15 Biggest Disappointments from NBA's First Half

While the NBA season has been outstanding thus far for fans of the Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers, there are some unfortunate enthusiasts out there who have had far less to be thankful for.

Despite the season's early upsides, some teams haven't performed, certain players haven't impressed and a number of league-wide events have downright disappointing heading into the latter half of the 2011-12 season.

Boston Celtics

We all knew that the Boston Celtics' championship window was closing, but heading into the second half of the season it appears as if it has been completely slammed shut.

Losing Jeff Green for the season hurt the Celtics right from the beginning, and although the team has looked good at times this season, they've also looked extremely old.

Experience can sometimes trump age, but this Celtics team just might be too far past its prime.

Charlotte Bobcats

Nobody seemed to expect much from this team coming into the season, but the Charlotte Bobcats appear to have taken that sentiment to the extreme.

Expectations or not, any team that boasts four wins and a winning percentage of just .125 by All-Star Weekend is a disappointment to basketball as a whole.

Kemba Walker has been very good in his rookie season, but at this point the Bobcats should be playing for the top pick in next year's NBA Draft.

Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are 20-14 and currently sit fifth in the West this season, which is fine by most standards.

But wasn't this season supposed to be more than that following last year's exit from the playoffs?

The team traded away Lamar Odom for a trade exception that they've yet to use, Dwight Howard is reportedly uninterested in the Lakers and Pau Gasol is rumored to be on the trade block.

While Kobe Bryant has played well this season, his shots are up and the team's scoring is down as this hasn't turned out to be the redemption season Los Angeles was hoping for.

New Jersey Nets

A 10-25 start is not what the New Jersey Nets called for heading into this season.

The lackluster record has virtually everything to do with Brook Lopez's injury, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing for fans.

Despite good performances by Kris Humphries and rookie guard MarShon Brooks, Deron Williams would probably prefer to have spent the first half of the season playing alongside Lopez or even Dwight Howard.

New York Knicks

Jeremy Lin almost single-handedly kept the New York Knicks away from this list.

Since his emergence as the Knicks' starting point guard, the team has moved up to seventh place in the East and is nearing the .500 mark as we enter the second half of the season.

Between Jan. 12 and Feb. 3, however, the Knicks lost 11 of 13 games with their only victories coming against the struggling Charlotte Bobcats and Detroit Pistons. 

Entering the season, ESPN's Marc Stein projected the Knicks as the sixth best team in the NBA, but they quickly fell down the power rankings and found themselves ranked just 27th five weeks into the season.

Not quite the start this team was hoping for.

Raymond Felton

The Portland Trail Blazers traded point guard Andre Miller to the Denver Nuggets in hope of finding their point guard of the future.

So far it doesn't look like they got what they wanted.

Raymond Felton, 27, is averaging a career-low 10.2 points per game, a career-low 37 percent from the field and 6.2 assists, the lowest number since his rookie season.

Miller, on the other hand, is coming off the bench at 36 years old averaging a comparable 10.5 points and 6.9 assists while shooting a much more effective 44 percent.

Entering the second half of the season, the Blazers have seen firsthand that younger doesn't always equal better.

Metta World Peace

Anyone who hoped that a new season and a new name would revitalize the former Ron Artest has to be disappointed with the Lakers forward this season.

Metta World Peace is averaging career lows in too many categories to list. His offense has fallen off the map this season, but maybe even more significant is the fact that he's averaging less than one steal per game for the first time in his career. 

Lamar Odom

Without having to give up a major piece in return, anything that the Dallas Mavericks get from Lamar Odom should be considered a gift.

Odom, however, looked lost early in the season and hasn't picked up his performance much heading into the second half stretch.

Playing only 21.4 minutes per game, Odom has averaged single-digit points for the first time in his career, as well as career lows in rebounds, assists and almost all shooting percentages.

He has performed slightly better as a starter this season, but if the Mavericks were expecting anything close to the Odom of the past, they have to be disappointed by what they've seen so far.

Jimmer Fredette

Whether or not you expected Jimmer Fredette to be a big-time player right away, the 6'2" rookie guard hasn't looked worthy of his top 10 selection this past offseason.

He's not a versatile player who is going to out-skill many opponents, but as a player who was brought in to shoot the ball, shouldn't he at least be doing that well?

Despite a decent shooting streak at the end of January, Fredette is shooting just 37.5 percent from the three-point line, and even worse, only 37.5 percent from the entire field this season.

Rashard Lewis

Arguably one of the most overpaid players in the NBA today, Rashard Lewis is averaging only 7.8 points per game this year.

Having his worst season since 2000, Lewis is only part of the reason the Washington Wizards have struggled so mightily through their first 33 games as he and his team continue to compete with the Bobcats for the worst record in the NBA.

Greg Oden

Greg Oden entered this season as a 7'0", 280 pound question mark.

Can he stay healthy enough to help the Portland Trail Blazers advance in the playoffs? Will he remain in Portland past this season?

But after yet another setback, the question becomes whether or not any team out there will take a chance on a player who hasn't played an NBA game since Dec. 5, 2009.

Lockout Basketball

Although it hasn't been all bad for the NBA this season, the lockout seems to be having some lingering effects.

Injuries happen every season, but consider this list: Chauncey Billups, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony, Brook Lopez, Zach Randolph, Al Horford and Manu Ginobili.

These players and more have all missed significant time in a season that is already shortened because of the lockout.

Scoring is also down this season, and as a result, only three teams—the Miami Heat, Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder—are averaging more than 100 points. 

The NBA has seen at least 10 teams average more than 100 points per game every year since the 2005-06 season—every year except this one.

Dunk Contest

It's almost become a cliche to hate on the Dunk Contest each season, but that's not stopping the contest from remaining a bust in this year's All-Star Weekend.

Props and gimmicks can add to a good dunk, but using them to make up for a mediocre one is a strategy that needs to be dropped.

Fans having 100 percent say in who wins makes the competition the ultimate popularity contest—good thing there was nobody popular.

Which reminds me, can we please get the stars to compete already? 

Dwight Howard Situation

Last season saw Carmelo Anthony force a trade to the New York Knicks, and this season has seen the same thing with Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The trend of stars aligning in the NBA continues with Dwight Howard's early trade request, and it has lasted more than halfway into the 2011-12 season. 

Players have leverage; no doubt about it. 

But while a player has the right to request a trade, should the team really do everything they can to get him where he wants to go?

If you want the ultimate say in where you play, make the best of your offseason and test the free-agent market come July.

Jeremy Lin Puns

Linsanity hit the forefront of the NBA very quickly, and it was cute for a while.

But since the puns have begun to seemingly overtake the story itself—including a couple of racially insensitive headlines—it's time to forget about Linsanity and begin focusing on Jeremy Lin and what he can really do heading into the second half of the season.