5 NBA Players With Wasted Talent

After DeMarcus Cousins‘ below the belt punch on O.J. Mayo in the second quarter of the Mavericks 119-96 victory this past weekend, Mayo publicly derided Cousins’ behavior, saying, “He has mental issues,” before adding, “He’s a talented player. He has an opportunity to be the face of the organization, but I don’t think he wants it.” Cousins rebuffed Mayo’s assessment and said the punch had not been intentional, even though replays show a different tale.

Eventually, Cousins was suspended for the hit, but Mayo’s comments about Cousins not “wanting it” got us wondering about other guys who have possessed the talent, but not the drive to get the most out of what God blessed them with. Here are five such players, including Cousins himself.

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5. JOE JOHNSON
Johnson hasn’t ever been arrested and never intentionally hit someone in the groin. He’s never come into camp out of shape or been asked to leave a team due to malignant aloofness in the locker room. He wasn’t exactly a fan favorite in Atlanta during his time with the Hawks, but he wasn’t a conspicuous jerk either on or off the court. He’s just sorta blasé when it comes to performing at a level he’s capable of on a night in and night out basis. Sure, even the best superstars have off nights, but Johnson has all the physical gifts and basketball talent to be a superstar; he even has the contract for one. Too bad he’s not.

Sometimes he plays one on TV, but for the most part he’s just an above average off-guard with size and shooting range. Over the last few years, he’s stopped driving to the bucket as much, preferring to ignore his size advantage and jack more than five treys a game. He once averaged 25 points a game over an entire season, and he’s made the last six All-Star Games for the East. This is either the result of his incredible talent or the paucity of off-guards in the Eastern Conference, or more likely, a combination of both. Regardless, he’s never gotten any of his Hawks teams to a conference final (a similar team to the one Al Horford and Josh Smith have led to a 13-6 record and a second place spot in the Southeast Division) and, well, he’s just a good basketball player that’s been steadily declining a little bit over the last couple years. Also, he turned 31 last June, and he’s guaranteed to make $89 million over the next four years.

It’s not Joe Johnson’s fault he’s not what everyone in Atlanta wanted him to be, and it’s not his fault the Hawks decided to give him superstar money without superstar credentials or drive; it’s also not his fault that Brooklyn’s Russian owner decided to take on that contract in a successful bid to keep Deron Williams. None of this is his fault. He’s just not what we all know he could be, and Atlanta fans thought he might be. It’s a shame, but the upside is he shows us just how hard you have to work and how much you have to want to be a superstar. Joe Johnson has all the things a superstar needs: God-given talent, skills that have been honed from years of practice in the gym. He just doesn’t have that “oomph” the best players have: the competitive drive or spirit.

4. MICHAEL BEASLEY
All hail the king of the long two-pointer! Poor Michael Beasley. He’s cursed the No. 2 draft pick, which has been bad juju recently; only really after that guy OKC got. Looking back it’s pretty remarkable some people made the argument Beasley should have been taken before Derrick Rose in the 2008 Draft. I think all breathing Chicago fans are pretty happy the Bulls didn’t take Beas with their first pick. Instead, he fell to the pre-LeBron Miami Heat. He lasted until the Heat needed cap room to complete the summer of LeBron. Before leaving, he managed to become involved in the pot imbroglio the September before his rookie year (with another, current member of the Heat, Mario Chalmers) during the league-mandated transition program for incoming rookies. Beasley actually slipped out a side door before the police arrived, and Pat Riley made him admit as much before he was fined $50,000 for his involvement. Yeah, all of this happened before he even played a single regular season NBA game. We all should have known what was coming.

The next summer, he checked himself into a marijuana rehabilitation program. A year later, in preparation for LeBron’s ghastly arrival via nationally televised announcement, Beasley was traded to Minnesota to free up cap space. He actually played pretty well in his first year in the Twin Cities, averaging a career-high 19.2 points per game in over 32 minutes of action for a dreadful 17-win ‘Wolves team. Over the summer, he had another little run-in with the 5-0 when an officer pulled him over for speeding and found cannabis, which Beasley claimed wasn’t his. His points and minutes dropped the next season, and Minnesota did not attempt to re-sign him. Phoenix came calling though, and he signed a three-year, $18 million deal that’s not looking very good right now.

