5 NBA Draft Prospects With Serious Red Flags

Every year at the NBA Draft, teams go digging for diamonds in the rough, plucking standout talents after the lottery who end up having a positive effect on the team. Likewise, it hurts to read so close to the big event but, well...plenty of teams draft duds -- guys who were thought to have big futures, but end up flopping. With the NBA Draft finally going down on Thursday, here are five prospects with red flags that may lead to a waste of a pick.

1. Carsen Edwards

Edwards is an impressive scorer, but that's about it. He's an undersized guard in today's NBA and often finds shots due to his quickness off the ball and fast release, but he fails to make a huge impact defensively, and could certainly be better with distributing the ball. There's always room for a good spot-up shooter on any NBA roster, but I'm not sure Edwards' skill set can allow for much more than that.

2. Jaxson Hayes

In this "new age" of NBA basketball, the center position is changing. The best big men, with few exceptions, are ones who can crash the glass on defense, and both stretch the floor and move the ball on offense. Hayes checks none of these boxes. At 7-0, Hayes only averaged five total rebounds per game, didn't shoot a single 3-pointer, and tallied one assist every three games. Hayes is an impressive talent, but is his game stuck in the past?

3. Bol Bol

Standing at 7-3, Bol Bol will instantly become one of the tallest players in the league when he hears his name called. It's important to remember, though, that this is a player who had to miss most of the NCAA season with a foot injury, and with a player of his stature, lower body injuries often become chronic. Bol will be a good player on the floor, but how often will he actually be on it?

4. Dylan Windler

I always love to see players at mid-major schools get national recognition, but I think in Windler's case, people are looking too much at his impressive numbers and not enough at the overall lack of quality in the Ohio Valley Conference outside of Belmont and Murray State. Windler averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds per game, but against Power 5 opponents, those numbers dropped significantly to 18 points per game on 36.7 percent shooting. You'd better be wary to use a late first-rounder on him.

5. Zion Williamson

Before you close out of this article in a fit of rage, hear me out. Zion has all the tools necessary to be a star. And quite truthfully, I think he'll become one. But there's something to be said about his style of play -- described as "wrecking ball" by ESPN. Zion isn't afraid to bang bodies and get physical, but with a player of his size, it's fair to question if that is something that can be sustained over a 82-game season (and maybe longer). Bigger, heavier players have a history of being more fragile, and while Zion's athleticism is in a class of its own, his biggest question is if his build meshes with his playing style over 82 games.