7 NBA Players Who Peaked WAY Too Early...But Why?

Generally speaking, the average NBA player has his best years between the ages of 27 and 30. Those are generally considered his best years. He is the best combination of maturity and athleticism. Most people peak in these years. However, there are always outliers. In this case, we're going to take a look at seven NBA

players

, most of whom were once highly touted prospects in their own right, but after a strong start to their NBA careers they were unable to continue, instead their trajectory failed and they could not achieve the same success of their first years and for these guys I will try to explain why that happened.

Also I won't be including

players

who suffered a devastating injury like Derrick Rose that's kind of a cop out choice for this list my name is Andy and let's get started too if you enjoyed the video make sure to subscribe if you like the content please leave a sub or a like and thank you very much for the support number 7 oj mayo oj mayo was one of the best high school players of all time, in fact, when he was in elementary school he still played against high school students and dominated, like this how good he was, he won so many awards twice mr ohio mr basketball usa in 07 mcdonald's all-american it really seemed like mayo would be the next great nba player as the third pick in the draft behind derrick rose and michael beasley mayo joined the memphis grizzlies and immediately contributed in his first two seasons played in all 82 games started in all 82 games and scored averages of around 18 points per game things were looking bright for the young guard, but what turned out to be a great start to his career was that there was no promotion from here.

His rookie season average of 18.5 points per game was promising, but it was also a career-high for him in any season of his NBA career. what seemed to be a year of resurgence in Dallas when we thought Mayo would return, could not sustain it, slowly and steadily declined as the years went by, the grizzlies also went in a different direction, this was the beginning of their era of determination and effort . and oj mayo did not fit this style of play, that is why they preferred Tony Allen over him, which is why he was relegated to the bench in 2016 at the age of 28.

Mayo was suspended by the NBA for a drug violation. He is now technically eligible to be reinstated. to the NBA, but I'm not sure if he wants to come back to warm up benches or something. After he was suspended, he spent some time traveling and playing in Europe and China, and from the looks of it, his MBA career might be over. Of course, he's not that old yet, but what else can he bring to an NBA team even before his suspension? His production has decreased significantly and he is nowhere near his

early

days in Memphis. Brandon Knight number six.

Brandon Knight is famous for many things he immerses himself in. by deandre jordan being crossed by kyrie and just being a klutz in every way, but believe it or not, he was once considered a young rising star in his

early

years in milwaukee and phoenix, where he averaged almost 20 points a game, you know , his coaches saw something. In it, he was more of an undersized shooting guard, not a true point guard, but he had decent scoring ability that gave teams hope, along with being the eighth overall pick and having an absolutely phenomenal run in the NCAA tournament. of 2011, there were high hopes for him and Unfortunately, his trajectory of improvement was expected to continue, as we all know, just after the season in Phoenix Knight fell off the face of the earth, some would say his numbers were inflated like, oh, his numbers only look good because he got so many touches in a sorry situation. son and he actually wasn't that good, although there is some truth to that, keep in mind that he was considered a great prospect upon arrival, he was considered the second best guard in the 2011 draft, right behind Kyrie, so it's reasonable for people to assume he would get better after that year in Phoenix at the young age of 24, that was the best Brandon Knight we've ever seen and he wasn't even that good.

His career stalled and he spent the remaining years bouncing around numerous teams and barely getting minutes for #5 Darren. Williams was surprised, I bet you didn't expect Darren to be here. He is by far the best player in this video, but the reason he is here is because he

peaked

in his early days in Utah. The guy was arguably considered better than Chris Paul. While Paul had the best raw stats, he was thought to be too small and was always beaten in head-to-head matchups by Darren, who also led the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals in just his second season in the 2007 playoffs.

Darren was a 22-year-old Beast of a man, but what stood out was his ridiculous performance against the San Antonio Spurs, the eventual champions and best defensive team of that era. He was nearly 26 and 8 for 53, shooting 47 percent from three to put up those numbers. In the conference finals against the damn spurs, something unprecedented, especially for such a young boy, Darren separated them like it was nothing, together with Carlos Boozer they formed a dominant duo that surprised everyone, no one thought they would reach the conference finals in the hypercompetitive west. Greg Popovich even said that playing against this duo in Utah reminded him of the days of Stockton and Malone and praised Darren for starting the next generation of point guards.

