10 Worst Back To Back NBA Draft Picks Of The Last 10 Years

The NBA Draft concluded on Thursday and as predicted Markelle Fultz was taken first overall before Lonzo Ball. Even though this year there wasn't much of a debate as to which player should be taken before the other - at least not since Ball refused to workout for any other team apart from the Lakers, who were picking second - sometimes that one choice makes all the difference in the world.

For example, in 2003 the Detroit Pistons decided on Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony, who went to the Nuggets with the next pick. In 1996 the Cleveland Cavaliers preferred Vitaly Potapenko over Kobe Bryant. The most prominent example of a team looking really bad because of a back to back pick is the 1984 Portland Trail Blazers, who passed on Michael Jordan and opted for Sam Bowie.

All of these prove that when a team decides to base its decision on need, not talent - like the Blazers, who had a great shooting guard in Clyde Drexler, so they passed on Jordan and chose a center - it's more often than not a recipe for disaster. Especially when the team picking next takes the player that in retrospect makes that choice look much, much worse.

In the 2012 NBA Draft the Kings held the fifth pick. The team already had two point guards with great potential in Isaiah Thomas (more on him in a minute) and Jimmer Fredette (more on him in a minute as well). The other starting guard, Tyreke Evans, was the 2009 Rookie of the Year, and with DeMarcus Cousins (yes, he's here as well) at center, the team was in need of a forward.

They settled on Thomas Robinson from Kansas, who averaged an impressive double-double in his third season in the NCAA. He was among the best players in the country and seemed like the right pick at the time. In the fifth game of the season Robinson hit the opposing player with an elbow to the throat and was suspended for two games. At mid-season the Kings traded him to the Rockets. In his six seasons in the league Robinson has played for six teams. Never as a starter.

For a season and a half Robinson played with the player that was chosen immediately after him, Damian Lillard from Weber State. Since he didn't play for a big, highly respected college (like Kansas), Lillard was relatively overlooked, despite averaging 24.5 points and 4 assists per game. Now he's one of the best point guards in the NBA, while all of the aforementioned then-Kings players are no longer on the team.