6 Most Disappointing Things We've Seen so far This NBA Season

Oct 27, 2019; Dallas, TX, USA; Portland Trail Blazers forward Skal Labissiere (17) and guard Damian Lillard (0) and guard CJ McCollum (3) celebrate a basket in the fourth quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

It’s hopeless. It really is.

Things aren’t going to change in Madison Square Garden unless there’s a regime change. And I’m not talking about the coach who is reportedly going to get fired sooner rather than later.

It starts at the top and it’s beyond laughable that the architects of this version of the Knickerbockers expected the squad constructed over the summer to be playoff contenders in the East. But that’s basically what Knicks president Steve Mills said, reportedly at the behest of ownership, when he conducted a shocking press conference 10 games into the season to express dismay over the slow start. Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey’s no longer visits Madison Square Garden, but we all know the circus is forever on display at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

When you spend all your free agency money on B and C grade power forwards to pair with a bunch of neophytes and miss out on the top tier guys that you promised your fan base you would sign, sure, the playoffs seem perfectly logical. RJ Barrett has shown glimpses of living up to the hype as the No. 3 draft pick this past June, but other than that there isn’t much good going on in the Garden currently—unless you count Knicks fans serenading Kristaps Porzingis with incredibly misguided boos and taunts last week upon his return trip to New York. The Knicks have two wins over the Mavericks and their former franchise player. That will probably be the high point of New York’s season.

The Knicks did a fabulous job of making KP the villain when the fan base really should have directed their anger and frustrations at the guys wearing the suits or a certain someone that always sits near the Knicks bench on the baseline. Instead, they trashed a player who said he wanted out because he thought the organization. True, KP isn't completely blameless for the falling out between him and the Knicks, but no team knows how to throw one of their own them under the buss quicker than a New York minute than the Knicks. 

The Knicks are 4-11 and entering Wednesday were 26th in net rating, 29th in effective field goal percentage, and own the league’s third worst offensive rating. They’re not going to sniff the playoffs and probably won't next season, either. Basically they're going to have to sell the fan base on waiting for 2021 when Giannis Antetokounmpo could theoretically be available in free agency. Godspeed to all the lunatic Knicks fans buying into that propaganda.

The pairing of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis was supposed to be a revelation. And it figures to be pretty damn dynamic as they get more familiar with each other. But while Doncic is arguably the frontrunner for league MVP right now, Porzingis has struggled to find consistent footing.

We have to cut Porzingis a little slack since he’s barely played over the last two seasons after suffering that torn ACL in 2018 with the Knicks. His numbers show he’s right around his career averages in the major categories, but a closer inspection will tell you that it’s been an adventure for KP in his new home. His per 36 minutes numbers have significantly dipped from his 2017-18 campaign and some of the advanced stats like PER and box plus/minus standout for their precipitous drop. The shooting percentages are way down and entering Wednesday's action his usage and production out of pick-and-roll situations with Doncic had been underwhelming—KP’s only been used in those situations 17 percent of the time and his effective FG percentage (51.7 percent) was barely above Hassan Whiteside’s (50).

Chalk it up to rust, chalk it up to whatever you want, but Porzingis’s numbers have bounced all over the place from game to game. Coach Rick Carlisle even sat him down for an entire fourth quarter against the Celtics recently. Porzingis has been honest about not playing to level he’s used to. In the basketball community, ACLs generally believed to take about two full years to fully recover from. Maybe we start seeing the real KP before the All-Star break, when it'll be roughly two years post injury. But right now, he ain’t the KP we remember from his days with the Knicks.

That trip to the Western Conference Finals last spring may have clouded expectations around the Blazers this season, especially after some questionable roster building decisions during the summer. Add that to some key injuries—Zach Collins being lost for four months and the continued rehabilitation of Jusuf Nurkic—and pronounced fourth quarter struggles and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why the Blazers have gotten off to a disappointing 5-10 start.

There’s only so much Damian Lillard can do—and he’s been doing it all so far for Portland while dealing with a back issue. His averages 15 games into the season are way above his career numbers so Lillard has basically been everything for the Blazers while his supporting cast, other than CJ McCollum and Anfernee Simons, haven’t leveled up. Besides Collins and Nurkic, Portland is missing guys like Moe Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu who were key role players and now play elsewhere. The power forward position is currently a black hole. The signing of Carmelo Anthony was a low-risk move on the part of the organization that needs all the offense it can get, but if Anthony’s going to be exposed on defense and take too many long twos and too many shots away from Lillard and McCollum then he's not going to last long in Portland. Hassan Whiteside, their key acquisition in the offseason, may put up numbers, but his true effectiveness is largely deceiving. He gets numbers but does he really make a difference? 

The Blazers could really use Kevin Love right now, but the team with the NBA’s highest payroll and rigid roster flexibility may not be able to swing a deal for the player who could really help them the most—unless they want to get rid of McCollum. And it doesn't appear like Portland has the stomach for that. Yet. Playing in the West, the schedule is going to be a beast. But the Blazers have played a rough one with 10 of their 15 games so far coming against playoff teams from last season. It will get a little easier over the coming weeks, with matchups against the Cavs and two against the Bulls looming. But Blazers fans better buckle up for roller coaster season that could find their squad scratching and clawing for a playoff berth unless something dramatic happens.

