The 15 Worst Starters in the NBA Today

Image via Complex Original

Team: Sacramento Kings

2013-14 stats: 2.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 0.0 SPG, 1.0 SPG, 0.5 BPG

Career stats: 9.9 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 1.1 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.7 BPG

Jason Thompson has tantalized Kings fans in each of his now seven NBA seasons, showing flashes of promise and yet always failing to become much of anything. A perennial starter who puts in solid-if-unspectacular work, Thompson is a intense player who has never really had the ability to match his effort. The result has been a lot of frustration for the Kings and their fans, and is why Thompson constantly finds his name in trade rumors.

Team: Charlotte Hornets

2013-14 stats: 11.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 2.5 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.0 BPG

Career stats: 10.8 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.4 BPG

While former No. 2 overall pick Marvin Williams hasn’t been a complete bust, a lot more was expected out of him when he entered the league in 2005. He’s been a decent rotation player throughout his career, but when you’re drafted right before Chris Paul and Deron Williams you should hopefully produce something better than that. Williams won’t kill you if he’s on your team, but he’s a classic case of a guy who is just sort of “there” all the time.

Team: Indiana Pacers

2013-14 stats: 14.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 6.7 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.0 BPG

Career stats: 3.9 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 2.0 APG, 0.3 SPG, 0.0 BPG

Before the season began, Donald Sloan would have been much higher on this list. However, the journeyman point guard has impressed, filling in capably in the Pacers backcourt and proving to be a general nuisance to opponents on both ends. He even dropped a line of 31/6/7 one game this year. However, there’s no denying the facts: Sloan has played for four teams in just four NBA seasons, and until this season had never been counted on in a regular role.

Team: Milwaukee Bucks

2013-14 stats: 3.7 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 1.3 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.7 BPG

Career stats: 8.6 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 1.5 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Jared Dudley was once a very useful part of the Suns’ rotation, making a living as a knockdown three point shooter who could play 20-25 quality minutes a night. He can still give teams that kind of court time, but the knockdown shooting ability has started to slip a little bit of late; he shot a career low .360 from deep last season, averaging just 6.9 points per game. It’s been even more lean so far for him in Milwaukee, but Dudley at least has the track record to suggest he may be able to turn it around.

Team: New York Knicks

2013-14 stats: 3.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.0 SPG, 1.5 BPG

Career stats: 7.8 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 0.5 APG, 0.5 SPG, 1.8 BPG

Samuel Dalembert has been a reliable—if unspectacular—post presence throughout his NBA career. He’s been durable, and anchored the paint for some good Philadelphia teams in the mid-2000s. However, like many big men, he hasn’t aged terribly well, and at age 33 he now moves around like a rickety old man as he fills space in the middle for the Knicks. His rebounding numbers are in steep decline, and it sure doesn’t seem like he’s going to be getting any better.

Team: Los Angeles Lakers

2013-14 stats: 9.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 0.5 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.3 BPG

Career stats: 8.1 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.7 BPG

It’s not Wesley Johnson’s fault that he got drafted ahead of guys like DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George, and Eric Bledsoe, but Johnson has never really developed into the uber-athletic, high-scoring swingman he was expected to be when he went No. 4 overall in the 2010 draft. Instead, he remains a frustratingly inconsistent player who can look like a star one night, and a man on his way out of the league the next.

Team: Brooklyn Nets

2013-14 stats: 7.0 PPG, 0.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 0.0 SPG, 1.0 BPG

Career stats: 7.0 PPG, 0.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 0.0 SPG, 1.0 BPG

A rarely-seen 25-year-old rookie, Bojan Bogdanovic enters the NBA this year with several years of pro experience playing abroad but precisely none playing in the American-style game. While he’s got a terrific jumper and a track record of success, it’s incredibly rare for an international player to put that all together in his first year in the U.S. Bogdanovic is going to need time and experience before he’s ready to assume any kind of meaningful role, and that means he’ll be doing a lot of “learning on the fly” and making plenty of mistakes in 2014-15.

Team: Sacramento Kings

2013-14 stats: 3.5 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.0 BPG

Career stats: 8.7 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Given that he has only been in the league for a year, the jury is still out on Ben McLemore and his potential as an NBA player. The returns in year one were not great, though; he struggled to find his shooting stroke, and even lost his starting job for a portion of the season. He’s got a lot of potential and is still just 21 years old, so it’s not as if the door is shut on McLemore becoming an outstanding player. However, he’ll need to show a lot more consistency if he wants to be a true asset to his team.

