviously, that renders it purely objective, but I never really though Foyle would be even an average offensive player, so it didn’t bother me. The contract was the issue.