NBA Power Rankings: 25 Players on the Hot Seat Heading into Next Season
After the 2011 NBA Finals, it is evident that with the increased viewership that is coming to basketball comes increased media scrutiny and high-pressure situations.
Most will say that the pressure put on many of the athletes was brought upon by themselves, while others will try to defend them and want for them to be left alone and just let to play the game they are paid to play.
No matter your camp on this one, it's impossible to deny that players will always be scrutinized to the highest extremes, especially when they are signing multi-million dollar contracts to play a child's game.
The high-pressure situations and media scrutiny have made it so more players around the league are getting to be on the hot seat, which could mean anything from they are on the verge of being traded, to being bounced from the league or just in danger of having their legacy take a hit (I'll give you one guess as to who that is).
So going into next season, I have taken a look around the league and found the players with the most pressure on them to perform well, lest they pressure on them continue to increase and eventually burst.
25. Russell Westbrook
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For the first two years of his career, people were very impressed with the game of Russell Westbrook and his ability to get so much better so quickly.
He was able to shirk critics because he was able to get so good so quick, and now that he has started to slow down a bit in his increase in production, critics are starting to get louder, especially after this year's playoffs.
Westbrook has never really been criticized too much by the media, but after the playoffs this year, where he took far too many shots in the closing minutes of games early in the shot clock without looking for Kevin Durant, critics are starting to get more in numbers and are starting to get louder.
If whatever issues are there aren't worked out, it's hard to imagine those nay-sayers just disappearing.
24. Joe Johnson
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For all intents and purposes, Joe Johnson had the worst year of his Hawks career last year.
He shot a percentage that was similar to the rest of his seasons in Atlanta, but his output was nowhere near up to the standards it usually is, and when they are paying him to be the number one option, it's hard to overlook his dropoff.
If he doesn't get his game back up to its previous level, then people out there in the sports world could start calling for his head.
23. Antawn Jamison
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Antawn Jamison is vastly overpaid for what he does, which is try to hide on defense and stand on a wing on offense and wait for something to happen.
Going into last season, he was supposed to be one of the guys that helped lead the Cavaliers throughout the season, but what he did could hardly be called leadership, jogging around the court and looking a decade older than he actually is.
He has an expiring contract this season, and if he isn't careful (especially with the salary cap likely coming down hard), he could end up signing a contract next year for a fraction of what he makes this year as people start to see him for what he really is.
However, if history has taught us anything, it's that guys like Jamison turn it on just enough in their contract year to get some stupid general manager out there to vastly overpay for them.
22. Mo Williams
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Mo Williams is only 28 years old, but running around the court with the young guns on the Clippers makes him look closer to the retirement home than the start of his career.
The Clippers need a point guard that can feed Blake Griffin down low and make some shots from time-to-time himself, which Mo Williams can do, but they would also like someone who can push the tempo and run a transition offense like no other, which he can't do so well.
Williams needs to get back up to the level he was playing at when LeBron James was his teammate, otherwise the Clippers could be looking to trade him by the time the All-Star break rolls around.
21. Brook Lopez
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Brook Lopez is one of the best up-and-coming centers in the NBA today, but when you look at his numbers and the way his play, one thing is frighteningly obvious: he isn't rebounding enough.
Lopez was never a great rebounder, starting at 8.1 in his rookie season, going to 8.6 his sophomore year, but this past year he was downright embarrassing, grabbing just six boards a contest.
Some of this can be attributed to Kris Humphries either a) he needed to get his butt in gear with his contract expiring at the end of the season or b) he needed to do something to prove to Kim Kardashian that he was actually a real basketball player before she dumped him.
Six rebounds a game for a seven-footer is inexcusable, and people aren't going to keep overlooking it if Lopez continues to fail to rebound.
20. Danny Granger
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The Indiana Pacers are in a precarious position. They have a pretty good team on their hands, but there isn't a real direction that this team is headed with the players currently on their team.
Danny Granger is their best player, but he seems to have reached his ceiling, and they need a star to hang their hat on if they want to continue to improve and potentially threaten for a championship on down the road.
However, they have Darren Collison coming up, who isn't producing as much as Granger, but could turn into a top-ten point guard in the league with the right guidance.
So, if Granger doesn't make the step into stardom in the next season, and probably within the first few months of the year, the Pacers will in all likelihood look for suitors to deal him to for some draft picks and young players with potential.
19. Greg Oden/Brandon Roy
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The Greg Oden and Brandon Roy combination has frustrated Portland fans for the past few years, and they can only take it for so long.
