15 Most Frustrating Underperformers in the NBA Today

Not everyone in the NBA can be elite. That's why there are some impressive athletes out there that choose to underperform rather than playing at or above expectations.

To be deemed as an underperformer is to basically play below your abilities. The player has the potential to be a better scorer, defender, rebounder or whatever, but they just can't seem to get a firm grasp of the greatness that lies so close before them.

Those players are usually tremendous detriments to their team. The franchises that sign these players are losing money when those players are performing below the expectations that the team anticipated when signing said player. They're only hurting the team when they're playing below the expected results set by their teammates and the coaches.

In no particular order, we give you the 15 players who have underperformed not only this season, but in recent years as well.

Josh Smith

Deep down inside, we know that Josh Smith has the capabilities of becoming one of the league's most feared players.

Instead, Smith would rather wallow as an above-average power forward who completely discredits the idea of utilizing his athleticism in a half-court system.

One of the league's most athletic big men, Smith joined the Atlanta Hawks as a 19-year-old after being selected 17th in the 2004 draft. He's exceeded expectations in terms of being that high of a first-round pick, but he hasn't done much else. The Hawks have been banking on Smith to continue improving, but he appears to have hit a wall.

Smith is averaging a solid 15 points, eight boards, three assists and two blocks per game for his career.

Even though those are good numbers, it seems that Smith could be doing so much more. He's much faster than the second-quickest power forward, has the strength to post up on his assignments and the athleticism to power it over defenders. Instead, he reserves his athleticism for the open court and hardly ever uses it in a set offense.

Also, he's not a jump shooter, but he continues to shoot as if he is one. He's taken 12 three-pointers this year and has made only one. He's shot 28 percent from deep for his career.

Andre Iguodala

Another player who doesn't utilize the athleticism that he was gifted with, Andre Iguodala is just not going to be the leader of the Philadelphia 76ers that the team hopes him to become.

The Sixers put too much pressure on Iguodala. They expected him to become the type of player that could go out and average 20 points every night, while helping to lead their squad to victory. What they didn't realize is that he's not that type of player. He's an excellent defender, probably the best wing defender in the NBA, but he's not an offensive threat.

He also happens to be a terrific, well-rounded stat-filler as he's averaged 16 points, six boards and five assists per game for his career.

Iguodala's jump shot is streaky, but his athleticism is out of this world. He's one of the most powerful dunkers since Dominique Wilkins and it's depressing that he doesn't unleash the fury that his dunks release in a set offense.

Instead, Iguodala is just another player who reserves his dunks for fast breaks. He has the strength and athleticism to drive at will, but he never seems to be comfortable when attacking the rim against a five-man defense.

Terrence Williams

Is being athletic a disadvantage in this sport? When you see guys like Josh Smith and Andre Iguodala struggle on offense in a traditional offensive setting, you begin to realize that there is so much more to this game than just being athletic.

You've got to know this game inside and out. There's so much more than just being tall or athletic to become a prevalent and relevant player in the NBA. You might be able to touch the top of the backboard, but that doesn't guarantee you a consistent paycheck from an NBA franchise.

Why do you think James "Flight" White isn't playing? It takes a lot more than dunking from the foul line.

A player like Terrence Williams is a perfect example of eradicating the stereotype that deals with athletes only making it into the NBA. Highly lauded after a solid NCAA career at the University of Louisville, Williams seemed ready after going against the usual standard of being a one-and-done player. He spent four years with the Cardinals.

Williams came to the NBA and just wasn't ready. Even though he was 22 years old with four years of NCAA experience on a terrific team, Williams plain wasn't ready for the NBA. He had the athleticism and strength to become a solid player, but he just couldn't get adjusted on either side of the ball.

He averaged eight points, five boards and three assists per game in his rookie season, but was traded early into his next season. He'd play in only 21 games as his struggles would earn himself a stint in the D-League.

He's only played in seven games this season.

Metta World Peace

In the 2008-09 season, Ron Artest was 29 years old and playing with the Houston Rockets. He averaged 17 points, five boards and three assists per game before departing for the Los Angeles Lakers the next year. He was playing 36 minutes per and was the starting small forward.