This success would be the high point of Darren's career. He never had a playoff series this good again. What seemed to be the team of the future, Darren and the Jazz stagnated and he was unable to build on this success over the years. He had disagreements with Coach Sloan, which ultimately led to his resignation. He fell out of favor with fans even after a trade with Brooklyn. Darren, at the age of 28, was still quite young, but a shell of his former self, ankle problems certainly didn't help number four Tyrique Evans. I don't think there's any other player in history who won rookie of the year but then started right away. to decline, we all know Tyrique, an incredible rookie season in which he scored 25 and 5, being one of the few rookies who recorded those types of statistics.

Unfortunately, his decline was probably not his fault alone. The Kings were in a tumultuous period. and they didn't know what to do with it. Tyreek spent a few years playing out of position as a natural point guard, but was played at small forward for long stretches. His role changed and his numbers fell on the positive side. There was a ray of hope. In the 2017-18 season with Memphis, Tariq found a new spark that made him so special as a rookie. We finally saw it again almost a decade later, but unfortunately this was short-lived. In early 2019, he was suspended for drug violations and that stopped any momentum No. 3 Brandon Jennings had.

Jennings was originally recognized as the first American high school student to skip college and play professionally in Europe, but he was still drafted. For the NBA In Jennings' rookie season he became the youngest player in NBA history to score 55 points at the age of 20. Those 55 points were the most by any rookie since 1968, when Earl Monroe scored 56 as a rookie, however, it turned out to be Jennings' career high and there was a lot of excitement around him during his first few years in Milwaukee. They were his best seasons of his career but they didn't last long when he was traded to Detroit and then sent to so many different teams everyone started to realize that he's just not that good yeah he was sure to blow up every once in a while and have an amazing shooting night but for the most part he was always very inconsistent, his efficiency became terrible, his raw stats in milwaukee meant nothing as he was taking a ridiculous amount of shots.

Jennings just wasn't good in 2018 he was 28 years old his NBA career was basically over number two jaleel okafor okafor had a decent season if that was his rookie year in the middle of the tank some would say not even He wasn't even that good his rookie year, which is true, honestly, if you watched him, he was always a one-trick pony, he would throw the ball in the post and you would see him take like 10 seconds to score. He really couldn't do anything else, other than he was slow and lethargic, he couldn't defend. A totem in the direction the league was moving towards Okafor's skill set was simply misplaced, however, he scored at a decent rate as a rookie, so there was some hope that perhaps he could adapt and improve in other areas, of course. that never happened, although his minutes slowly decreased and he never showed anything else after his rookie year, nothing in his game changed at all, he is still the same player, he has always been with the same flaws in 2015 and at number one, Michael Carter Williams, forget about peaking.

In his rookie season, Michael Carter Williams literally

peaked

in his first NBA game against the defending champion Miami Heat, without a doubt McW recorded 22 points, 12 assists and 9 steals, it was the first and best game of his career. in the nba, but that was it, he won the rookie of the year award, but everything has been downhill since then. He compared his situation to that of Okafors. They both joined the NBA at a time when it was obvious the Sixers were failing, so they were given an immense amount of opportunities in their rookie seasons. they were just forced to be the guy on the team that posted empty stats on a team that was trying to lose a tall point guard but couldn't shoot, had a low basketball IQ, wasn't a good passer and didn't know what. do half time when he drove down the lane and fumbled the ball too much, the Sixers gave up on him so quickly, but they were right, he wasn't good and never lived up to his rookie season again, of all Anyway, that's all, friends. 7 NBA players who peaked so early in their NBA careers, but then slowly declined.

These guys had their best season when they were in their early 20s, which is definitely rare, maybe for a lot of these guys they were given the green light early on, but the team figured it out. They weren't as good so their role was reduced, other times players were in a bad situation and the coaching staff didn't put them in the best position. Let me know your thoughts in the comments if you can think of other players who peaked. In advance, thank you all so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video and of course, as always, see you next time.

Peace.