5 NBA Players On The Verge Of BUSTING In 2027

With the new NBA season about to begin, it's a new opportunity for every player to make a name for themselves, and while most players are already solidified as important players in their roles on their teams, young players often take more time to solidify themselves. You at the very least want to see consistent improvement from these young players, and if they were early draft picks, then even more pressure is placed on them to get going. Falling behind puts them at risk of having the dreaded bust label placed on them and that brings us to today's video. Today we will be discussing five young NBA players that enter the 2027 season at risk of busting aka the clock is ticking for them to start proving they were worth the investment that their teams put into them. Before we start though it would be greatly appreciated if you could all utilize YouTube's new hype feature and hype this video up as it actually does help quite a bit. Now with that that being said, let's begin. The first player we'll be discussing today that is on the verge of busting this season is Cody Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Cody Williams was the 10th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz, coming in with reason for hope as he was the younger brother of Thunder star Jalen Williams. Coming out of college, he was definitely more raw, but the flashes he showed produced greater expectations in the long run. But he's not going to make it much longer without significant change. In his rookie season, he was arguably the worst player in the NBA that played at least 20 minutes per game, scoring just four points per game, shooting the ball 32% from the field and 26% from three that year. He wasn't a good scorer in really any capacity. He struggled a lot shooting the ball, his handle was loose, he wasn't confident or quick on his feet, and his defense wasn't even very good, which was supposed to be his calling card as a prospect. At the end of the day, though, it was just his rookie season. Year two was a new year with a fresh slate and another opportunity to prove that he deserved to be a top 10 pick. This is where the writing began to be on the wall, though. He didn't even start the season in the Jazz's rotation, and it wasn't until December last season that he began to get consistent run game to game again, and honestly, it likely got there because it became clear that the Jazz were at the point where they were destined for the bottom of the standings, and the development of their young talent once again took priority. From that point on, Williams entered the starting lineup and was playing about 28 minutes per game, up from his rookie season, and his production was better than year one too. Of course, that's a pretty low bar to clear of all time, but improvement was made nonetheless. His defense at least became serviceable, he was scoring about 11 points per game in the games that he was in the starting lineup for, and it stemmed from him at least embracing being more of an active cutter with better feel and touch for finishing around the rim. Ultimately, though, he was still a net negative because of how far behind the rest of his game still is. The Jazz traded him to the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason in exchange for Josh Green, who really isn't that great of a player in his own right, respectfully. He's just more reliable as a role player, which speaks to the situation that Cody Williams finds himself in. The Jazz, in essence, gave up on him, and now he's on the contending Minnesota Timberwolves team where his minutes are the furthest thing from guaranteed. Their priority right now is winning as many games as possible and trying to win a championship and they will not hesitate to keep him out of the rotation if they don't feel like he can help on a regular basis. This is year three for Cody Williams. If this season comes and goes and we see a lot of the same from him he could end up destined for minimum contracts in the future, possibly even two-way deals, and maybe he could even flame out of the league altogether if he doesn't get going quickly once his rookie contract is up. The next player we'll be discussing on the verge of becoming a bust this season is Rob Dillingham. You'll notice I didn't say which team he is on because, well, he's not on one, which sort of speaks for itself, right? Dillingham was another top 10 pick from the 2024 NBA draft, like Cody Williams, and unfortunately, like Cody, he is fighting for his NBA life as we speak. He was taken 8th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, seen as a potential option to be the future of their point guard position. The Wolves had been in dire need of an upgraded point guard for years, as Mike Conley's production with the team was regressing further and further with age every year, and in order to contend for a championship, they needed a better answer next to Anthony Edwards in the backcourt. Dillingham was drafted under the guise of being an electrifyingly quick playmaking guard who can shoot the lights out and break defenses down with a crafty handle, and in his season at Kentucky, he was incredibly efficient on top of it. Obviously, the goal was to try to prepare him to take over the team's starting point guard position down the line, but at minimum, they were at least hoping that they drafted a game-changing sixth man that can run the second unit and inject some offense into their lineups. From day one, his deficiencies were also clear. Rob Dillingham is a really bad defender. At the Combine, he weighed in as the lightest player in the entire NBA, so physically, it was an uphill battle just for him to hang with the opposition. In an ideal world, his offensive output would have been able to cancel out his defensive liability. That is similar to a Trey Young, perhaps, but that didn't happen. Rob Dillingham never found the same confidence at the NBA level. he was on an incredibly tight leash, playing for a Wolves team that was in contention in the Western Conference, and he wasn't efficient enough to justify giving minutes to regularly. In his second year, he also came out of the gate struggling even worse, as he averaged just three points per game, shooting a dreadful 33% from the field in year two with the Timberwolves, and that was when they saw all they needed to see. They traded him to the Chicago Bulls last season, abandoning ship on the Rob Dillingham project not even two years in. In Chicago, he got way more run than he ever got before, and he averaged nearly 10 points per game during his short stint there, but he was still pretty inefficient, and inefficiency plus bad defense for an undersized guard is a recipe for disaster in the modern NBA. The undersized guard is getting phased out of the league unless they can produce at a truly high level and make an impact in more than one way, and Dillingham didn't show that he could do that. The Bulls traded him to Charlotte right before training camp this year, the Hornets then waived him, and now he is unsigned at the time of making this video, with training camp underway and preseason games being played. I do feel pretty confidently that he will get picked up