Which Polarizing NBA Players Really Aren't Worth the Trouble Any More?
What happens to an NBA player when he's not worth the trouble any longer?
Well, in these cases, he just keeps playing.
We're talking about the guys whose reputations and levels of production are no longer aligned. In many cases, they were valuable players years ago, but they've declined significantly enough that they're filling roles too large for their talents. Contracts can also come into play, as some coaches make decisions based more on money than anything else.
Many fans have already come to terms with the fact that some of these players are no longer as valuable as they once worth, but all are still polarizing, if for no other reason than the fact that they continue to fill an inexplicably large portion of the rotation for their respective team.
The past can help identify which players will succeed in the future, but at some point, it just stops mattering.
Matt Barnes
1 of 8
Team: Los Angeles Clippers
Position: SF
Age: 34
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 7.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.8 blocks, 6.5 PER
Even for tough, gritty players like Matt Barnes, old age eventually kicks in. It's tough for him to rely on his energy quite so much in 2014-15, and the results haven't been especially promising.
The 34-year-old forward can still look the part of a defensive stopper, but his offense has now declined to the point that keeping him on the court for even a slightly prolonged stretch is rather difficult to justify.
During the Los Angeles Clippers' brief foray into the current campaign, they've allowed 9.2 fewer points per 100 possessions when Barnes is on the floor. Their defensive rating of 101.4 in that situation is a solid one, and his performance looks even better when you consider the simple fact that the small forwards behind him in the depth chart are by no means established defensive stoppers.
Problem is, LAC has also scored 10.5 fewer points per 100 possessions when he plays.
Barnes endured a horrific preseason, one in which he went 6-of-44 from the field and earned a player efficiency rating of minus-1.2, per RealGM.com. That offensive funk has carried over into the regular season, as he's shot 39.3 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from beyond the arc during his first quartet of outings.
Nonetheless, and despite the wealth of options on the wings that the Clippers have at their disposal, he's playing 27.5 minutes per contest, which ties last season's mark as the highest of his career.
Carlos Boozer
2 of 8
Team: Los Angeles Lakers
Position: PF
Age: 32
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 10.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.2 blocks, 10.7 PER
At this stage of their respective careers, Carlos Boozer should not be playing big minutes over Ed Davis.
However, Byron Scott has kept the former Chicago Bull in the starting lineup for each of the first five outings, and his 26.4 minutes per game haven't allowed Davis to spend as much time on the floor. The younger big man with a higher ceiling has played only 22.8 minutes during the average contest, despite his team-best 24.3 PER.
Let's run a blind comparison with some per-36-minute figures and advanced stats:
| Player X | 16.4 | 11.4 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 66.7 | 64.9 | 18.1 | 0.4 | 0.174 | 3.5 |
| Player Y | 14.2 | 7.6 | 3.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 44.0 | 47.4 | 12.2 | Minus-0.2 | Minus-0.069 | Minus-1.4 |
Apparently, Scott places quite a bit of value on assists per game, because that's the only way to justify Player Y (Boozer) receiving more run. Well, the only way outside of name recognition and prior reputation, even if that reputation should no longer apply.
Plus, there's this thing called defense. Davis plays it as well as anyone on the Lakers roster, while Boozer is nothing more than a turnstile at the power forward position.
"He knows he can play better and I expect him to play better," Scott explained after a practice, via Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. "It starts on the defensive end. He has to do a better job against pick-and-roll defense and has to do a better job on guys who are trying to post him up."
That's wishful thinking.
As Yahoo Sports' Kelly Dwyer wrote in response to that quote, "The Lakers knew what they were getting into when they claimed Boozer off of the amnesty waiver pile last summer. The guy hasn't played defense for years, and he's not going to change his stripes some 13 years into his career."
Kevin Garnett
3 of 8
Team: Brooklyn Nets
Position: PF/C
Age: 38
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 11.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.3 blocks, 14.4 PER
Kevin Garnett's career has been absolutely fantastic. There's no doubt he's one of the best power forwards to ever suit up on an NBA court, and he's a surefire Hall of Famer as soon as he's eligible for selection into the all-important Springfield institution.