We're now in the 2011-12 season and Metta World Peace is 32 years old. In 17 games, he's averaging six points, two boards and two assists per. He's shooting 15 percent from beyond the arc, was benched and is only playing 20 minutes per.

What just happened? World Peace hasn't dealt with any significant injuries since then and it's only been a three-year period. So what exactly happened in between then and now that caused one of the most insane drop-offs in recent NBA history?

I have no idea. There's just no explaining it. World Peace just looks painfully awkward to watch on offense. He's too slow to drive and has lost any shred of the jump shot he used to possess.

It has to be a mental dilemma going on within World Peace's convoluted, abstract mind. Either way, it's not helping the Lakers.

Jrue Holiday

Don't get me wrong now, Jrue Holiday is an exceptional athlete and still has time to grow.

However, he should be showing significant improvement. He's too good of a floor leader, shooter and athlete to disappear in stretches.

Instead of asserting himself in the offense and attempting to take control of this Philadelphia 76ers team that could use a scorer, Holiday would rather allow his other teammates to do the scoring for him. He's averaging 15 points per game in only his third season, but there seems to be more desired from the point guard.

He's completely capable of leading this team. The 76ers are currently being led in scoring by a bench player, Louis Williams, and have no players averaging better than 16 points per. Since Andre Iguodala isn't an offensive juggernaut and Elton Brand will never be the same, Holiday should be the one taking the initiative to score.

Instead, he's averaging 15 points per. The Sixers need that elite player in order to make it out of the East. It's going to take more than a few players averaging 10 points or better to best the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls.

Mario Chalmers

He may be finally coming into his own this year, averaging 12 points per game and hitting 44 percent of his three-pointers, but Mario Chalmers still gives the Miami Heat organization fits over his inconsistencies.

It's nice to see that Chalmers is finally playing with more aggression and hitting his three-pointers, but he's still as dreadful as always. Take for instance the past two games—he had eight assists and zero turnovers against Philadelphia and then followed that up with a two-assist and six-turnover effort against Milwaukee.

The Bucks defense has been known to frustrate opposing players, but that's just an insane differential between two games. Even though Mario has greatly improved this year, it's games like those that make you remember just how inconsistent he can be at all aspects of the game.

It's hit-or-miss when you play Chalmers. He's either going to give you a complete effort or an all-around sloppy, awful effort. The amount of careless turnovers and the overall horrendous one-on-one defense he plays should have already been corrected at this point in his career.

Andrew Bynum

If you're 7'0", 285 pounds and playing in the NBA today, there isn't an excuse to average anything under 20 points and 15 boards per game.

There's no competition out there to stop you. The class of NBA centers in the league is incredibly weak when compared to that of the 1990s when players like Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal roamed the scene and were the NBA's top four centers.

Today's top five centers wouldn't even be a comparison with any one of those four. Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum represent the lone slivers of hope for a traditional center in the NBA and neither of them are doing much justice. Howard may have the athleticism of a small forward to aid him in scoring over 20 per, but Bynum needs to rely on his skills alone.

Bynum has dealt with injuries throughout his short NBA career. He was drafted as an 18-year-old with the 10th pick in the 2005 draft and has dealt with an injury of some sort in all but two years, which includes this one.

He's currently averaging 16 points and 13 boards per, but it's still disappointing to know that he's doing that in a conference where the best centers he'll go against are Marc Gasol and Kendrick Perkins. Bynum needs to use that tremendous size to his advantage and begin using it to power over opposing centers, rather than opposing point guards that are a foot shorter and weigh 100 pounds less.

Monta Ellis

Averaging 23 points per game, it's tough to argue how a player who's averaging that much could be deemed as an underperforming player.

In Monta Ellis' case, there's an obvious exception to the rule.

Ellis may be one of the league's top scorers from within the perimeter and for his size at 6'3", but it doesn't mean much when he's yet to improve on any other aspect of his game. Scoring can only take you so far in this NBA. You need to be a well-rounded player if you want to be taken seriously and Ellis has yet to improve in several key areas.

