NBA Rumors: Unhappy Players Who Could Cause Trouble

More so than any other team sport, basketball can be dictated by the successes and failures of one player. In the NBA, a superstar can carry his team to wins while a disgruntled player can drastically hinder his squad's chances at success. 

Having an unhappy player does not exactly help, yet those unhappy players still exist throughout the league. 

Here are five examples. 

Chauncey Billups

Chauncey Billups made it perfectly clear during the offseason that he would make any team who picked him up regret it if he didn't want to be there. 

Well, if the Los Angeles Clippers don't start winning games at a high rate, Billups is going to end up unhappy and start causing some trouble, much like he did in his first game with the team. 

Going into Wednesday night's game against the Houston Rockets, Billups played in just the first two games of the season before he was sidelined with a groin injury for the next two contests.

In the season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day, Billups seemed intent to make the Clippers pay for picking him up by killing any sort of offensive flow that L.A. could establish by jacking up ill-advised shots left and right. 

The aging guard ended up hitting just six of his 19 field-goal attempts and became a trending topic on Twitter thanks to the inordinate amount of heat he was receiving just one game into the season.

Billups showed more restraint in the Clippers' second game, but don't expect that to continue if he becomes unhappy with either his role or the team's overall success. 

Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant was a little bit peeved at the way the Los Angeles Lakers (and the NBA in general) handled the shortened 2011-2012 free agency and preseason trading window.

After the league vetoed the trade that would have brought All-Everything point guard Chris Paul into a purple and gold uniform, the Lakers inexplicably traded Lamar Odom to the Dallas Mavericks in a salary dump. 

Bryant was not happy, as evidenced by the following quote:

"

"I don't like it. I've known Lamar for a long time, and for the team itself, he's meant a lot in terms of his versatility, his personality. He's a big presence for us in the locker room, just from a team chemistry standpoint. He's great at bringing guys together and things of that nature."

"

Add to this gripe the impending divorce proceedings with his wife, Vanessa, and you have a brutal offseason for No. 24. 

Bryant is an all-time great and a good enough player that he can labor through his unhappiness, but it could get worse if the Lakers don't win games at a rate that is pleasing to the Black Mamba.

He's already shown that he can both shoot his team into a game and out of a game. Take his six-for-28 performance in a loss to the Denver Nuggets in which he took more shots than Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum combined yet still made less than either of them individually. 

DeMarcus Cousins

Is anyone sure exactly how the DeMarcus Cousins saga is going to end? 

Cousins is a notoriously stubborn player, and Paul Westphal has proven obstinate enough to send his second-best player home for a game and then let him ride the bench in another contest, despite the fact that his coaching job is tenuous at best. 

There is no doubt at all that Cousins is unhappy, even if he and his agent are truthfully explaining that he never actually demanded a trade. 

Regardless of who is right and who is wrong here, this is an extraordinarily problematic situation to which I see three possible outcomes: 

Scenario No. 1: Cousins returns to the starting lineup and plays out the rest of the season, mouthing off and causing locker-room strife throughout the season as the Sacramento Kings fail to live up to their potential, as limited as that may be. 

Scenario No. 2: Cousins stays benched, causes even more problems and eventually leads to the firing of Westphal, who most assuredly does not maximize the talent he has on his roster. Once again, the Kings fail to live up to their potential, but this time because of worse players receiving larger roles. 

Scenario No. 3: Cousins is traded for 50 cents on the dollar and the Kings' potential declines drastically. Everyone is happy until they realize they're a part of the worst team in the NBA. 

Notice that there is no scenario in which Cousins magically regains his peace of mind. 

Eric Gordon

All it took was one word. 

Eric Gordon was on a bus alongside some Los Angeles Clippers season ticket holders for a team event when he found out that he was now fraternizing with the enemy.

He'd been traded to the New Orleans Hornets along with Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman and a draft pick for Chris Paul. 

As so many players are now doing, Gordon took to Twitter and expressed his thoughts with one word: "Wow." 

Even though it's a compliment to be the central piece in a trade for an All-Star point guard, Gordon knew that he was being shipped off away from the team he'd spent his whole career with to a team that was simply not as good. 

Between an injury and a lack of wins, Gordon hasn't exactly enjoyed the start of the 2011-2012 campaign as much as he could have alongside Blake Griffin, even though he's knocked down a game-winning shot. 

Dwight Howard

Dwight Howard asked to be traded before the start of the 2011-2012 NBA season, but that request never came to fruition, as the Orlando magic either couldn't swing a deal to get rid of the best center in the game or simply didn't want to and didn't try too hard to do so. 

Howard knows that he's not going to be playing for the Magic next year, and he most likely won't be wearing the same uniform when the trading deadline passes.

That makes it quite difficult for him to remain fully motivated in a Magic jersey. 

That said, Howard is one of the most good-natured players in the league and always seems to have fun on the court.

He likes playing and doesn't ever want to sit down, instead choosing to remain on the court as much as possible. 

But Stan Van Gundy still says that it has to be "difficult in the locker room," as Howard's teammates all know that his heart lies north of where he's currently playing. Howard may not be willing to show it on his face, but there's something brewing internally.