He’s shooting at a career-low 38 percent from the field and he’s averaging a career-low overall: just 11.4 points per game. The Suns signed him to be the offensive star they needed after the departure of Steve Nash to Los Angeles. Combined with Goran Dragic and Marcin Gortat, not to mention a cheap amnesty wire pickup in Luis Scola, and the Suns weren’t gonna be that bad. Well, they’re 7-15 so far and fifth in the Pacific. Beasley isn’t just shooting poorly though. He turns the ball over 3.4 times per 36 minutes, and he’s a terrible rebounder for his position. He’s not much of a defender either, with the Suns giving up around 112 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor, which would be dead last in the league if stretched out to an entire game (as is, Beasley is only getting 27 minutes a night because he’s been so awful for Alvin Gentry). He’s just not very good at anything other than scoring.

Oh and, he’s liable to get in trouble if he does this again at Dyckman Park.

3. DeMARCUS COUSINS
We don’t agree with Mayo’s assessment of Cousins entirely because Cousins has shown such incredible flashes of brilliance, and some have been unfair with him before the fact, but you can’t look at his actions in a vacuum; plenty came before the punch to the groin. Boogie is a bit of a knucklehead, but some of his loudest defenders are also the first people to tell you so. He can be petulant on the court, and part of that is the culture in Sacramento right now where coach Keith Smart is trying to keep an ill-designed team (in terms of personalities) from killing each other. He’s also an impulsive basketball player on the court and sometimes even off, who often reacts before thinking. This can lead to some great basketball awareness, and it can lead to self-destructive tendencies. The Kings organization hasn’t handled his ascension as the team’s top player very well, either.

When he was first drafted out of Kentucky in the summer of 2010, he had already fallen to the fifth pick even though he possessed more talent than those ahead of him on the draft board; he was – by far – the most talented big man in the draft. The reason for his draft day slide was his tendency in college to get into foul trouble, a strange sense of humor that turned off a lot of GMs who interviewed him before the draft, and temper issues during games. During a game against Louisville, Cousins appeared to swing an elbow at Jared Swopshire. But Kentucky’s coach, John Calipari, got him under enough control for Kentucky to finish 35-3 and for Cousins to be named All-SEC Freshman of the Year after averaging 15 points and 9.9 boards a game.

After Sacramento picked him up though, the same issues at Kentucky percolated to the surface. He got into a fight with third-year forward, Donte Greene, and was fined and suspended by the team. He made it through his rookie season in tact (but still committed over four fouls a game as he struggled to stay on the court), but when the lockout-shortened season rolled around, he and head coach Paul Westphal‘s contentious relationship popped up again. Westphal excused Cousins from the team in January of this year for “unwilling/unable to be traveling in the same direction of this team, and it cannot be ignored indefinitely.” Sacramento brass sided with Cousins in the locker room dispute, and Westphal was fired after starting 2-5 last season. Former Warriors coach, Keith Smart, took over.

This past summer, Cousins was publicly called out as “immature” during USA Olympic tryouts by the head of USA Basketball, Jerry Colangelo. It was a bit unfair, since Colangelo hadn’t even met the kid. Cousins certainly didn’t understand it. But Carmelo Anthony did say of Cousins “[he] fouled the s__t outta everybody,” during their early summer runs leading up to the London games. This season has already seen Boogie physically confront Sean Elliott in San Antonio after the former Spur made some disparaging remarks about Cousins during Sacramento’s loss in San Antonio on November 9 of this year. The NBA suspended him two games for that confrontation. Now the Mayo stuff, which if you’ve been reading the last few graphs, doesn’t make Mayo’s comments all that inflammatory.

2. LAMAR ODOM
The Candyman has now come full circle. After Odom started his career as an underachiever in a Clippers uniform, then taking a quick detour to Miami, he finally appeared to find his home under Phil Jackson as a part of two Los Angeles Lakers championship-winning teams. He was a long, athletic forward that could handle the ball, rebound, defend, shoot and was the perfect mix for Jackson’s triangle offense. But personal tragedy and his inability to deal with it off the court has translated on to the court as well. It’s really hard to blame him though. A lot Odom’s issues on and off the court stem from some of the worst luck you can imagine.

