I was reading this article https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27767289/dirty-little-secret-everybody-knows-about and it begins with Whiteside. It occurred to me that his star has fallen pretty quickly. What other players have dropped down the rankings more quickly?
by Paddykiwi
45 Comments
Derrick Rose surely is up there. Though the question is obviously more interesting when looking at players not struck with serious injuries.
David Thompson, Marvin Barnes, Spencer Hayood, Micheal Ray Richardson, Len Bias, Roy Tarpley, Richard Dumas, Lamar Odom, OJ Mayo etc crack is a hell of a drug
Bias: #2 pick then died 2 days later
Andre Drummond is the first that came to mind
Ben Simmons is the obvious one
That’s Roy Hibbert’s music!
Eddy Curry of 2007 was a 19.5/7.0 player who while didn’t maybe look like a future franchise player, was still looking like a player that could be an awesome #2 player for team that wants to go deep.
Eddy Curry of 2008 was someone that could have signed up for weight watchers and due to his poor shape, D’Antoni benched him. Two years from his near 20ppg season, he was barely seeing the floor and averaged only 1.7ppg.
Andrew Bynum is another good one.
For stars that didn’t fall off because of significant injuries, it has to be Melo, right?
Went from the man in New York to a role player journeyman who refused to accept the league rapidly passing him by within the span of like two years
I was coming here to say Michael Redd. But Goddamn, he was pretty fuckin good for a solid 8 seasons.
How bout Andrew Bynum. That guy was supposed to be the next big thing. He had a few solid years, had a breakout all-star season, got injured and never came back.
Isaiah Thomas – one minute he’s a back-to-back All-Star, killing it in the play-offs, playing through injuries, through tragedy, and expecting the “Brinks truck.”
Next minute, he’s traded, coming back from injury too soon to prove himself, and now trying to fight his way back into the league.
Brandon Roy could have been one of the all-time greats. He was on track and then the injuries just stopped him in his tracks.
Benjamin David Simmons
Ben Simmons. From all-star to unplayable after one playoff series.
Shawn Kemp, got fat during lockout and changed his entire game as a midrange post up specialist for a 20 ppg season with Cleveland. Became a role player the very next season.
Considering he just retired at 34, I feel like Kemba Walker’s fall-off was surprisingly quick
Jordan Poole
Danny Granger
Gilbert Arenas. Went from “quirky all star” to “everything about that dude is a dumpster fire.” Entertaining all the way around, though.
Jeremy Lin is the first name I can think of. He was crazy and had everything to be one of the faces of the league and the NBA would gladly market him as such. Then he made that move to the Rockets and everything started to fall apart…
Believe or not, we went from Linsanity to him getting out of the league in less than 8 years.
Latrell Spreewell
I’m surprised no one has said Deron Williams
DeMarcus Cousins
Hassan Whiteside was a beast for the Heat, and then just vanished to Portland.
Hedo Turkoglu was a prize signing at one point..
Kemba Walker peaked in his late 20s being an all star from 2017-2020, and even got an all NBA 3rd team selection in 2019. But he was out of the league by 2023 and retired at 34. Harsh end to a career, with a harsh start as well, being stuck in Charlotte until he was 29. But peak Kemba Walker was definitely a very good player. And incredibly entertaining to watch.
Deron Williams. To this day, literally every time I see or hear the term “fall off” I imagine him. He should be getting royalties or something for it
Blake Griffin also went from looking like he could be a perennial MVP candidate into an afterthought over the course of a couple of seasons.
Jordan Poole
He’s the 3rd best player of the warriors and one punch from draymond made him go complete 180
I really hate that they made max contract on Green
Hedo Turkoglu
Andrew Bynum fell off a cliff
Larry Sanders
I’m surprised nobody mentioned Larry Sanders. Barring injuries, he could still be playing this season.
Deron Williams was “that guy” at one point, and then seemingly overnight turned into a role player. I still don’t know what happened.
Not that he was ever a star, but Omer Asik lives in my head rent free. Had a good season with Houston, couple years later had a decent season with NOLA, somehow rewarded with a $60 mil contract and averaged 3 points a game the rest of his dumpster fire career
Kenneth Faried was essentially the face of the post-Melo Nuggets and suddenly went from fan favorite to unplayable because the stat-dominated FO’s considered him a liability due to his inability to protect the rim and shoot the 3.
Gilbert Arenas.
Oladipo was superstar level that one year
Jordan Poole would like a word
It’s gotta be Simmons
Dion Waiters. I know it’s not the most noticabke but he went from a solid starter and scorer to quietly out of the NBA seemingly overnight
Delonte West
Deng and Mozgov fell off very quickly once they got paid by the Lakers.
Linsanity. Jermey Lin had like one week where he was amazing.
Not a star but Jeremy Lin was all the talk for like a couple games then fell off
Michael Carter-Williams, dude won ROTY and then slowly fell into mediocrity never being able to find his role on a team
Andrew Bynum