Meet the NBA's All-Addition-by-Subtraction Team
In the often unpredictable NBA world, less can sometimes be more.
It seems to happen every season. One team, seemingly at the end of its rope, appears to hit the reset button with a trade that strips a prominent player from the roster. But while all signs indicate an impending skid, that club goes streaking instead.
The Toronto Raptors changed their fortune in 2013-14 by shipping out volume scorer Rudy Gay for what looked like a pennies-on-the-dollar handful of reserves. But with a bolstered bench and a more free-flowing offense, Toronto rebounded from a 7-13 start, stockpiled 48 victories in the regular season and snapped the franchise's five-year playoff drought.
That's the essence of addition by subtraction, though the phenomenon can take on several different forms. Rather than a trade, teams might make similar strides when a rotation piece is lost due to injury or demoted to a lesser role.
It's not necessarily an indictment of the subtracted player. Sometimes his style doesn't mesh well with his teammates. Or his supporting cast becomes too reliant on his production and doesn't bring the same energy with him that it does without him.
For whatever reason, the following players have seemed to help their teams most by stepping out of the spotlight. But we're putting the spotlight back on them as the chosen members of the 2014-15 All-Addition-by-Subtraction Team, presented All-Star style with two backcourt and three frontcourt players, plus a bonus sixth man for good measure.
Backcourt: Lance Stephenson, SG, Charlotte Hornets
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There was something intriguing about the offseason marriage between the seemingly rising Charlotte Hornets and the mercurial-but-talented Lance Stephenson. It was intriguing enough for the basketball world to ignore the warning signs, at least.
Neither side represented the other's first choice.
The Hornets chased swingman Gordon Hayward and got him to put pen to paper on a four-year, $63 million offer sheet. But the versatile forward was a restricted free agent, meaning the Utah Jazz had the option to match the offer, and they did. Stephenson, meanwhile, wanted to stay with the Indiana Pacers. But a gap formed between what Stephenson wanted and what Indiana offered, ultimately leading to that divorce.
So, for lack of a better word, Stephenson and the Hornets "settled" on each other with a three-year, $27 million pact between them. It's hard to imagine both wouldn't already like a mulligan on that deal.
Before a pelvic injury forced him off the floor, Stephenson had compiled a gruesome .386/.151/.635 shooting slash. The Hornets were outscored by 8.9 points per 100 possessions when he played and only 1.0 point per 100 possessions when he hasn't. Even worse, sources say he's apparently had problems with his teammates, according to reports from Yahoo Sports' Marc J. Spears and Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.
The Hornets have already explored trade options with Stephenson, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, but they have yet to unearth any palatable offers. Considering the negative effect his presence has had on Charlotte—the Hornets are 6-19 when he plays, 6-5 when he doesn't—that may not change any time soon.
Backcourt: Kobe Bryant, SG, Los Angeles Lakers
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Kobe Bryant leads the NBA with 654 field-goal attempts this season. He also ranks 119th out of 121 qualified players with a 37.9 field-goal percentage. It's almost impossible to fathom that both of those statements are true, but this has become the reality for the aging Bryant and the underwhelming Los Angeles Lakers.
It comes as no surprise, then, that this team has performed significantly better without such a high-volume, low-efficiency gunner. The Lakers have been outscored by 11.4 points per 100 possessions in Bryant's 1,087 minutes and outscored their opponents by 4.3 points per 100 possessions in the 608 minutes he's been off the floor.
The Lakers aren't a more talented team without him by any stretch. The 36-year-old is the best player on this roster, and it's not even close.
But when he plays, this offense becomes all Kobe, all the time. Part of the problem is that his teammates become ball-watchers when he's in the game, standing around and waiting for the next glimpse of Mamba magic.
Coach Byron Scott hasn't helped, either. Bryant has made a more concerted effort to involve his teammates lately (8.0 assists over his last four games), yet Scott has asked Bryant to shoot more, per ESPN.com's Arash Markazi.
Bryant's own approach has also compounded the problem.
"As bad a rap as Bryant gets for being a ball hog, he has usually operated from the same basic premise: read the defense," wrote Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding. "If guys aren't hitting shots off his passes when the defense traps him, then he'll take it upon himself to try to hit tough ones—which is what has failed him and the Lakers this season."
Bryant looks like a one-man army, and this supporting cast almost demands him to play such a role. But it's always better to have five contributors instead of one, no matter how skilled that lone wolf might be.
Frontcourt: Josh Smith, PF, Houston Rockets
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Josh Smith is the clubhouse leader for the 2014-15 Excellence in Absence award—the "Rudy," as it's more commonly known in basketball circles.
Late last month, the Detroit Pistons decided they would rather eat the nearly $30 million left on Smith's contract than see him fire up another ill-advised, long-range look. Since making the move, the Pistons are 6-0 with a 15.3-point average margin of victory. Prior to waiving Smith, they were 5-23 and had been outscored by an average of 6.7 points per game.
A favorable schedule (Detroit's last six opponents own a combined record of 86-129) has helped, as have the shooting surges of Brandon Jennings (45.0 three-point percentage over that stretch) and Jodie Meeks (58.6). Smith's removal hasn't affected those areas, but it has led to better ball movement and a more properly spaced floor—benefits that the Pistons anticipated receiving.
