Biggest NBA Player Disappointments
Some guys are falling short this season!
Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard: the 2x Finals MVP, one of the NBA’s best defenders of all time and one of the association’s best players, had a full year off to recover from an ACL injury that sidelined him for the 2021–2022 season. This certainly means that he should be consistently fit and able to return to form as he did in his single Championship year with the Toronto Raptors, right? Not yet. The Los Angeles Clippers are surprisingly 21–15 for the 36 games so far this season, but Kawhi has only been able to play in 14 of them for a measly average of 27.9 minutes per game. Leonard’s playing time is understandably being gradually ramped up as he returns to health, but he still seems to need a day off after every few games in a row. The Clippers are 11–3 this season when Leonard plays, which makes his lack of availability even more disappointing. It’s unfair to blame a player for their health, but it’s okay to harp on what could be in a more fortunate situation.
Scottie Barnes
Reigning Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes is suffering from success. That is that his rookie performances were so consistently impressive that the slight regression this year has concerned Toronto Raptors fans who expected him to take a major leap this year. Barnes has had to play 3rd, and sometimes 4th, fiddle to an All-NBA level Pascal Siakam, an increasingly great OG Anunoby, and 2020 NBA Finals legend Fred VanVleet. Barnes’ scoring has slightly decreased, which would be okay if his efficiency increased, or at least maintained, but his field goal percentage has decreased by about 4%. The Raptors are known for head coach Nick Nurse’s annoyingly fluid lineups that range from small-ball to oversized, which may save as reasoning for why the team’s defense suffers when he has to play in a prototypical forward role.
Jabari Smith Jr.
Jabari Smith Jr. wasn’t the most efficient shooter at Auburn, but his perimeter shot selection was elite at a mark of 42%. Not only has his field goal percentage dropped to sub-40% in the NBA, but his ability to hit threes has dissipated to a conversion rate of about 34%. More than half of Smith’s shots are from behind the arc, which brings down his field goal percentage when combined with his 43.5% rate for regular twos. Smith is a 6’10” power forward on a reckless Houston Rockets, alongside two of the league’s most fearless shooters in Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green. Smith needs to use his size more to get to the basket, rather than conforming to Houston’s gun-slinging play style.
Luguentz Dort
At face-value, Lu Dort has clearly dropped off in his offensive production, probably as a result of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s reliable health. Dort is still a fantastic defender that constantly stays active off the ball and has become a formidable pickpocket, but the Oklahoma City Thunder are paying $15 million per year for a guy who can play defense, as well as contribute to their offense, as he did last season with his 17.2 PPG. Dort now averages 13.6 PPG, and while his measly 40% from the field is basically the same as last year’s rate, he’s making 2% less of his three-pointers as well. To be fair, Dort’s usage rating has decreased as well, but so has his points per shot attempt by a considerable margin. A lower number of opportunities does not automatically result in less production, but that is what Dort is enduring in this struggle of a campaign.
R.J. Barrett
Similar to Scottie Barnes, R.J. Barrett is not playing much differently from last season, but that’s the concern. Even with the arrival of Jalen Brunson, people expected that Barrett’s jump in scoring last season would be a continuous change, but that has not been the case. Although the Knicks guard is shooting at a slightly better rate than last season, his PPG has mostly plateaued. Instead, Brunson and Julius Randle have seen increased offensive production. Barrett has seemed to opt for higher percentage shots near the basket more frequently than he has in the past, and while that is certainly a sign of a growing efficiency, he is considerably more talented and created space for jump-shooting than he is at attacking the rim.
Karl Anthony-Towns
The Minnesota Timberwolves twin-towers experiment has been a disaster so far. It was already peculiar to pair Rudy Gobert, an interior fiend, with a prominent scorer like Karl Anthony-Towns, and the duo has proven that eyebrows were raised justifiably. Although Towns recently suffered a relatively serious calf injury that’ll leave him sidelined for around a month, what we saw so far does not bring great hope for when he returns. His PPG is at its lowest since his rookie year, which could have been expected with the addition of Gobert, but his perimeter efficiency is at a career-low when it’s the most important aspect of his offense with the Wolves newfound spacing conundrum. KAT is also being required to guard shiftier stretch-forwards, while Gobert attends to sluggish big-men, which leaves Towns getting beat to the rim a lot, as emphasized by his career-worst DRtg. KAT’s ability to roam freely was once an amenity for a dynamic player like himself, but his lack of offensive options due to the crowded frontcourt has left him occasionally hapless in relativity to prior years of excellence.
