10 Most High-Maintenance NBA Players

We are taking in an interesting time in the NBA these days in terms of player personalities. It used to be the worst players that a team would get would be guys who are a bit too flashy or a bit quick to fight, but these days there are problems that are much more complicated to deal with.

First of all, so many NBA players think of their "brand" before their basketball, wondering where their next endorsement is going to come from along with who's going to take care of their buddies.

How does a team deal with that? You can go the route the Cavs took with LeBron James and just cater to their every whim, but we all know how that worked out.

On top of that, you still have players who get moody when they don't get the number of touches they would like, players that let their personal issues bleed over onto the court and players that are just distractions in general, whether it be what they are doing outside of the game or on the court.

That's one of the hardest things to deal with on a basketball team. With 12 guys trying to work together over the course of three-quarters of the year, you have to make sure they get together for the most part. Sometimes, though, that's just not possible, as is the case with many of these players.

Some of these guys are too high maintenance to make even the best of teams work.

10. Stephen Jackson

Some players shoot a lot because they are streaky shooters and need the volume to get into a rhythm. Some shoot a lot because they have too much confidence in their shot. Still others shoot because they are no longer the basketball player that they used to be.

And then there's Stephen Jackson.

Stephen Jackson needed to stop shooting so much last year, but at least then he was scoring more points than attempting field goals. This season, Jackson is averaging 10.5 shots a game and scoring 10.5 points a game.

Sometimes he needs his coach to get on him about spreading the ball around more often. Other times, he just needs to be glued to the bench.

9. Josh Smith

Josh Smith is a guy who has slowly crept closer and closer to no longer being on this list at this point, but he's still not entirely there.

Smith used to be one of the moodiest and, at times, uncaring basketball players in the league. However, age, experience and good mentorship have steered him nearly all the way out of this funk.

He's still a guy that needs more attention than the rest to keep him from flying off the handle or getting the ball with 21 seconds left in the shot clock and just deciding to chuck it from wherever he's standing, but he's constantly getting better.

8. Jamal Crawford

I don't admire Nate McMillan's job this season. He's dealing with a Jamal Crawford who seems to be teetering right on the edge of past his prime, which is a dangerous time for players like himself.

When you get a volume shooter who takes his shots until they fall, it's going to be tough to regulate them, but they tend to go into denial once they are getting worse year by year.

Just take a look at how close Crawford is this year: He's scoring 19.5 points but taking 17.2 shots every game. That's dangerously close to being counterproductive. Hopefully for the Blazers sake, he's been playing himself into shape and those shots will start falling as the year goes along.

7. DeMarcus Cousins

If ever there was a headcase in the NBA, these days it's DeMarcus Cousins. He may not be as bad as last year, but the moody, less-than-predictable Cousins is like a ticking time bomb. Sure, he's been relatively non-newsworthy ever since Paul Westphal was fired a little over a month ago, but it's just a matter of time.

Beyond that, Cousins is a young player who still needs constant attention by his coach when he's on the court, getting him to pass more often and just realize that he's not the only player on offense (hell, the entire Kings team needs that attention).

Once he completely shakes the immaturity, he's going to be a very good player, but it's going to take some work to get there.

6. JaVale McGee

Some guys are absent-minded, and then there's JaVale McGee, who is vacation-minded.

McGee has at least a play a game, sometime two or three, that just make you look at him and wonder how he was ever able to make his way into the NBA.

From blatant goaltending to running back on defense before his team is even done with their possession to deciding that alley-ooping to himself off the backboard with his team down big, McGee is always doing something to rile up his coaches.

He constantly needs an eye on him and when he steps out of line again, which he inevitably will, he needs to be put back in his place.

5. Carmelo Anthony

Despite the fact that Knicks fans have kind of thrown him under the bus this season for their early-season woes, I actually see Carmelo Anthony as less high maintenance this season compared to earlier years.

Still, Carmelo tends to shoot the ball too much and seems to get into a funk where he'll put forth less of an effort at times when he's going on a bad streak, leaving it up to the coaches and teammates to pull him out.

Anthony is one of the most gifted scorers in the world, but it takes the ball in his hand to get any use out of that skill. One player holding the ball for an extended period of time on a D'Antoni basketball team is going to cause a problem or two eventually.

4. Deron Williams

Deron Williams is a guy that didn't seem too high maintenance at the beginning of last season, but at this point I would have to imagine that he's become tiring.

The only thing the Nets can do right now is convince Williams to be patient, which is one of the hardest things in the world to teach a basketball star who is looking to see which team will best serve him going into the future.

Williams needs to be convinced that the Nets are making the right steps, but how do you do that as a basketball team? You can show him the future plans, but in the end it has to be what he believes is the right players to sign.

It's got to get bothersome as a general manager to think of whether or not your point guard would approve of a move or not. 

3. Dwight Howard

Up until late last season, I wouldn't have considered Dwight Howard high maintenance, but this past year in Dwight's life would have turned even Steve Nash into a player viewed as high maintenance. 

Everything that had anything to do with the Magic this year seems to trace its way back to Howard in his lame-duck year with the Magic. He's been the biggest thing keeping his team near the top of the East this year, but he's also the main cause of the distraction this year.

The front office has had to deal with his list of teams he would allow himself to be traded to by specifying which he would extend his contract with while his teammates and coaches have had to listen to the endless rumors.

It seems like it's more harm than good to have Dwight on this team at this point.

2. Kobe Bryant

With Kobe Bryant comes a lot of baggage that has to be dealt with.

First, there's the obvious point of Kobe's personal life, which hasn't been on display all that much in his career, but when it has, it's been a distraction, from his trial in Colorado back in 2003 to his recent divorce from his wife.

While Kobe does come with this baggage, he's usually a professional about it on the court. However, his problems don't stop when he steps on the court.

Bryant plays basketball the way he wants to play basketball, and with Mike Brown at the helm of this team, that's going to be allowed to happen. Kobe will take games over, shooting in handfuls of possessions in a row without looking to involve his teammates.

He's one of the 10 best players ever, but aside from Wilt Chamberlain, he's also one of the most resistant to playing outside of his box, at least at this point.

1. LeBron James

When you get LeBron James, you don't only get LeBron James, but you get the stigma surrounding him.

Along with LeBron comes constant doubt, intense media attention, an enormous posse of friends and business associates who are working on building his brand and a schedule of commercials, meetings and non-basketball related time consumers to distract him.

James is one of the first basketball players that I can remember whose main interest was building his brand, rather than just letting it build through playing basketball.

Hell, even during his "recruiting" stage of the 2010 free-agency period, a big chunk of the news surrounding what teams did was what they did for his friends. New York took them to a fancy dinner, while the Bulls took a stand and told him his friends wouldn't get anything from the team in Chicago.

When LeBron James comes along, there's more than just a basketball star to deal with, there are a large number of business associates who one would think would cause more of a problem than the basketball star himself.

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