eventually, but needless to say, finding yourself in this situation two years into your career puts you firmly in bust watch. The next player we'll be discussing on the verge of becoming a bust this season is Grady Dick of the Los Angeles Clippers. Grady Dick was a lottery pick in the 2023 NBA draft by the Toronto Raptors, and the reason he was valued enough to be picked that early is two key reasons. He has great size for a guard at 6'7", and he was viewed as the sharpshooter of that year's draft class. A big shooter is a luxury in the NBA, and the Raptors were desperately in need of more floor spacers, so you would think he'd carve out a nice consistent role and give them a jolt of offense, right? Well, unfortunately, it seems as though he's only a sharpshooter by reputation because the numbers don't really back that assertion up. As a rookie, Dick shot the ball 36% from three, which is right around the league average mark. For someone who is specifically out there just to shoot it, though, league average is not good enough, but he's a rookie, so it's not the end of the world. In year two, though, his overall scoring increased, going up to 14 points per game, but his three-point shooting regressed a little bit down to 35%. He was simply getting more usage because the team that year was in a tank year and wanted to give more of a chance to their young guys like him to show what he's capable of. Last year when the Raptors were back in the playoff hunt, you guessed it, that meant that Dick's role was scaled back massively as he played fewer minutes per game than his first two years by a wide margin, and by the end of the season, he was out of the team's rotation completely. Grady Dick has not lived up to the hype as a shooter. He's not really much of a playmaking threat at all, averaging a whopping one assist per game for his career. He's not a good enough player creating off the dribble to overcome it, and he's been a bad defender on top of it. This summer, the Raptors included him in the trade that got them Kawhi Leonard, sending Grady Dick to the Clippers. And now in LA, he'll look to rejuvenate his career, but it won't be easy. With Brandon Ingram injured, there will be a bit of an opening in the team for minutes, but they still have Keaton Wagler, Bradley Beal, Chris Dunn, and Derek Jones Jr. looking for minutes on the wing, so needless to say, as Grady Dick enters the final year of his rookie contract, he is at risk of becoming an afterthought. The next player we'll be discussing on the verge of busting this year is Tijon Salon of the Charlotte Hornets. Salon was the sixth overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, which is a class, as we have already discussed, has quite a few misses, but also some very strong talent throughout the first round. The Hornets had quite a few holes that they needed to fill at the time, and with the sixth pick, they were not just hoping to find a fringe rotation piece. They were looking to find a high-end starter at minimum. They passed on centers like Zach Edey and Donovan Clingan with higher upside, along with a player like Matas Bezelis, who was also available when they took him, but they chose Tijon Sallah, who was a French prospect, who in every way looks like the part physically, but his skill set was very, very raw. He was a known project of a pick, and the thing with these project players is that, yes, if they do reach their full potential, you could end up with a Giannis Antetokounmpo. However, there are way more Thon Makers than there are Giannis Antetokounmpos, and it's looking like Sallah is the latter. As a rookie, Tijon Sallah was neck and neck with Cody Williams as maybe the worst player in the NBA that year. He averaged 6 points per game, shooting 33% from the field and 28% from three. He offered zero creation ability on the ball, not much playmaking instinct, but the upside what he did have was a knack for defense and he rebounded well for a forward. Last season, in his second year, he, at the very least, did improve his efficiency shooting the ball at a way higher percentage, but it's a lot less impressive when you're still only scoring 6 points per game and the volume is incredibly low. When the Hornets caught fire in the second half of last season, Solon saw his role scaled back and was removed from the rotation because he just doesn't do enough at a high level on the basketball court yet. Going into this season, it is absolutely make or break for him, and if I'm being honest, the odds seem to be stacked against him. The path to minutes in the Hornets' frontcourt this year is as tough as ever with players like Nas Reid, Sion James, Royce O'Neal, and Grant Williams all potentially playing minutes at the 4 this year, which is the position that is best suited for Tijon Sallah, and if he can't consistently crack the rotation three years into his career, then that's not good enough for a sixth overall pick. And finally, the last player we'll be discussing that is on the verge of being a bust this season is Taylor Hendricks of the Memphis Grizzlies. Hendricks was the ninth pick in the 2023 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz, and at the time, he was viewed as a prototypical 3 and D wing that had a supposed high floor as someone with the tools to be a high end role player at minimum. He's a 6'9 wing player with a great length that he used to pester opposing players and early on in his Jazz tenure, he was actually off to a strong start. He started over half of the games that he played as a rookie, he served as a plus defender, and he knocked down 38% of his threes that year genuinely providing 3 and D impact. But then in year two, he suffered an injury that ended his season after playing in just three games, and that set things back. Last season, when he returned from injury, it took a while for him to get back into the swing of things, but then the Jazz also included him in the trade that landed them Jaron Jackson Jr., so now he's in Memphis, looking for a fresh start. After his return last year, he also didn't quite demonstrate the same confidence shooting the ball, knocking down just 34% of his threes, both during his time with the Jazz and the Grizzlies. That right there will be the swing skill for whether he can get his career back on track or not. On a young Grizzlies team with a lot of talented wings around him, he needs to stand out, and being a 3 and D wing with a subpar 3 ball is not how you do that. Cedric Coward, Jalen Wells, and Jeremy Grant are already ahead of him in the pecking order on the team also, who just drafted Kareem Lopez who could be in the mix too, plus they brought in Isaiah Stewart who could get some run at the 4 as well, which is a position that Hendrix could try to get some minutes at too. This is Taylor Hendrix's contract here. He needs to prove he's worthy of another one. I still believe he can do it, and now that he's further removed from the injury, it's time to show it. And with that being said, that's all I have for you today. Make sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and comment down below what you think about these players and their futures in the league. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you all next time.