NBA superstars are a joy to watch especially if they go off and put up remarkable individual performances. Although remarkable individual performances are great, if it doesn’t translate to wins, then those feats just become less significant given that basketball is a team sport at the end of the day.
Unfortunately, not all superstars in the league today are surrounded by the best players that give them the best possible position to win games. In fact, there are a handful of great players who can’t accumulate team wins, despite their talent, due to the fact that they are stuck playing for terrible teams. For this piece, let’s take look at five talented superstars who are wasting away on awful teams.
Zach LaVine
From his time with the Minnesota Timberwolves, LaVine proved to everyone in the league that he is a lethal scorer that can make high-flying dunks and do some damage from the perimeter. In fact, his ability to take over has given the Bulls enough reason to make him their franchise player. Although LaVine is certainly a talented player with a lot of potential, the two time Slam Dunk Contest Champion has so far been struggling to find winning ways in Chicago.
In four seasons with the Bulls so far, LaVine has never had a lick of postseason play. For the past three seasons, the team has never broken into the 30 win mark despite the stellar play of the athletic swingman who led the team by averaging 22.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game. Even with LaVine‘s stellar play, the Bulls have found themselves outside of the Top 10 in the league overall standings.
Early into the season, the Bulls are posting a 12-15 record which is good for ninth place. Although this still gives them a decent chance to be one of the teams that can sneak into becoming an eight seed in the Eastern Conference come playoff time, LaVine is certainly putting up a herculean effort just to keep the Bulls afloat as he is having the best NBA season so far by putting up 28.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game including an impressive clutch three pointer to put away the Indiana Pacers.
Chicago is still a young team in the rebuilding phase and LaVine’s rise to all-star caliber form is a welcome sight. Unfortunately, this is already the fourth season of LaVine’s time with the Bulls and when it comes to team play, they hardly manifest a playoff contender.
Nikola Vucevic
Vucevic has been one of the great centers in the NBA today, as he was even declared an All-Star three years ago. With his great size and ability to knock it down from deep, he is certainly a modern big man prototype. Because of this, the Magic has established him as their franchise player and individually, he hasn’t disappointed given that he puts up double-doubles almost every night.
Unfortunately, his great numbers haven’t really converted into team success. In eight seasons with the Orlando Magic, despite Vucevic’s all-star form, the team has only made the playoffs during the last two years with both stints resulting into first round exits. In their two playoff stints, the Magic have only won one game apiece which isn’t encouraging. Although Vucevic seems to have decent teammates on paper with top picks in Markelle Fultz, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Carter-Williams, while also having Terrence Ross, Mo Bamba, and Evan Fournier, the team hasn’t been the dark horse in the East that people expected them to be.
Currently with the Magic already playing 29 games into the season, Vucevic is in the process of putting together the best season in his NBA career by registering 23.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. However, the team hasn’t shown any signs of improvement with Orlando placing at 12th in the East, as they have only posted 11 wins so far. With Vooch already at 30, it might be wiser for the Montenegrin center to play out his prime on a championship contending team that can put his talent to good use, if ever he wants a shot at winning a championship in his career.
Trae Young
Trae Young took the league by storm with his limitless range and polished playmaking. In just three seasons in the league, Young has established himself as a rising star in the NBA which was good enough reason for the Atlanta Hawks to fully invest in their all-star guard as the face of their franchise. Although the 6’1 playmaker has been turning some heads, the lack of team success is no question a growing concern for his career.
For the past two seasons, with Young at the helm, the Hawks have never made the postseason. But to make it worse, the team has posted dreadful losing records that only saw them win 29 games in the 2018-2019 season and 20 games in the succeeding year. In an attempt to improve on their past finishes and to surround Young with dependable talent, the franchise had an incredible haul during the 2020 free agency season that saw them add two time NBA champion Rajon Rondo, deadly shooter Bogdan Bogdanovic, defensive specialist Kris Dunn, and a seasoned veteran in Danilo Gallinari. But unfortunately, this ongoing Hawks season is turning out to be another disappointing one.
With early injuries to their new acquisitions, Young has found himself carrying the Hawks team on his shoulders once again. So far, the team is posting a 12-16 win-loss record despite their star averaging an impressive 25.9 points and 9.3 dimes per game. Furthermore, the team has also lost seven of their last 10 games. If the woes continue for the Hawks and it results into another disappointing season, Young may have to rethink his future with the franchise if he actually wants to be part of a team that realistically wants to make a deep playoff run.
Karl-Anthony Towns
KAT has established himself as one of the premiere centers in the league, given his size and skillset. In fact, his all-around play allows him to become a nightmare matchup for opposing teams in the league. Unfortunately, as great as Towns is in the league so far, the Timberwolves are by far a terrible team.
For the past five seasons, the Timberwolves have been bottom feeders in the NBA and have been a consistent candidate for the worst team in the Western Conference. In fact, during that stretch, the Wolves have only appeared in the postseason once, which concluded in a first round exit at the hands of the Houston Rockets.
The Timberwolves are by far a rebuilding team and they do have some interesting pieces after selecting Anthony Edwards with their first overall pick in the recent 2020 NBA Draft. Furthermore, they also have D’Angelo Russell and Ricky Rubio to support their all-star big man. Unfortunately, things have continued not to go well in Minnesota as the team is currently dead last in the Western Conference with a 7-22 win-loss record. To make matters worse, KAT was sidelined for a great amount of time after getting hit hard with the coronavirus.
KAT certainly makes a case to be the best big man in the league. However, he has to rethink his future with Minnesota if he wants to achieve greater things in the league. With the Timberwolves clearly slumping for quite a long time now and Edwards needing more time to develop into an elite player, a change of scenery for all-star big man might benefit his career more.
Bradley Beal
If there is a team that is proving to be disappointing this season, it would be the Washington Wizards. After a trade that sent John Wall to Houston, the Wizards were expected to shine with the brand new duo of Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone well with the Wizards as they are now holding a lowly 9-17 record that is good for 13th in the East.
Beal has been on a scoring rampage as of late, as he is currently averaging an eye-boggling 33.1 points per game while shooting 34% from rainbow country. He even matched the franchise record by going off for a career-high 60 points. However, this resulted into a heartbreaking loss at the hands of the Sixers. Aside from this game, he also scored 47 points in a blow out loss against the New Orleans Pelicans. In fact, after the game, the two time all-star couldn’t hide his frustration after taking another loss despite his scoring explosion.
In a postgame conference, Beal said “It’s tough, I am not going to sit here and be naive…We want to win, and I want to win. This is why I stayed. I want to win. I figured this is the place I can get it done. It’s tough…”
The sweet shooting guard hasn’t found success in a Wizards uniform for quite some time now. In fact in his ongoing stay there, the Wizards have only been to the playoffs on four occasions, with none of those campaigns ever getting past the second round. It is also worth noting that Beal has lost 10 consecutive games since 2019, while finishing with at least 40 points.
Because of his out-of-this-world performances going for naught, fans have expressed on Twitter their desire to “Free” Bradley Beal. If Beal wants to improve on his team success, staying with the lowly Wizards might not have been a wise decision so far.
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