8 NBA Players Who Would Flourish with a Fresh Start on a Different Team
So much of thriving in the NBA—any profession, really—is about timing: what team you play for, who your teammates are and how your skill set fits into the franchise’s near and long-term goals.
Today’s spark plug is tomorrow’s worn-out welcome. And there inevitably comes a point with every player when a change of scenery can make or break a season, a contract, even a Hall of Fame career.
In this spirit of redemption and resurrection, we’re offering up eight players for whom a fresh start would pay the biggest dividends—both now and in the future.
Some of the players are simply trapped in rookie contracts. Others might be past-prime veterans who’ve languished far too long on middling teams. Still others you could argue never got a real chance to begin with.
With so many contenders vying for a springtime surge, expect the few months before the February trade deadline to be busier than a New Orleans jailhouse on Mardi Gras.
Let us start afresh!
Taj Gibson, Chicago Bulls
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Few players have fallen victim to the mantra of “money talks” more profoundly than the Chicago Bulls’ Taj Gibson. After years spent backing up the expensive (and defensively challenged) Carlos Boozer, Gibson is now being tasked with spelling two-time NBA champion Pau Gasol, the supposed final piece to Chicago’s championship puzzle.
No one’s arguing that Gibson is somehow a misunderstood Hall of Famer. At the same time, it’s impossible not to wonder whether Gibson—who hasn’t started more than 20 games since his second season in the league—might’ve grown into a more robust role, if only given the chance.
With Gasol and rookie Euro-sensation Nikola Mirotic eating up an increasing amount of Chicago’s power-forward pie, Gibson could become a valuable trade chip. At just under $9 million a year, he’s just the kind of piece a contending team in need of frontcourt help should be looking for—one that could give the former USC standout the chance at a full-time starting spot he so clearly deserves.
Goran Dragic, Phoenix Suns
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One year ago, we were talking about how Goran Dragic is the quintessential example of what a change of scenery can do for a player’s career. As one head of the Phoenix Suns’ two-headed point guard monster, Dragic had found both a system and a backcourt soulmate perfectly suited to his idiosyncratic talents.
But then the Suns got weird by trading for Isaiah Thomas and bringing back Eric Bledsoe, creating a backcourt troika that looked super intriguing from the outside…until you divided it all by 48 minutes and realized there would never be enough playing time to go around.
With Thomas and Bledsoe locked up for nearly the long term, Dragic—whose contract expires at the end of this season—stands to be the odd man out of Phoenix’s ever-evolving youth movement.
Indeed, even Dragic himself seems resigned to the fact that his future will be clad in colors other than orange and purple.
“Every team that is going to be available for me is going to be an option," Dragic told the New York Post's Jonathan Lehman. "You know, I think [the New York Knicks], they have great base of fans, great basketball organization. In the past few years, they didn’t play so well, but like I said before, that luck can change quick."
There’s no shortage of teams willing and eager to take advantage of the 2015 free-agency period, the Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers being just two of the more high-profile players. At just 28 years old and with a game based more on guile than physical gifts, Dragic is the kind of talent whose career could be ripe for quite the second act.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Charlotte Hornets
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Like many of his teammates at the University of Kentucky, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist just oozed potential. From the thoroughbred’s gait in the open floor to the earnest defensive intensity, there wasn’t much not to like about John Calipari’s hyphenated phenom.
Two-plus NBA seasons later, we’re still waiting for Kidd-Gilchrist to make the leap everyone expected. Particularly at the offensive end, where the lanky forward remains very much a liability.
Even if Kidd-Gilchrist’s ultimate NBA destiny is as a high-grade defensive stopper, it stands to reason there would be better suitors for those services than the perpetually moribund Hornets.
Encouraging though last year’s playoff push was, Charlotte remains a team in desperate need of a focused direction. Should Kidd-Gilchrist continue to be a mere ancillary consideration, it’s only understandable that he keeps his own future in mind. And on the right team with a more coherent roster and plan in place, it could be a bright one indeed.
Maurice Harkless, Orlando Magic
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Two years ago, as a 19-year-old rookie out of St. John’s, Maurice Harkless established himself as one of the rebuilding Orlando Magic’s key future cogs—a versatile scoring forward with upside to spare.
But a sophomore slump, coupled with the star-studded emergence of Tobias Harris and the drafting of high-flying Aaron Gordon, has put Harkless’ future in Orlando [understandably] in doubt.
