5 Young NBA Players It's OFFICIALLY Time To Give Up On

Young NBA players, more often than not, are going to struggle early in their careers. Rookies get the benefit of the doubt, but after that first season, you really should start to show signs of being able to contribute positively in a more consistent way. Otherwise, we may need to reconsider what the upside of that player really is. Hyped up prospects fail to live up to the hype all the time. And unfortunately, that brings us to today's video. Today, we will be discussing five young players that it is officially time to give up on them ever being able to live up to the full hype that they came into the league with when they were drafted. This does not mean that they're all doomed to be complete failures. It just means they probably won't be as good or anywhere close to it as they were thought to be able to be at the time. Now, with that being said, let's begin. The first young player that it is officially time to give up on reaching their full potential is Dalton Kinect of the Los Angeles Lakers. When Kinect was first drafted, he was actually viewed as a pick that could potentially return way more value, and many thought he could prove to be a steal from that class. He was seen as clear lottery talent at the time by so many. So when he slipped out of the lottery, I guess we should have been more suspicious about why it happened because his NBA career has ended up being the opposite of sleeper value. As a prospect, he was an explosive 6'6", three-level scorer in college who led the SEC in scoring as a senior, putting up 22 points per game. He was first-team All-American, and it really felt like, at minimum, he would be a high-end sixth man that can come in and immediately spark the offense. There are a few major issues with expectations like that, though. For one, that archetype of player is simply fizzling out in the NBA more and more with each passing year. Score-first guys that aren't true stars and struggle to impact the game in other ways have never held less value around the NBA. Just go ask Cam Thomas why he's currently unemployed. And two, if you're going to be a player like that, you really don't have much margin for error regarding how consistent and efficient your scoring output needs to be because of the fact that you don't really have other positive traits to fall back on at an NBA level. Dalton Kinect was given plenty of opportunity early in his rookie season, and there were honestly some flashes of him being capable of filling it up here and there. He was in and out of the starting lineup early on, but as that season progressed, he had his role shrink more and more because of his lack of consistency, and quite frankly, he's also a pretty atrocious defender. Coach JJ Reddick is not someone who will accept defensive liabilities in the rotation, so Kinect found himself in Reddick's doghouse by the end of the year, and he wasn't in the rotation at all during the playoffs. Then last season, in his second year in the league, he was relegated to being pretty much a complete non-factor, playing only in almost exclusively garbage time minutes. He averaged just four points per game last season, shooting 34% from three, and for someone whose only path to playing time is shooting the ball, that's not nearly efficient enough to earn a bigger role. Maybe he can still salvage his career if he gets traded somewhere else and is given more leeway night after night because a lack of confidence seems like one of his biggest problems at the moment, but he's just not good enough as a shooter at the NBA level to justify playing regularly when he gets abused and actively targeted on the other end of the floor, isn't much of a passer, and doesn't do the dirty work that could otherwise impress coaches behind the scenes. The next young player that it's time to give up on is Cam Whitmore. After everything we just discussed about Dalton Kinect, almost all of it also directly applies to Cam Whitmore. Whitmore's story is actually eerily similar to Kinect's too, in that they were both prospects viewed by many as lottery caliber talents leading up to their respective drafts, only to slide down the draft board when the day actually came, and the Rockets eventually were the ones that landed Whitmore. There was a lot of confusion about why it happened, there was hope they could prove to be major steals down the line, but in hindsight we see why what happened happened. Whitmore came in as a much younger prospect than Dalton Kinect, so there was still hope that he could over time round out the other parts of his game because immediately he was an aggressive scoring threat who had a knack for getting buckets. As a rookie he averaged about 12 points per game coming off the bench, which is actually pretty solid, and with shooting splits hovering around the league average mark, it's actually better than a lot of rookie guards and wing players in general. In year 2 though, the Rockets emerged as legit playoff contenders, and because of that they had to curate a rotation only of guys that can contribute in a meaningful capacity, and that meant that Cam Whitmore was out of the rotation down the stretch of that season. The issue with Cam Whitmore is that even though he can score in bunches, he's a ball hog. He just does not willingly pass the ball, and when he gets it he only has one thing in mind, and that's trying to score. His career high in assists per game in a season is ONE assist per game. On top of that, he's yet another really bad defender, and when your playstyle is what it is, that's inexcusable in today's NBA. One-dimensional, score-first players who aren't even that efficient are a dying breed in the NBA, and it's why Cam Whitmore is currently not even signed to an NBA roster. Last season he was in Washington, where he shot the ball even worse than usual. Then he suffered a season-ending injury after just 21 games. Then this offseason, he was included in a trade and immediately waved after. It's just not looking good for his long-term outlook, and even if he does get another chance, it's not going to be as a leading bench option or a 6th man role. The next young player it's time to give up on reaching their full potential is Jonathan Kuminga of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now again, to be clear, the premise of this video isn't that all