It's admirable that he's still out there, trying his darnedest to make a positive impact at 38 years old. Who are we to tell him that he should stop playing the game he loves?
However, Garnett is having an increasingly difficult time making positive contributions for the Brooklyn Nets, and it's in the playoff contender's best interests to forget about his reputation and move him into a smaller role. Give Mirza Teletovic even more minutes, and experiment with sets that feature Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee on the court at the same time.
Garnett remains a great per-minute rebounder, and he's helped make the Nets slightly stronger on the defensive end, but his offensive limitations are detrimental to the overall efforts. In three games, he's already earned minus-0.1 offensive win shares, and that's pushed his value over replacement player (VORP) into the negatives as well.
The biggest issue is that we're seeing these numbers, admittedly in a small sample, from a player who appears to be rejuvenated from last year's washed-up corpse.
What happens when the rigors of an 82-game season take their toll on a player who's already struggling to contribute at replacement level?
Eric Gordon
4 of 8
Team: New Orleans Pelicans
Position: SG
Age: 25
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 5.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 1.5 steals, 0.5 blocks, minus-0.5 PER
Eric Gordon was once viewed as the future of the shooting guard position, a player deserving of a max contract who was going to pick up where Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade left off with his inside and outside scoring abilities. Austin Rivers was a lottery pick who endured a horrific rookie season and inadvertently promoted questions about whether his draft stock was due in part to his last name and his Duke pedigree.
What would happen if they flipped roles?
The Pelicans would be better at this point, thanks to regression from Gordon and steady improvement from Rivers, but the gaskets of some talking heads might still blow. After all, it's tough to alter perceptions so quickly, even if Gordon is about as washed up as can be after his knee injuries and complete loss of confidence.
Fortunately, Monty Williams is starting to see the light. During a Nov. 4 contest against the Charlotte Hornets, it was Rivers who was on the court as the clock wound down, not the highly paid liability, one who's quickly starting to make a case that he has one of the worst contracts in the NBA.
"We've put a lot of thought in a lot of those scenarios," Williams explained during the first week of the season, though he wouldn't discuss exactly what Gordon's role would end up being, per NOLA.com's John Reid. "Whether he's in the first or second unit, he still got to play at a high level. He wasn't at that level that he typically known to play at last night."
What is that level, though?
Gordon has had trouble staying healthy ever since coming to the bayou, and even when he's on the floor, his level of play has declined each of the last four years. It may be time for the organization to accept him for what he's become rather than dwell in the past.
Kendrick Perkins
5 of 8
Team: Oklahoma City Thunder
Position: C
Age: 29
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 4.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 0.2 assists, 0.2 steals, 0.4 blocks, 9.8 PER
Kendrick Perkins must be bribing Scott Brooks at this point.
The 29-year-old center, who will soon move into his fourth decade of life, has spent 18.8 minutes per game on the floor during his first five outings for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He may have been forced out of the starting lineup by Steven Adams, but he's still playing about as much as he did during the 2013-14 season, despite the ever-declining nature of his play.
Outside of a strange offensive explosion against the Denver Nuggets—Perkins scored 17 points, including 10 in the third quarter—he's averaged less than two points per contest and shot 2-of-11 from the field. This is nothing new, as the big man has been a liability on the more glamorous end for quite some time.
In the past, Perkins has justified his minutes—to some extent, at least—by playing solid defense around the rim, but even that hasn't been true during the brief portion of the 2014-15 season that has come to pass.
The 29-year-old actually has a negative defensive box plus/minus (DBPM), indicating that he's been less impactful than a league-average player on that end. Sure, the Thunder have fared better when he's on the floor, but that's largely due to the strange nature of the opening portion this season, one that has seen the lineup decimated by injuries.
It's time for 21-year-old Steven Adams to play even more.
Rajon Rondo
6 of 8
Team: Boston Celtics
Position: PG
Age: 28
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 8.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 11.7 assists, 2.0 steals, 0.3 blocks, 14.2 PER
Unlike the rest of the players populating this list, Rajon Rondo actually is a high-quality basketball player at this stage of his career. He's a dominant rebounder, a high-quality defender and arguably the best distributor in the Association, even when he's playing with some new teammates and coming back from an injury that caused him to miss a significant portion of the offseason training period.