"I don't think we expected to take a step back when we made that move," Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy said, per Pistons.com's Keith Langlois.
But Smith's current club, the Houston Rockets, haven't exactly taken off with his arrival.
Houston is 3-4 with Smith in the lineup and 1-3 in games he has started. He is shooting just 42.0 percent from the field and an abysmal 14.3 percent from deep while averaging 3.1 turnovers against 1.9 assists in 25.5 minutes for the Rockets.
Smith's career has been a roller coaster of good games and bad ones. The Pistons decided they had enough of that ride, and the Rockets can't be sure where it will take them next.
Frontcourt: David Lee, PF, Golden State Warriors
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It isn't David Lee's fault that he appears on this list.
Since returning from a lengthy battle with a strained hamstring, the former All-Star has been as productive as can be expected. Slotted into a part-time role (18.1 minutes per game), he's still putting up 19.4 points and 10.7 rebounds per 36 minutes.
But this selection has less to do with Lee himself than it does the players around him. Even without his presence at the start of the season, the Golden State Warriors found new and arguably more effective sources of production.
Lee's absence left a void that Draymond Green has since filled, giving the Warriors a versatile defender on the frontcourt and a stretch forward to space this offense. Since Green is getting consistent minutes, Harrison Barnes hasn't had to worry about the Swiss army knife breathing down his neck. Rather, the former lottery pick has found comfort in this equal-opportunity offense and delivered career marks nearly across the board.
Golden State plays smaller without Lee, but it adds some valuable athleticism to the equation. The Warriors field a host of long, versatile defenders who can switch everything on the perimeter. They easily own the NBA's best defensive efficiency despite being without potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate Andrew Bogut (who's missed the past 12 games).
Lee still brings value as a rebounder, and his interior offense gives this team something it lacks. But keeping him near the basket clogs up passing and driving lanes for the other players. He has never been a deterrent on defense, either.
This development could help the Warriors is if they subtracted Lee's remaining salary ($15.5 million for next season) from the payroll. Green is headed for a monstrous payday as a restricted free agent this summer, and that's one loss the Warriors could not afford.
Frontcourt: Brook Lopez, C, Brooklyn Nets
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There aren't many bigs capable of matching Brook Lopez's interior offense, but his back-to-the-basket game has been an awkward fit in today's pace-and-space NBA.
Last season, the Brooklyn Nets didn't hit their groove until a broken foot forced Lopez off the floor. The Nets went 7-10 with him in the lineup, often slowing their pace to better accommodate the plodding post scorer. But once they got smaller and faster without him, they won 35 of their final 56 games.
The Nets haven't found the same spark without Lopez this time around, having dropped six of the 10 contests he has missed. But Brooklyn has looked sharper with a shorter leash on Lopez. The 7-footer has logged 25.8 minutes a night in the Nets' wins and 27.5 minutes during their losses. The Nets are also 8-10 when Lopez starts and 4-2 when they bring him in as a reserve.
Individually, he's a steady source of scoring. He is averaging more than 20 points per 36 minutes for the fifth consecutive season. But as a team, this offense looks dramatically different when he's off the floor. The Nets have a 99.3 offensive rating and 55.7 assist percentage when Lopez plays. When he sits, those numbers climb to 100.8 and 58.3, respectively.
"Ball movement often ceases when a lineup features the 26-year-old center, a gifted post player who is a frequent sufferer of tunnel vision with the ball," wrote Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
With rising big man Mason Plumlee beginning to realize his potential, the Nets may be running out of reasons to keep Lopez around. ESPN.com's Marc Stein and Ohm Youngmisuk previously reported that Brooklyn had dangled Lopez out on the trade block, and Youngmisuk later added that Brooklyn had discussed a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder for a package including Kendrick Perkins.
Sixth Man: J.R. Smith, SG, Cleveland Cavaliers
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The addition portion to J.R. Smith's story will be unclear for some time, but his subtraction alone could prove invaluable to the New York Knicks.
Since earning Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2012-13, Smith has struggled to capture the same magic sense. The quick-triggered swingman has seen his shooting (40.2 field-goal percentage) and scoring (10.9 points per game) dip as low as they've been since the 2005-06 season.
There is plenty currently wrong with the Knicks, but it was clear Smith wasn't going to solve their problems. If the sagging statistics weren't harmful enough, he also left a trail of injuries, fines and suspensions behind him. Even more worrisome was the $6.4 million player option he held for next season.
So, the Knicks opted to ship out Smith in a salary dump, which netted them some financial flexibility and a future second-round pick but also cost them one of their better trade chips in Iman Shumpert. The extra money should help, but this likely had more to do with changing the culture.
"As our journey moves through this season, we will search for the type of players that fit the style we hope to exhibit to our fans," Knicks team president Phil Jackson said in a statement, per Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
The Knicks don't have the talent to suddenly find their way, though Smith's departure should lead to more meaningful minutes for sophomore Tim Hardaway Jr.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, Smith's new club, need Shumpert's defense a lot more than they need Smith's water-faucet offense. There's a chance Cleveland can find an impact role for Smith, but he's an erratic scorer who can hurt an offense as quickly as he can help it.
The Cavs could discover what the Knicks learned the last three seasons: Less is typically more when it comes to Smith.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com. Salary information obtained via HoopsHype.com.