When last summer’s lockout ended, Lamar Odom still had to go back to work, but tragedy had struck that summer, and it had nothing to do with basketball. His cousin had been hit in a car accident and lay on life support, eventually succumbing to his injuries. This wasn’t the first time Odom had dealt with death. He lost his mother to colon cancer when he was 12, and the grandmother that raised him passed when he was just 20. His second son, Jayden, died in his crib of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 2006. That’s a lot for anyone to handle, but then came word the Lakers were trying to deal him for Chris Paul. Odom couldn’t deal, and took it as a personal affront when it was really just the business of the NBA. He asked the Lakers brass to be traded, and they complied by dealing him to the then defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

Most of you know the story in Dallas. Odom wasn’t really dialed in after his unceremonious parting with the Lakers, and he clashed with both teammates and outspoken Mavs owner, Mark Cuban. Eventually they parted ways, with Cuban asking Odom to leave the team in April of this year. Before this season started, Odom had been picked up by the Los Angeles Clippers, back to the team he started with. But Odom, who has a famous predilection for candy, came into L.A.’s training camp looking bloated and out of shape. So far this season, at 33 years old, he’s again averaging career-lows across the statistical spectrum in only 15 minutes a night.

For now, that’s okay. The Clippers are a pretty deep squad with Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes, Eric Bledsoe and others coming off the bench. But Odom has never really gotten the most out of his colossal basketball talent.

1. VINCE CARTER
Vinsanity has to be number one on this list. He might be the most talented player to have achieved so little while in the NBA (apologies to George Gervin for awarding him the Iceman’s crown). The last couple years in Dallas and his mini-turnaround there notwithstanding, this guy should have multiple long playoff runs and maybe an MVP or two on his resume. Instead, he has a wake of disgruntled fans in Canada, Jersey, Orlando and Phoenix.

Vince was such a dynamic player in Toronto we thought maybe he’d be popular and talented enough to make basketball the country’s 1a sport behind hockey. Instead, it’s soured many of our northern neighbors to the game, and put a perpetual stank on the Raptors franchise since he gave up on them during the 2004-05 season in an effort to get traded. He admitted as much in an interview with John Thompson on TNT in 2005. From there it just got worse.

Things never really panned out in Jersey, and it’s believed Carter’s prima donna act was one of the primary reasons Jason Kidd bailed on Jersey after leading them to consecutive Finals appearances earlier in the millennium. After four and a half largely unproductive (expect for personal statistics) seasons in Jersey where he failed to get his team out of the second round of the playoffs, he was dealt to Orlando during the 2009-10 season in the hopes of putting them over the top in their bid to win a title with Dwight Howard. That plan also failed, with Vince disappearing in the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston that year after Orlando had made the Finals the year before without Vince.

Don’t even mention VC’s name in Phoenix where he perpetually fell to the floor as if struck by a bullet any time he drew contact, and could care less about playing defense. After leaving Jersey, Carter’s production fell way off, and in Phoenix he achieved career-lows in most relevant statistical categories. Yes, Carter has taken his bench role in Dallas to heart and seems to finally be playing defense again (Rick Carlisle wouldn’t play him if he didn’t), but Carter wasted his prime chasing the wrong type of glory.

Vinsanity was amazing, and his dunks are still the stuff of legends. His offensive game was one of the best over the last 15 years, but he just couldn’t produce the overall game. Even though he’s scored over 21,000 points over his 14-plus years, he never really achieved what he could have if he’d really cared. Cared like the preeminent players in the game are supposed to care. Many believe he relied a little too much on his God-given gifts, and failed to work hard enough to really be mentioned with the game’s all-time greats. That’s why he’s on the top of our list for wasted potential. Vince Carter is the one that got away. He was a superstar in arguably everything but perhaps heart and drive. He’s a superstar that never really played like a superstar when it mattered, and it’s one of our deepest regrets as basketball fans that he never reached the apogee of what his natural skills could have attained.

We weep for what Vince Carter wasn’t able to do, and for all the players on this list. All of these players are still active, but only Boogie and Beasley have a real chance to rectify their early career disappointments and distractions. Hopefully the other three players on this list are a warning to Cousins and Beasley, and they turn things around before it all vanishes and they’re left, like us, to ponder “what if?”

Which players in the league are wasting the most potential?

Follow Spencer on Twitter at @countcenci.

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