He's averaging seven assists per which is a good sign in the absence of Stephen Curry, but his range, rebounding and defense are all points of emphasis that Ellis needs to improve on. The Golden State Warriors can live with the lack of a three-point shot or rebounding, but the defensive inefficiency of Ellis is staggering.

He's already undersized at his position, but it doesn't excuse him in the slightest. Ellis needs to become a dual-threat on both sides of the ball instead of just on offense, which means showing off a strong commitment on the defensive end.

Joakim Noah

As I stated before, there's no reason not to be averaging 20 points and 15 boards per game if you have the size in the NBA today.

Joakim Noah stands at 6'11", 235 pounds. He has incredible strength, lengthy arms and the size and heart to bang with anybody down low. He's a terrific emotional leader that can rile your team and your crowd up.

Add up all of those assets and what do you get for the 2011-12 season? A player who's averaging seven points per on 42 percent shooting to go along with eight boards and a block per. The points, the boards and blocks per are all disappointing, but that 42 percent shooting is awful for a player that towers over everyone on the floor except his opponent.

It's even more disappointing when considering what he did last year. Noah averaged a career-high 12 points on 53 percent shooting to go along with 10 boards, four offensive, and two blocks per.

The Chicago Bulls are a well-oiled machine that's set to run through the Eastern Conference again. However, they're going to need more than seven points on 42 percent shooting from Noah if they expect him to get anywhere past the conference finals this time around.

Danny Granger

I hate to call out Danny Granger like this because I do truly believe he's one of the league's more underrated players, but it seems as if he should be doing so much more when you consider how he plays the game.

You see, Granger is an amazing perimeter shooter. He's only shooting 33 percent from beyond the arc this year, but he's a career 38 percent shooter and that number is only truly weighed down by a disappointing rookie campaign. He has shot over 40 percent from three-point land twice and just recently shot 39 percent last season.

Granger needs to be utilizing that three-point arc to his advantage. Every opponent that faces the Indiana Pacers primes him as their main target of the night, which means they'll be looking to eliminate his perimeter game. Instead of suffering from beyond the perimeter like the opposing defenses want, Granger needs to be taking advantage of it by driving.

Even though Granger is strong and has some athleticism to him, he rarely utilizes it by driving it to the rim. As teams become wary of Granger's jump shot, he needs to take advantage when opponents play too close to him.

He should keep defenses mindful that he also happens to have more than a shooting game, instead of being forced to become a jump shooter and not much more.

Brandon Jennings

Averaging 20 points, five assists and three boards per game, Brandon Jennings appears to finally be getting it together.

The 45 percent shooting percentage is perhaps the greatest stat when considering that he shot 37 and 39 percent from the field in his first two seasons. As desperately as the Milwaukee Bucks need a scorer, Jennings has stepped up and has taken over the team's severely lacking offense.

That's why it made it tough for me to place Jennings as an underperformer. Because Jennings has played so well through the first 15 games of the season, I had to second-guess myself on whether I should place someone else in that spot.

That is until I remembered that he's played 15 games with quite a few more to go. This 15-game stretch has been impressive, but let's not forget that Jennings was looking like a certain Rookie of the Year after recording a 55-point game in only the ninth NBA contest of his career. Not many remember that the rest of that rookie season was extremely uneventful.

Jennings greatly underperformed in his first two seasons. He had horrid shot selection, relied too heavily on his jump shot and didn't involve his teammates enough. As the primary ball-handler on this Bucks team, he needs to be averaging far more than just five assists per game.

His defense could also use some work, but we'll give Jennings some leeway as he's only 22 years old and has shown significant improvement thus far.

Michael Beasley

If these were ranked, Michael Beasley would be ranked first and it wouldn't even be that close.

It is excruciating to watch Beasley play and it's extremely difficult to not question why he isn't a much better player. He's got all the elements you need to be a terrific basketball player in this league, yet he seems to refuse to want to become one.

Beasley is one of the most animated and beloved players in the NBA, but he's lacking so severely in some areas that he greatly hinders any other aspect of his game. For a player who averaged 26 points and 12 boards, while shooting 53 percent from the field and 38 percent from deep, in his freshman year, there was so much more to expect out of Michael.