Load management has been a thing in the NBA for years, especially after Kawhi Leonard missed 22 games for the Raptors on their way to an NBA title last season. So why were so many people debating its merits a handful of games into the season after the Clippers sat their superstar in the name of preserving him for the long haul?

The Spurs are the modern day daddy of load management. They did it for years with Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and even Leonard. Plenty of other superstars have taken a seat on the bench for prescribed nights off. Christ, LeBron James basically took a two-week sabbatical in 2015 and has periodically missed games throughout the last handful of seasons. So the incredible uproar and the continued outrage over Leonard missing games in the name of making sure his knee is right for the postseason is ridiculous.

I get that the league looks bad when one of its best players could probably play, but opts to sit. Fans get pissed because they shelled out top dollar for a ticket and miss out on seeing greatness. The NBA’s broadcast partners hate it because they know they're going to lose out on viewers—and ratings reportedly have been down on TNT and ESPN broadcasts. And I get the grumblings from olds who will tell you all about how back in their day you never took a game off, let alone a practice. That no-days-off policy is why Clippers coach Doc Rivers will jokingly tell you he walks with such a pronounced hitch.

But prescribed rest and the proper management of a superstar’s basketball workload works, keeping players fresher and performing better when it really matters—April, May, and June. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather see a healthy Kawhi in the playoffs if it means we’re not going to see him play both games of a back-to-back all season long. It’s the price of doing business in today’s modern NBA and I thought that by 2019 the complaints and debates about the strategy were well behind us. Guess not.

Truth be told, I started writing this section before Simmons spotted up from the corner Wednesday and drained his first NBA 3-pointer. So congrats, Ben. Took you long enough. 

Regardless of Wednesday's momentous bucket, Simmons makes the list because he has basically proven to be a massive tease after all those videos from the summer showed him effortlessly launching from deep. And actually making them. Everyone expected Simmons to take his work from the gym and the summer runs into the actual games. But 15 contests into the Sixers’ 2019-20 campaign, it looks like we might have to wait another season to see his consistently launching. 

The Sixers point guard is probably going to be an All-Star again this season since his numbers are close to last season’s and he remains one of the most unique players in the game. We all know he has an incredibly bright future ahead of him. He’s only 23 and is just scratching the surface of his potential. Simmons remains among the league leaders in shots attempted and made at the rim. At 6’10” and with his ball-handling skills, that’s standard operating procedure. He should never stop driving and converting. 

But where is the jumper he diligently worked on? Where are the threes we thought were coming? He has attempted exactly one shot deeper than 15 feet this season. He’s attempting 1.0 shots per game from 10-14 feet, according to NBA Stats, and shooting 8.3 percent on them. Can you really be a max-level point guard in today’s NBA and never shoot from beyond the arc? Simmons continues to test the theory and there are smarter, more astute NBA observers than me who think the Sixers should seriously considering shopping Simmons down the road instead of building around him. 

No one expected Simmons to morph into Anthony Davis over one summer and become a big who can pick and pop and consistently hit from deep. But it’s shocking we haven’t seen any commitment or gumption to shoot in his third season. 

Kevin Durant isn’t going to suit up for the Nets this season so there was no point in getting too hyped about Brooklyn’s prospects. But after crashing the playoffs last season, slightly exceeding expectations, Brooklyn was predicted to be right in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff picture thanks to the return of its young core and, most notably, the addition of Kyrie Irving. Vegas had Brooklyn’s over/under at 43.5 wins. Fourteen games into the season, I hope you took the under.

Yeah, it’s early, but the Nets aren’t looking too hot for a number of reasons. Injuries, of course, have been a big contributor. No Durant, means no serious contention this year. We all know that. But losing Caris LeVert to thumb surgery while Irving battles a bum shoulder that’s caused him to miss the last three games is not a recipe for success.

The early season schedule hasn’t done them too many favors since they already had a five-game road trip out west that saw Brooklyn drop three in a row to the Suns, Jazz, and Nuggets. We also can't forget that this team made a preseason trip to China and was right in the middle of controversy between the government and the NBA over Daryl Morey's tweet. Many former players who have done preseasons overseas have talked about the hangover effect from those trips which can last well into the regular season. So maybe that's low-key playing a part in Brooklyn's malaise since they haven’t defeated a team above .500 yet. Losing LeVert and not having Irving only makes the turnaround that much harder. But if it’s going to happen for Kenny Atkinson’s crew, it has to start on the defensive end where the struggles have been pronounced.

Statistically speaking, the Nets have been a bad defensive team. After finishing 14th in defensive rating last season, Brooklyn entered Wednesday's game against Charlotte 22nd in the stat, allowing 19.2 points to their opponents off of turnovers (sixth worst in the league). Brooklyn’s opponents have also launched the most shots per game on average as the Nets allow teams to shoot 43.3 percent from the field, fourth worst in the NBA. It’s a hard knock life in the NBA when you can’t defend anybody.