As the NBA regular season enters its final few weeks, playoff spots and MVP votes are primed for allocation. Teams like the Rockets and Warriors have exceeded pretty much everyone's preseason expectations, but within those squads are not only surefire MVP candidates, but massive disappointments as well. David Lee, Trevor Ariza, and Dwight Howard have produced way under their pay-grades and projections. Whether it's a genuine regression, an injury-riddled campaigned, or a square-peg-in-a-round-hole situation, these real-life sad emojis have hurt their teams and betrayed their own standards this season.
Check out who else didn't have the 2014-15 they imagined in The 15 Most Disappointing NBA Players This Season.
16. Kevin Love
Team(s): Cavaliers
Statline: 64 G, 16.8 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.5 BPG, 19.34 PER
Kevin Love’s role on the Cavaliers doesn’t mirror what Kevin Love sees in himself as an NBA player. “I heard some people calling me that but I know I’m not a stretch-four. I’m a post player who can shoot,” he told Cleveland.com. “Right now, I’m just doing what I’m called to do. For good, bad, or indifferent, I’m playing my role and doing what’s asked of me.”
You can sense Love’s disappointment in himself, and how this season has individually shaped up for him. When he came to Cleveland, he saw himself as a top 10 player—a superstar who wants to, and is perfectly capable of, putting up 25 points a night and shooting the ball as much as he pleased. Kyrie Irving’s wrecked all of that. Irving's become LeBron’s running mate, his No. 2—Love’s been Bosh’d, bruh. Kevin Love is far too pretty to be Bosh’d.
Like Bosh in Miami, he’s resigned to the corners on many offensive sets, rotating off the ball waiting for a catch-and-shoot opportunity. Per NBA.com, Love’s catch-and-shoot frequency is up 10.3 percent this season, and he’s attempting 8.7 percent more trey’s from catch-and-shoot situations. Love’s one of the league’s best post-up players and offensive rebounders, yet recently acquired center Timofey Mozgov is the man who’s scoring inside. Love might be facing a Bates Motel level identity crisis right now. Kevin, your post-up game will always be with you. It comes with the territory of being LeBron’s third option (the best damn third option LeBron’s ever had, BTW), but anytime a star player’s scoring average topples by 8 PPG while his minutes in the fourth quarter are also falling, he’s going to feel sad. Love is sad:
15. Joakim Noah
14. Ryan Anderson
13. Reggie Jackson
12. David Lee
11. Trevor Ariza
10. Arron Afflalo
9. Spencer Hawes
8. Jrue Holiday
7. Dwight Howard
6. Carmelo Anthony
5. Kobe Bryant
4. Derrick Rose
Team(s): Bulls
Statline: 46 G, 18.4 PPG, 5.0 APG, 3.1 RPG, 0.7 SPG, 16.11 PER
Last weekend, a mural in Chicago was dedicated to Derrick Rose's knees. It was trashed hours after being put up. That should tell you all you need to know about the sorry state of D. Rose. He had his first knee surgery in 2012, and has yet to really get over that first one. The next two were just cruel. He's played 56 regular season games since tearing his ACL the first time, and while healthy, has struggled for form, rhythm, and more than just flashes of his 2010-2011 MVP season. Get well soon, D. Rose.
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