In general, Rondo is worth the trouble. But for the Boston Celtics, he isn't.
With Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley already in place, the C's have their future backcourt in place. Now it's time for them to deal Rondo, who has basically proved that he can put up big numbers in certain facets of the game but hasn't improved enough as a scorer to actually help Boston win. He needs to be around offensive studs in order to thrive, as was the case when Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett were all on the same roster as him.
Seriously, just look at how much better or worse Boston has been offensively per 100 possessions during each season of his career when he's on the court versus when he's resting on the pine:
| 2006-07 | 103.8 | 103.2 |
| 2007-08 | 112.9 | 107.1 |
| 2008-09 | 112.9 | 107.0 |
| 2009-10 | 108.7 | 107.3 |
| 2010-11 | 110.1 | 100.8 |
| 2011-12 | 104.4 | 96.7 |
| 2012-13 | 100.9 | 104.6 |
| 2013-14 | 102.5 | 102.7 |
| 2014-15 | 106.3 | 115.6 |
What happened after the 2011-12 season? Ray Allen left for the Miami Heat. Then, after the 2012-13 campaign, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were traded to the Brooklyn Nets.
Rondo is still an All-Star-caliber point guard who can push a competitive team over the top, but he's not in the right situation. He's simply not the type of floor general who should be expected to help a team tread water while rebuilding.
Larry Sanders
7 of 8
Team: Milwaukee Bucks
Position: C
Age: 25
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 6.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.0 steals, 2.0 blocks, 15.1 PER
There's still plenty of time for Larry Sanders to prove he can be a quality player, but he should be running out of opportunities, especially after a trouble-filled 2013-14 campaign that saw him miss time due to legal issues and injury problems.
When he's healthy and focused, Sanders is a fantastic rim-protecting center, one who can alter countless shots and reject quite a few. He's also a solid rebounder, though he should regress to the mean a bit after averaging 13.5 boards per 36 minutes through four games in 2014-15.
But even if the big man, who turns 26 shortly before Thanksgiving, excels on the defensive end, he's too much of an offensive liability to hold down the fort for too long. In addition to having extremely limited passing chops, Sanders' work with his back to the basket is bad enough that forcing someone to watch a reel of his post moves is akin to torture.
Compounding the situation is the depth of young talent on this Milwaukee Bucks roster. Sanders, young and inexperienced as he may be, is a fairly known commodity. But his playing time is keeping Jason Kidd from realizing the full extent of what John Henson can do.
Sanders should play, sure. However, Henson has spent less than 15 minutes per game on the floor through Milwaukee's first four contests, and that's an unacceptably low number for a player with so much untapped two-way potential.
J.R. Smith
8 of 8
Team: New York Knicks
Position: SG
Age: 29
2014-15 Per-Game Stats: 7.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.3 blocks, 8.8 PER
Remember what Phil Jackson said about J.R. Smith before the start of the season? Per Charley Rosen for ESPN.com:
"The 2 position is our deepest, and J.R. Smith is easily the best athlete on the team. But J.R. has to learn the difference between a good shot and a bad shot. He has to trust that the triangle will create good shots and to avoid searching for his own shot. His defense also needs work because he tends to be a ball-watcher, and he's late in chasing his man around screens when he should be tailgating him. Defense is the key to any winning team, so Smith has to really work hard on his deficiencies in training camp.
"
So far, he's made none of those improvements.
The New York Knicks have allowed 6.7 more points per 100 possessions when Smith is on the floor, and his 38.7 percent shooting from the field isn't lending much belief that he's improved his shot selection. In fact, the team may already be looking to trade him.
"One of president Phil Jackson's big decisions this season is whether to trade J.R. Smith, and the club had recent conversations with the Pacers regarding ex-Knick Chris Copeland, according to a league source," reported Marc Berman for the New York Post.
New York may have come to terms with his limitations, hence the possible desire to ship him elsewhere. But until the global perception of his game comes down from that Sixth Man of the Year season in 2012-13, the hype will just continue outpacing the actual production.
Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com and are current as of Nov. 5.
