5. Which players have disappointed?
Chip: The list of players disappointing is long. First Dirk Nowitzki's play following his MVP last season is pretty dismal. Pau Gasol has not been playing well but has improved of late. Ben Gordon is shooting 38.4% from the field. Not good for a player who is fighting for a new contract. Kirk Hinrich is shooting 37.0% from the field as well. Really you can put the entire Bulls team on the list of disappointments. Joe Johnson has been shooting very poorly which is surprising with the younger players around him improving the talent level on the team. D-Wade's play is understandable with his injury, but what has happened to Shaq?
Scott: The first player that jumps out in my mind is Kirk Hinrich, but that’s because I’m a fantasy hoops guy and he has been very disappointing. Thankfully, it looks like he may be coming around as of late. Others that deserve consideration include Larry Hughes, Mehmet Okur, and Zach Randolph. I’m giving Randolph a pass though, as he’s on the Knicks and is just bad by osmosis.
Nick: I’m not going to put more than one name in this answer because by far and away the most disappointing player so far this season is Dirk Nowitzki. How a player can go from league MVP one year to not even leading his own team in scoring the next is pretty disappointing. Dirk’s 20.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game averages haven’t been this low since his sophomore year in the NBA and the Mavericks are 16-9 overall, which is only good enough for second in the Southwest Division, half a game ahead of the Hornets. Bottom line is Dallas should put Nowitzki’s game on a milk carton because up to this point... it’s been missing!
Dennis: I would have to say Dirk Nowitzki, if only because he seems "stuck" somehow. It's like he's playing on one gear, a very good one that 90% of the league would want, but there doesn't seem to be as much "fire" in his gut. I mean, maybe he just really bought into the importance of the playoffs after last season's embarassing first round loss to the Golden State Warriors and is saving his motor for then, but Nowitzki doesn't need to be an "off and on" player between the seasons. He's just not built like Shaq is to do that. Nowitzki needs to be consistently on and work on being that way to strike fear around the NBA. I mean, if I'm an opposing coach, I'm more scared of the diminutive Steve Nash than Dirk.
6. Which players have surprised?
Chip: Rudy Gay has surprised me a lot considering his rather mundane rookie season. He came into a situation this year with two established scorers ahead of him in Pau Gasol and Mike Miller, a rookie head coach who seemed indecisive about how he wanted to play him and a uncertain point guard position but has really raised the level of his play to become the go-to player for the Grizzlies in crunch time. Richard Jefferson's rise to the top of the Nets scoring chart is somewhat surprising with Vince Carter still on the team. However Stephen Jackson being named team captain of the Warriors has to be the biggest surprise so far this season.
Austin: It would be hard to make a stronger case for anyone but Jamario Moon. The fact that, at age 27 and out of Meridian Community College, he is getting significant burn on a reigning division champion Raptors squad should be enough to build him a strong enough case. Other players worth mentioning? Danny Granger - I guess this could stem more from my own ignorance than from his imergence as a legit basketball player, but with Indiana winning as consistantly as they have without Jermaine O'Neal in the lineup, I'm going to say that Granger's arrival, although anticipated, was far from expected. Chris Kaman - Just like Elton Brand, but kind of frightening.
Scott: There are at ton of guys out there that have exceeded expectations. You have the undrafted rookie in Toronto Jamario Moon that even deserves Rookie of the Year consideration. Caron Butler and Josh Howard have stepped up their game big time this year, and it looks like Andrei Kirilenko is officially back. Does this make it the Year of the Small Forward?
Nick: Richard Jefferson has been a BIG surprise! Holy cow, man, I don’t think that anyone foresaw RJ leading the Nets in scoring as long as they still had Vince Carter on the team. But, right there is Jefferson’s 6th highest NBA scoring average of 24.4 points per game staring you right in the face! The same clip is a career-high thus far for Jefferson and a team-high for the Nets. Plus, he is doing it when both Jason Kidd and Vince Carter are having, statistically, down seasons.
