New Orleans Pelicans all-time draft bust starting 5
By Tyler Watts
PF: Craig Brackins
After missing the playoffs in 2010, the Pelicans got creative on draft night. They traded the 11th overall pick to the Thunder for the 21st and 26th selections. New Orleans drafted Craig Brackins and Quincy Pondexter, but neither player worked out.
Pondexter averaged just 2.8 points and 1.3 rebounds in 11.1 minutes per game as a rookie before being traded to the Grizzlies for Greivis Vasquez. He went on to play seven seasons in the NBA over nine years, but he averaged just 15.6 minutes per game for his career.
Brackins was traded to the Sixers before ever playing a game for the Pelicans. He lasted just two years in the NBA before heading overseas for a decade-long career. The 6’10 big man played just 17 NBA games, but the Pelicans did trade him for two quality rotation pieces in Willie Green and Jason Smith.
If New Orleans kept their original pick, they could have selected Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson, or Ed Davis. Hassan Whiteside and Lance Stephenson went on to have decade-long careers in the NBA as second-round picks from the 2010 draft, but instead, the Pelicans missed on both of their first-round selections after the draft night trade.