And then you remember the kid is just 21 years old and super-skilled and on a more-than-affordable rookie contract, and the question practically poses itself: Why wouldn’t another team take a chance on Harkless?
It’s eminently possible that Harkless’ fate is as a seventh or eighth man on a middling team. But if you’re a team like, say, the Los Angeles Clippers, who have a decided dearth of depth at the small forward position, a player such as Harkless is just the kind of low-risk, high-reward gamble you should be taking.
Andre Iguodala
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Heading into the 2013-14 season, the Golden State Warriors' acquisition of Andre Iguodala was seen as one of the savviest and smartest of the summer—the kind of signing-for-need any team with championship ambitions needs to pull off.
Now, with Draymond Green emerging as a legitimate five-tool weapon, Iguodala has been relegated to something of a luxury afterthought in Steve Kerr’s system. Not only is Iggy putting up career lows nearly across the board, even his trademark intensity has also become somewhat muted.
Call it a crisis of confidence, a confluence of circumstances, whatever you will—it’s clear that Iguodala could make a bigger impact elsewhere. Flush as the league is with All-Star level small forwards, there’s never a shortage of teams in the market for top-tier wing-stoppers.
The Warriors’ D might be good enough to survive without Iguodala. But it’s Iguodala who won’t be able to thrive until he's thrust back into a more prominent starting role.
Iman Shumpert, New York Knicks
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History is rife with players whose promising prospects were ultimately negated by the dint of the insurmountably toxic culture surrounding them. Case in point: the New York Knicks’ Iman Shumpert—an undeniably talented 2-guard who had the malicious misfortune of being drafted by the New York Knicks.
To be sure, Phil Jackson is more-than-capable of turning New York’s rancid reputation around. The question is whether Shumpert has been rubbed too raw by the past to become a serviceable cog in Jackson’s imagined triangle utopia.
Here’s a fun thought experiment: What if the 2012 Oklahoma City Thunder—the team that succumbed to LeBron James and the Miami Heat in five, mostly one-sided contests—had 2014 Iman Shumpert as their starting shooting guard instead of 2012 Thabo Sefolosha? Exactly.
Shumpert will probably never be an All-Star. But as a three-and-D addition to an already-established core, he could breath fresh life into a career nearly detailed by the Knicks’ instability.
Josh Smith, Detroit Pistons
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You’d be hard-pressed to find a more intensely polarizing player than the Detroit Pistons’ Josh Smith. Once seen as one of the league’s most sterling up-and-comers, Smith’s struggles—exemplified by his curious infatuation with corner three-pointers—have been well-documented.
Last January, Deadspin’s Kyle Wagner encapsulated the often maddeningly bipolar appeal of Detroit’s head-banded bad boy:
"Just as disclosure, Josh Smith is one of my favorite players, even when he's shot-putting long, uncontested jumpers clean through the backboard at a rapid-fire clip. But what makes this season he's putting together so fascinating is that it doesn't follow the basic template that we have for terrible, high-volume three-point shooting.
In a lot of ways, Josh is actually doing things right, which makes his awfulness that much more horrifying.
"
With Greg Monroe all but certain to bolt Detroit once the final year of his contract is up, it stands to reason Smith will be recast as a more traditional power forward under new head coach Stan Van Gundy.
At the same time, don’t be surprised if Van Gundy does everything he can to shop Smith and his certifiably awful contract.
Risky as he might be, on the right team with the right veteran leadership in place—guys who will hold him accountable for continually hucking bricks from the corner—Smith could be a devastating two-way weapon: a very good defender and underrated passer capable of making one heck of a living in the paint.
Reggie Jackson, Oklahoma City Thunder
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The returning Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant have predictably put the Oklahoma City Thunder back on a playoff path. If there’s one thing their absences proved, however, it’s that Reggie Jackson—much like James Harden before him—might be better off balling under some other banner entirely.
There’s a 190 percent chance someone gives Jackson a chance at a big-time payday this summer. The question is whether OKC will be in a position to match what could be quite the lucrative tender.
Having a top-tier point guard has become a veritable must in today’s NBA. Even if Jackson is decidedly not that, there are bound to be teams willing to roll the dice on whatever upside remains for the lightning-quick Boston College product.
The Thunder might very well continue exploring how best to use Westbrook and Jackson in tandem. Sooner or later, though, the latter’s abilities will be too obvious for 29 other teams to pass up.
