Ben McLemore’s role on the Rockets is to stand outside the three-point line and wait to be passed the ball. Since the Rockets’ system is all about acquiring players who can do that exact thing (as their insufferable commentators remind us over and over and over…and over…until death seems like the preferred option to hearing their intolerable, self-congratulatory bleating), McLemore doesn’t and shouldn’t do to much more than he’s currently doing.
Hypothetically, if Ben McLemore stayed in this type of role for his hole career, is he still a bust?
Remember, being a bust isn’t necessarily about being unplayable garbage. Sure, busts can be unplayable garbage (Joe Alexander comes to mind) but busts can also just be disappointments at their draft slot (Kwame Brown). McLemore was drafted 7th overall, and the Kings had visions of a skilled all-around scorer when they picked him, so to have him turn out to be only a three-point specialist would be a disappointment for sure. And that’s not even getting into the fact that McLemore shoots a decent, but not spectacular, percentage from downtown: he’s at 37% this season and 35% for his career.
I would say, yeah, McLemore would be a bust if this all we ever get from him. But there’s been way worse busts. The first fifteen picks of the 2013 draft contains a lot of players who are likely to have less impactful careers than McLemore will. So nobody will remember the mild disappointment of Ben “The Next Ray Allen” McLemore.