Even though he's only in his fourth year, it honestly seems as if we've seen the best out of Beasley. He restricts himself to being a jump shooter, doesn't drive, fails to utilize his athletic ability and doesn't nearly appear to be the prolific rebounder he was at the college level.

Understood that the competition is raised in the NBA when it comes to grabbing rebounds, but there's no excuse for Beasley not to be averaging at least seven boards per, even on a team with Kevin Love. He's currently averaging seven boards per through seven games and has averaged as many as six, which came on a Miami Heat team where an over-the-hill Jermaine O'Neal was leading the way.

He averaged 19 points per last season, but that is greatly supported by the fact that he played in Minnesota.

Stephen Jackson

When you average 13 points on 36 percent of your shots and convert on 29 percent of your three-pointers after sitting out a shortened training camp because of contractual issues, it's tough to feel sorry your shooting issues.

Actually, it's tough in general to ever feel sorry about Stephen Jackson.

Jackson's got a scorer's mentality with the scoring touch to back it up, but there's such a thing as trying to do too much and he succeeds at attempting to be the hero too often. Take for instance in the 2009-10 season when Jackson split time between with Charlotte and Golden State. Sure he was averaging 20 points per game, but at what cost when he's attempting 17 shots per game?

He's always been a selfish player, as he's averaged 16 points on 14 shot attempts per for his career. There are some players we can recognize as offensive juggernauts and as badly as Jackson wants to become one, he's just not going to be.

He's too reliant on his jumpers and his inconsistent three-point shot and only tries when he feels like it, especially on the defensive end.

Jackson is shooting 42 percent from the field and 34 percent from deep for his career. He and the Bucks, the seventh team of his career, have already gotten off to a rough start.

Devin Harris

The same story that we told of Metta World Peace earlier also has happened to Devin Harris.

The reasoning behind it is just as bewildering.

After becoming an All-Star for the first time in his career in 2009, Harris has seen his career go straight down the tubes by some divine influence that has completely thrown him off. Since averaging 21 points per game in the 2008-09 season, Harris has failed to average better than 17 points per game.

Playing with the Utah Jazz in his first full season has been a nightmare for Harris and the Jazz organization as a whole. They acquired him in the Deron Williams trade with the assumption that he'd be a solid pickup to help ease the loss of Williams, but it's proven to have the opposite effect.

In 15 games, Harris is averaging eight points per game. That's not a typo. Harris is currently averaging eight points per game on 37 percent shooting from the field and 31 percent from deep. With so much of an influence in the frontcourt, you would expect Harris to get his fair share of easy shots from the mid-range.

About that—Harris isn't hitting anything and he's also failing to average five assists per for the first time since the 2006-07 season.

It's extremely disappointing to see Harris play like this, especially when you remember him as one of the few bright spots on a couple of bad New Jersey Net teams.

The Washington Wizards

There's no way you could have thought that the Washington Wizards would have been that bad.

For those claiming that this slide is inconsistent with the others because I'm judging too early in the season...the Washington Wizards are only going to get worse. Seriously, this team is in danger of not winning 10 games. There's no middle ground with this team because they don't get it and refuse to get it.

Last year, the Wizards were an awful team, but we assumed with the potential they possessed and a veteran coach in Flip Saunders leading the way that they would get it together in time for the 2011-12 season. Instead, what we got was a nightmare of a team that plain does not care if they lose every game by 30 points.

The Wizards are 2-15 and have lost nine games by at least 10 points. Somehow they beat Toronto and the Oklahoma City Thunder, of all teams, but those 15 losses that they've suffered have been embarrassingly bad.

There are just too many selfish players here. Nick Young, Jordan Crawford and Andray Blatche don't pass, John Wall is still extremely turnover-prone and JaVale McGee is one of the most self-centered players that this league has ever seen.

Worst of all is that they're not listening to Saunders, a coach who led the Detroit Pistons to 64 wins and has been an All-Star Game coach twice.

Forget firing Saunders. Trade the team and keep him.