Greg Oden may be on his way out of Portland, as he is a restricted free agent and they can re-sign him for whatever his maximum offer is outside of their team, but many people in the NBA world believe they will pull a sign-and-trade deal for him at some point in the future.
However, if he comes back and Brandon Roy come into the season fully healthy, they had better stay that way, because they probably don't have many more chances to play on the patience of an entire city.
18. Jose Calderon
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Toronto is in a good position to draft a good young point guard, something this draft is pretty saturated with, and if they do go point guard in the first round, then the message should be loud and clear to Jose Calderon that he needs to pick it up.
When you watch Calderon on offense he doesn't look like a bad player, although he has some trouble in one-on-one situations, however when he is on defense, he is nothing more than a puppy who lost his way.
If he can't turn into a better defender, they may say no way to Jose and send him packing.
17. Trevor Ariza
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Trevor Ariza duped Houston into giving him a salary double what he had the year prior in Los Angeles, but they quickly realized the error of their ways and traded him away before the league realized how marginal his production was.
Ariza is most well suited for the high-paced transition offense or one where he isn't a top-four option, like the situation he had in Los Angeles a few years back, but when you ask him to do more, his production drops.
His output is down from last year, dropping from 14 points a game to 11, and his shooting percentages are festering (39 percent this year, 30 from downtown).
It would be another story if he were some kind of elite defender, but he is an average defender at best, so for now he is on the hot seat.
16. Ron Artest
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For those of you out there who look at Artest and see the same guy that was on the Lakers a year ago, I can't imagine what you are seeing.
Ron Artest this year dipped below ten points a game and 40 percent shooting for the first time in his career, but he isn't paid to put the ball in the bucket, I know.
However, even on the defensive side of the ball, he is noticeably worse, as quicker men are realizing he has lost a step and they can beat him off the dribble. Just go back to the Mavericks series and watch him try to corral Jason Terry or even DeShawn Stevenson for that matter.
He is still as strong as or stronger than most guys in the league, but that will only get you so far in this league, where speed is valued above most any other asset.
15. Mike Brown
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He's not a player and he's going into his first year of a contract after being out of basketball for a year, but there is hardly a coach out there not named Erik Spoelstra that will be under more scrutiny.
If he does good and can win another ring for Kobe and the Kobettes before they are all too old to put another championship season together, then people will laud the move as a genius one.
However, if the team struggles out of the gate, especially on the offensive end of the ball, then you had better believe that the media whirlwind in LA will come down on him like a ton of bricks, and may even be calling for his head by mid-January.
14. Jonny Flynn
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Without sugar-coating it, Jonny Flynn had one of the worst seasons in the history of the NBA last year.
For a time in his rookie season, the thought on Flynn was that he was a promising young point guard who could make something of himself. However, after posting an offensive rating of 85 and a defensive rating of 114, which was the second year in a row for that by the way, minds are going to change.
With Ricky Rubio coming in, he will likely be demoted to third-stringer before you can believe it, and if he isn't careful, a trip to the D-League could be in his very immediate future.
13. Rashard Lewis
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Old, overpaid, outplayed and unmotivated.
He has the worst contract in the league, and it's not even a contest. I mean seriously, what executive in Orlando thought it would be funny to make a light-rebounding, three-point shooting power forward the second-highest paid player in the NBA?
This is why there is going to be a lockout people!
If Lewis doesn't show that he actually wants to try then he could be facing a final two years in Washington, where he logs more minutes in a suit than Eddy Curry did in the past few years.
12. Anybody in Orlando Not Named Dwight
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The Magic brass are in the most of precarious positions right now.
They have a star player who looks like he may be booking his flight to Los Angeles for the first day of the 2012 free agency period, and they have a good team that doesn't seem suited to make a championship run.
They have to be careful not to affect the team too much or Dwight may just start wearing some more LeBron James looks on his face circa Cleveland 2010, but if they do nothing, they have little chance of winning a title and keeping Howard in town.
11. Erik Spoelstra
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Once again, he's a coach, but he'll be on the hottest of seats going into this season.
Spoelstra was criticized all last year, with people making predictions related to his termination a dozen times a week when the Heat were slumping and then lauding him as a maturing and smart coach when they were winning.
However, after the Finals ended Sunday night, it's impossible to argue that Spoelstra got anything other than outcoached by Rick Carlisle, and people in Miami may not be patient enough to wait through his growing pains.
10. OJ Mayo
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OJ Mayo thoroughly impressed me this year when he nearly got traded to the Pacers but ended up coming back to the Grizzlies, handling it like a champ the whole time.
Mayo then got over his rocky first half and had a nice second half of the season as a big part of the Grizzlies playoff run, but that doesn't completely cover up for his first half last season.
