Worst Starters in the NBA 2014-2015 Season

The NBA season is headed for the home stretch, as the NBA Finals begin in about a week’s time. With LeBron James and MVP Stephen Curry on show, the Finals will feature some of the very best players of the season.

But first, let’s take a break and look back at some of the very worst players to earn a starting spot during the 2014-2015 season. Personal stats obviously played a major part in the criteria to determine each player’s awfulness, but plus points go to the catastrophic effect they may have had on their respective teams. Read on below as we list the starters at each position that ended up as huge disappointments.

Once you’ve had enough of our list of the worst players, shift your focus back to the best that the NBA has to offer. Head on over here for our preview of Game 1 of the NBA Finals matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors.
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The Worst Starters of the NBA 2014-2015 Season

Point Guard: Rajon Rondo

The Dallas Mavericks certainly thought that the midseason acquisition of Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics would drastically improve their odds at another title run. Well the Mavericks did make the playoffs, but Rondo’s performance as Dallas’ new floor general didn’t help their cause as much as expected.

[sc:NBA240banner ]Rondo saw a huge dip in his assists since the trade, going from nearly 11 assists per game in Boston down to merely 6.5 in Dallas. The crafty point guard had always been known to register the occasional triple-double game, but has failed to get even just one for the Mavericks this season.

In fact, he recorded three triple-doubles in 22 games with the Celtics before he got traded, which is even less than half of the total number of games he played for the Mavericks (46 games).

Rondo was such a bad fit in Dallas that he got into a shouting match with head coach Rick Carlisle. And in the playoffs, he was benched halfway through their first-round series with the Rockets and was subsequently left off the Mavs’ playoff share. Yup, Rondo was the worst.

Shooting Guard: Lance Stephenson

Perhaps the biggest bust from this entire list, Lance Stephenson was supposed to be the new franchise player for the resurging Charlotte Hornets. Instead, an early injury and inconsistency throughout the season haunted Stephenson’s first year in Charlotte. The struggling guard’s performance didn’t come close to justifying the three-year, $27 million contract that Stephenson received from the Hornets.

To put Stephenson’s decline in perspective, here are his numbers in his final season with the Indiana Pacers: 78 starts in 78 games played, with 13.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game on 49 percent from the field and 35 percent from beyond-the-arc.

And as for Stephenson’s first season with the Hornets? 25 starts in 61 games played, with 8.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, a terrible 37 percent field goal percentage from the field, and an even more dismal 17 percent from downtown. Charlotte must still be lingering from buyer’s remorse.

Small Forward: Wesley Johnson

It’s hard to put most of the blame on Wesley Johnson for the Los Angeles Lakers’ disastrous season. Nonetheless, you don’t start for a team like the Lakers for two straight seasons if you didn’t deserve that spot. The four-year veteran wasn’t even as prolific or as streaky as his backup Nick Young was to earn the starting role.

And while Johnson didn’t post an atrocious number like Swaggy P’s 36 percent shooting from the field, he certainly didn’t wow this season’s stat sheets either. The Lakers should’ve gotten more out of Johnson’s 30 minutes per game this season, as he only averaged 10 points and four rebounds on 41 percent shooting from the field.

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Power Forward: Channing Frye

Orlando Magic power forward Channing Frye is another example of a typically good player that didn’t fit well with his new team. Frye did still finish with a team-high 136 three-pointers for the Magic, but his subpar play on defense (a team-worst 107.4 defensive rating) paved the way for Orlando’s younger players to get more playing time to develop their own game.

There was also a time that Frye was an integral part of an exciting Phoenix Suns team. In each of his four seasons with Phoenix, Frye was averaging double-digits in scoring in over 41 percent shooting and over four rebounds per game. His first season with the Magic however: seven points per game on 39 percent shooting, and a shade under four boards per game.

Center: Andrea Bargnani

Now what “NBA’s worst” list wouldn’t be complete without the New York Knicks? This was actually a toss-up between Andrea Bargnani and his fellow teammate at the center position, Cole Aldrich. We went with Bargnani instead for two main reasons that went beyond the stats.

First off, is that Bargnani was a former first overall draft pick. Now he’s in his eighth year in the league, and he still hasn’t had what many would consider as a phenomenal season for a player with his skill set.

The second reason is that the aging Italian was never going to be a good fit for the Knicks at start of this past season. With New York under the new management of Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher, the triangle offense was going to be used constantly, and Bargnani was never the ideal or traditional center that can run on that particular offensive scheme.

If there’s one statistic that proves Bargnani’s inefficiency, is that he was the eighth-worst natural center (out of 92) in the entire league last season with a -17.9 Net Rating. Who were the other seven centers that were even worse? Cole Aldrich himself, J.J. Hickson, Earl Barron, Cameron Bairstow, Arinze Onuaku, and Joffrey Lauvergne. Yup, we dare you to put a face to each of those names (with the exception of Hickson, and maybe Aldrich).
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