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ESPN Daily

What Makes a Player a ‘Bust’? Brian Windhorst Explains

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.63.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For fans of teams who didn’t have much to play for in the previous season, the NBA Draft represents a hopeful outlook towards the future; the chance to find their franchise cornerstone who can change their misfortunes and lead them to glory in the years to come. Or at least, that’s the ideal. Now, six weeks into the NBA season, we’ve reached the point in the calendar where certain rookies start to get called the B-word: busts. But do some players earn this moniker unfairly? Recent chatter around rookie Scoot Henderson, who is a mere ten games into his NBA career, got us wondering why fans and commentators can be so quick to trot out this label. So what is the actual definition of a bust? Who qualifies and who doesn’t? And how often are players, eventually, able to shed this unfortunate distinction? Brian Windhorst joins the show to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

So last week a short video caught the attention of our team here at ESPN

0:09.4

Daily. It was posted to Tik-Tock and it was a bit of a scouting report on Portland Trail Blazers rookie guard Scoot Henderson.

0:17.0

Now, in the interest of being fair to the user who posted it, I'm not going to name them or play the clip. But in short, the video was not a friendly analysis of Scoot.

0:27.0

Let me just read a few quotes.

0:29.0

He's super indecisive with the ball. Like like he's just so unsure if he even wants it.

0:36.4

Scoot does not use peripheral vision at all. He's always looking around kind of manic.

0:49.0

But the line that peaked my interest the most was this one. Quote,

0:50.0

Scooter Henderson is a bust, bro," unquote.

0:54.0

And to put that quote in context,

1:00.0

this video was posted in reaction to Portland's 17th game of the season and it was only the eighth game Scoot had played in

1:07.0

He had missed a couple of weeks last month with an ankle injury

1:09.9

So it was on that small a sample size, eight games out of the hundred Scoot is expected to play in his MBA career,

1:16.5

that the label of Bust was already being conferred on to him.

1:20.0

And sure, Scoot was the number three overall pick in last summer's draft.

1:24.6

He's expected to develop into the player Portland can build their franchise around.

1:28.9

He is going to be scrutinized.

1:31.5

But when it comes to the dreaded B word, this one Tik-Toc user was not alone.

1:37.0

In a matter of seconds, you could easily find a handful of other videos on social media labeling Scoot as such.

1:43.0

So the next logical question for me,

1:46.0

what exactly is going on here? Today, with help from the exceptionally insightful Brian Winhorse,

2:05.0

we explore exactly that.

2:08.0

It's a look at the word bust in basketball.

...

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