Team: Philadelphia 76ers

2013-14 stats: 10.0 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.7 SPG, 1.0 BPG

Career stats: 6.1 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Hollis Thompson stepped into a starting role last season after the 76ers shipped Evan Turner off to Indiana, and he showed flashes of being a serviceable player. His three point percentage and per game averages both rose when he became a regular, leading many to think that he could make another step this year. The concern, however, is that a slower-paced Philly offense might stifle his game and reduce the number of scoring chances Thompson has. We should know pretty quickly whether his promise of 2013-14 was a product of the system he was playing in, or if there’s some actual substance to his game.

Team: Detroit Pistons

2013-14 stats: 9.3 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.3 BPG

Career stats: 6.0 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 0.7 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.2 BPG

Perhaps no player suffered more from Detroit’s miserable 2013-14 than Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. As a rookie on a team of malcontents, he was often left to subsist on what few shots were left over once his high-volume teammates got done getting theirs, and the result was a disastrous year shooting the ball (.396 from the field, .319 from three). With a new coach and new system, he should improve this year; after all, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Team: Miami Heat

2013-14 stats: 9.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.5 APG, 1.5 SPG, 0.0 BPG

Career stats: 5.7 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 0.7 APG, 0.4 SPG, 0.5 BPG

Shawne Williams was brought in by the Heat to serve as a backup power forward, but circumstance and some solid preseason play earned him a starting role to begin the year. That prominent a role has never really been Williams’ strongsuit, and it has shown; he’s been very uneven thus far, although fortunately for him the Heat have been winning anyway. Williams likes to take a lot of threes, which is good given coach Erik Spoelstra’s offensive system, but also bad due to the fact that Williams is a career 33 percent shooter from downtown.

Team: Indiana Pacers

2013-14 stats: 6.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.7 APG, 0.3 SPG, 0.7 BPG

Career stats: 2.1 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 0.6 APG, 0.2 SPG, 0.1 BPG

The Indiana Pacers have been decimated with injuries on the perimeter, losing pretty much everybody that could play out there. Solomon Hill was basically the last man standing, and so far this season has had to start every game and attempt to keep the Pacers afloat until their more accomplished players return. Hill barely played last season as a rookie, appearing in just 28 games and logging double-digit minutes in just seven of them. Now forced into a key role, he’ll likely be entirely overwhelmed by the responsibility thrown on him each night.

Team: Philadelphia 76ers

2013-14 stats: 8.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.0 SPG, 0.3 BPG

Career stats: 7.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.1 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.4 BPG

Henry Sims has just begun his third NBA season, and already he is with his third different franchise. Not a good sign. Sims has yet to become a truly productive player at any of his stops, and now is being asked to help Nerlens Noel anchor the paint for a brutally bad 76ers team. Sims may yet find a spot in the NBA, but he is so raw that forcing him to play 25-30 minutes per game could actually stunt his growth as a player rather than help it.

Team: Washington Wizards

2013-14 stats: 12.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.3 BPG

Career stats: 3.5 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 1.4 APG, 0. SPG, 0.2 BPG

Garrett Temple has been forced to step in and replace his friend Bradley Beal in the Wizards’ lineup while the latter recovers from a broken wrist, and the results haven’t been great. Temple is a solid defender, but his offensive game has often been just that: offensive. Now with his sixth franchise, Temple sports a .391 lifetime shooting percentage and until this season had never scored more than 17 points in a game. His tenure as a starter will be a relatively brief one, and that’s exactly the way it should be.

Team: Oklahoma City Thunder

2013-14 stats: 1.2 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 0.6 APG

Career stats: 3.4 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 0.4 APG

What do you do when your team loses the league's reigning MVP? Unfortunately for the Oklahoma City Thunder, they've had to turn to Lance Thomas, a former Duke Blue Devil signed by the team over the offseason. In his four years in the NBA, Thomas has played for the Thunder and the Pelicans, though he failed to make much of an impact in New Orleans, earning fewer and fewer minutes by the season until he was cut in November of the 2013-14 season. 

By virtue of having more minutes in Oklahoma City (he's averaging 27.5 per game), Thomas is posting career highs for the Thunder this season. However, those highs are still pretty low. Eleven games into the season, Thomas' numbers sit at a middling 7.5 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 1.5 APG.