Carlos Boozer. I fully understand that Carlos
Boozer has been a popular punching bag for multiple years now, to the
point where some Bulls fans tried to put a positive spin on Chicago’s
early playoff exit by pointing out that each passing day brings the
32-year-old power forward that much closer to a possible amnesty this
summer. Even within the context of those lowered expectations, Boozer
was disappointing, averaging just 9.6 points and shooting 42.6 percent
for the series, nearly 10 percentage points below his career average.
Chicago, owners of the worst offense in the playoffs, needed all the
punch it could get, and Boozer loomed as a possible x-factor in that
regard. Instead, he was invisible for much of the first-round
series against the Wizards, and he shot just 4-for-12 in the closeout
Game 5 defeat. A Bulls team that entered the playoffs with an outside
chance at making a run to the conference finals instead was one of the
first teams to go home. You can’t blame Windy City fans who look at
Boozer’s non-production side-by-side with his $15.3 million salary and
immediately want to gouge out their eyes. That Tim Duncan and Vince
Carter have been able to perform at a high level, even though they are five years older than Boozer, only sharpens the pain.
James Harden. Got to go with Harden,
who has been staggeringly inefficient. Harden hasn’t shot better than 43
percent in any games this series, has cracked 40 percent just once and
was a dreadful 5-15 (including 1-7 from three-point range) in the
Rockets Game 5 win. Couple that with some uninspired defense and
Harden’s second playoff series with Houston has been a nightmare. Part
of the reason Harden left Oklahoma City was because he wanted to be the
face of a franchise. But with the money and fame comes accountability.
Harden can still salvage his series by leading the Rockets back these
next two games. But if he doesn’t, a lot of fingers are, rightfully,
going to be pointed at him.
Terrence Ross. Odd though it might be to
tab a 23-year-old role player for this dubious honor, I’m struck by just
how absent Ross has been from the Raptors’ entire first round series.
His eight points on 33 percent shooting in Game 5 made for his “best”
outing yet; in no other game had Ross topped either that scoring output
or shooting percentage, a fizzling combination that leaves him glaringly
irrelevant in a competitive series.
Ross is too wild and too inexperienced to yet be reliable on a
game-by-game basis. We knew this much based on his erratic regular
season performance. Even still, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect
Ross to shoot better than 23 percent from the field given all the
defensive attention devoted to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, to manage
an assist to turnover ratio better than his atrocious 1:7 or to make
some kind of tangible difference with his defense. Ross is, at the very
least, a capable player. He doesn’t have to do everything. He just has
to do something.
Kevin Durant. OK, I’ll be that guy! Calling
him “Mr. Unreliable” is pretty harsh, but Durant has been an undeniable
disappointment in the 2014 playoffs. That’s largely due to the standard
of exellence he set during the regular season, which will likely earn
him the 2014 Most Valuable Player award. In six playoff games against
the Grizzlies, Durant is shooting just 41.2 percent from the field (50.3
during the season), 25 percent from 3-point range (39.1) and and 77.8
from the line (87.3). He’s topped 30 points in four of the games, but
only shot above 50 percent in one of them. For anyone else, Durant’s
performance against Memphis would be respectable. But for the eventual
MVP and a player in the discussion for best player on the planet, his
performance in the first round simply hasn’t been up to snuff. A lot of
the credit should go to Tony Allen and the Grizz’s defense, but some of
the blame also has to fall on KD’s shoulders.
During the regular season, Noah posted
impressive averages in points (12.6), rebounds (11.3), assists (5.4) and
Player Efficiency Rating (20.0) while leading the Bulls to one of the
best records in the Eastern Conference after the All-Star break and
winning Defensive Player of the Year. But he wilted in a first-round
loss to the fifth-seeded Wizards, as Nene repeatedly outmuscled him in
the paint. Noah matched or exceeded his season average in points only
once (in Game 2), and it came in a Bulls loss. What’s more, Noah reportedly got into a shouting match with a security guard after a team shootaround at the Verizon Center. It was a banner year for Noah as a whole, but it ended on a disappointing note.