If May stumbles out of the gate again then the rumors of his trade will start to resurface, and it will be more lucrative for Memphis to deal him after he showed that he can produce when motivated.
9. John Salmons
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John Salmons should be arrested for what he did to the Bucks.
Salmons played exactly one good half a season for the Bucks after getting traded from the Bulls, at which point he signed a four-year, $32 million contract of which he may have earned $38.50 so far.
He is nothing near the player he was just over a year ago, and Milwaukee is paying for it. If they could move him they would, but there is almost no chance that any team would want to dish out a good offer for his contract.
Once again people, this is why there is going to be a lockout!
8. Devin Harris
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There are a lot of teams out there who seem to think Devin Harris can recapture his peak on a team other than the Nets, where he peaked and then quickly fell into decline as his teammates got worse.
However, as he turns into more of a spot-up shooter and less of a playmaker, those numbers are never likely to rebound, and if he struggles early next season, there is little chance Utah won't look to deal him, especially if they draft Brandon Knight in the first round.
7. Tyreke Evans
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After they traded for Marcus Thornton, Sacramento basically said to Tyreke Evans: "get better or get out."
In Thornton, they have a guy that can play the two-guard spot better than Evans on both sides of the ball for less money, and if they re-sign Thornton for a reasonable amount, they could have their shooting guard of the future and have the ability to move Evans freely.
6. Andray Blatche
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Andray Blatche is a terrible player to have on a young team looking to learn to play the NBA game the right way.
He is a stat-chaser who seems to be mostly desiring good things to happen to himself before they happen to his team, and if that attitude spreads, then you have another Portland Jail Blazers team on your hands.
What's scary (for me and other Cavs fans at least) is that Cleveland inquired about trading for Blatche at the deadline last season and many other teams have some interest in him because of his sometimes gaudy stat lines.
For the Wizards, I say get the most out of a bad situation with Blatche and trade him with his value high, and to the Cavs I say: "please dear god don't do it!"
5. Barlie Gordanueva
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Remember when Detroit signing Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon was supposed to keep them afloat after their championship team of the mid-00s started to break up?
Now they are both coming off the bench and getting ungodly amounts of money for what they do.
For a combined 22 points, 4.5 rebounds and three assists, they pulled down $17 million last year.
Do I have to say it again? This is why there is going to be a lockout people!
If they could move one or both of them, they would jump at the possibility, but with both of them signed through 2014 (the final year being a player option that they would have to be dead not to take), the worst that will happen to them right now is they will be buried on the Detroit bench in favor of getting some young guys some playing time.
4. Andrea Bargnani
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Andrea Bargnani may very well be the worst rebounding seven-footer in the history of the NBA, and if he were on my team, I would have picketed outside the arena until they trade him by now.
Bargnani is all of seven feet tall, but he pulled down just over five boards a game last year, which I think I could get over the course of an NBA season at 6'4" on pure hustle alone.
Toronto has already said they would be willing to trade him, but as the season rolls along, and if (and when) Toronto continues to flounder, they should be moving away from willing and toward itching to trade the guy.
3. Stephen Jackson
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He is supposed to be the leader of the young Charlotte Bobcats, and he basically is by default at this point.
After they traded away Gerald Wallace, they basically looked at Jackson and told him that he would be the man to go to, and their hopes and dreams rest on what he did with his teammates.
That may sound completely unfair, and with the bunch of guys he is playing with, it probably should, but the fact is that Stephen Jackson still has some value, and with his contract expiring in two years, he is very tradeable.
2. The Big Three
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You thought the media scrutiny was large this year? Just wait until next year when they get on a slight losing streak, or even if they go into a slump at some point.
In the long run, I think failure is good for them (although I don't think LeBron shrinking in the biggest moments is good; it seems like more of a psychological thing to me, but hey, I'm just some guy), but if they fail again this year, the media will call for some heads to roll.
I don't think they will go and trade one of their big three if they fail again next season, but Spoelstra has zero chance of returning if something similar happens.
And god forbid (this is dripping with sarcasm) they go three years in a row without a title (which I know is wayyyyyy down the line), one of them will get traded.
1. Carlos Boozer
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If the Chicago Bulls could find a good offer for Carlos Boozer, I have a feeling they would take it right now. There are a lot of things they expected to get from him this year that they just did not get.
Boozer was an obvious liability on defense, and he looked lost at times on offense against the Heat in a situation where it seemed he would want to prove that he is better than Chris Bosh.
Chicago brought in Boozer with the hopes that he could potentially be the second best player on their team, but this past year he was the fourth best player on their team, and paying a guy $75 million to be the fourth best player is never something a team wants to do.