of these players will stink and flop. The premise is that enough time has gone by to acknowledge that they clearly will not And while it's been a long ride of ups and downs for Kuminga, it's finally time to admit he is not a star in the making like many believed he could be during his journey. Kuminga and his agent, however, probably still live in the La La Land believing otherwise, but after two failed free agency stints on the open market, the league clearly does not value him as much as he values himself. And it's for good reason. Jonathan Kuminga was the 7th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, going to a Warriors team that did expect him to be a pillar of their franchise to lead the next generation of Warriors basketball after the likes of Steph Curry and Draymond Green moved on. He was an incredibly athletic wing with the size and length that NBA teams love from the position, and while his game was raw at the time, he would often show flashes of well-rounded scoring talent, and it peaked in the 2024 season when he averaged 16 points per game the whole time and even that year. Coach Steve Kerr found it difficult to fully trust Kuminga because even though he had the talent to play the game at a high level, the mental side of the game always held Kuminga back. I told you earlier there would be a common theme in this video and wouldn't you know it, but Kuminga is yet another player that suffers from being too individualistic. For lack of a better way to put it, Jonathan Kuminga believes he is better than he actually is, with the mindset of someone who thinks they should be the star of the show even though he's more suited to be a role player, he just struggles to embrace that reality. Kuminga is not as good of a defender as he should be with his physical tools, he's not much of a willing passer, and he doesn't quite process the game fast enough to be looked upon to play a lead role. It's why for two summers in a row now, he has tried to demand a massive max contract in free agency and has had to settle for way less than that, with him having just agreed to a 2 year, 12 million dollar contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason. In Minnesota, he's going to be getting a fresh start on a team that is motivated to make it work with him, but his best path to success is embracing the role that he always refused to embrace as a member of the Warriors, so we'll see how this one plays out. The next young player it's officially time to give up on is Grady Dick, soon to be of the Los Angeles Clippers, I think? I phrase it like that because Grady Dick was included in the trade between the Toronto Raptors and the Los Angeles Clippers, swapping Kawhi Leonard and Brandon Ingram amongst others, but that trade is still being held up at the time that I'm making this video. Whether he's on the Raptors, Clippers, or another team next season, his time to make something happen is running out. Grady Dick was a lottery pick in the 2023 NBA draft because he was a 6'7 shooting guard who, in theory, was coming in as an absolute lights out sharpshooter. With that kind of size and elite shooting prowess, it was obviously very intriguing to NBA scouts, high level shooters always have a place in an NBA rotation. At his size, he's able to get his shot off over many perimeter defenders as well, so the idea had legs behind it. But, unfortunately, the reality of Grady Dick as a player didn't live up to the hype. As a rookie, Dick averaged about 8 points per game, shooting 42% from the field and 36% from three. In his second season, he averaged a solid 14 points per game, but he did so shooting just 41% from the field and 35% from three, getting that production as a result of heavy usage and more minutes during a tanking year. Last year, with the Raptors having re-emerged as a playoff threat, Grady Dick found himself on the outside of the rotation looking in because he went through a slump shooting the ball and, quite frankly, making just 30% of your threes is not good enough for a player whose primary role is to be a shooter. He's one of the worst finishers around the rim in the league, he's a subpar defender, and he's not a major creator on the ball so if he can't threaten defenses with his jumper regularly, then he's finding out how replaceable he is. He has yet to have a season shooting the ball above league average from three, and his upcoming season actually feels like a make or break year for him. And finally, the last young player it's now time to give up on is Ochai Abaji. Again, in a video full of recurring themes, Abaji's situation is similar to Grady Dick's. It's very tough to make it in the NBA if you're someone with a very specific skillset because if you slip up at all within that role, you become almost completely useless. Ochai Abaji is another former lottery pick who was looked at as a quote unquote sharpshooter of the 2022 NBA draft class. He's actually also had good stretches in the NBA where he has been an ideal 3 and D wing with a lot of good habits that would make him the perfect role player. For example, in 2025, he had the best year of his career averaging about 10 points per game, shooting 50% from the field and 40% from three while playing very solid perimeter defense. If that was a representation of his career as a whole, he would be in for a massive payday and would be looked at as one of the better two guard role players in the game. The issue is that the 2025 season looks more like a fluke than the norm because the other three seasons of his career have not come anywhere close to that level of output. Even though he has been a solid perimeter defender throughout and has good off-ball instincts overall, his jumper has just not been consistently reliable enough to provide the 3 in 3 and D. In those other three seasons, he's shot 35%, 29%, and 26% from three, which is simply abhorrent for a supposed sharpshooter. The lack of reliability in that regard is why, as we speak, Ochayabaji is still an unsigned free agent. He seems destined to be forced to sign a minimum contract with a team at best and possibly a two-way contract at worst, and for a lottery pick, that is one of the worst case scenarios that can play out when your rookie contract expires. 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 possible futures. Thanks for watching and I'll see you all next time.