NBA's best terrible-team stars

[bleedspeed]

Basketball is a complicated dance between the goals of the individual and the goals of the collective. In optimal situations, the excellence of the individual coincides with the success of the team. But often that isn't the case. When the team's fate is all but sealed, and the world knows it is heading for the bottom of the standings, the silver lining to talented players' rain clouds is the opportunity to post big-number campaigns.

There are three obvious stakeholders who stand to gain from inflated stats: (1) the player, who receives an ego boost; (2) the player's agent, who receives added leverage in contract negotiations; and (3) fantasy owners, who are looking to pad their own stats with no regard to real-life win percentages.

Here are five players who are more likely to fulfill the expectations of their fantasy owners than their team owners:


Bryant
Kobe Bryant | SG | Los Angeles Lakers


The rigors of the Western Conference are illustrated perfectly when you realize the Lakers' roster improved considerably and yet they are expected to be just as bad, if not worse, this season (SCHOENE projects a 29-win season; real plus-minus projects 21 wins).

Bryant's health is the biggest improvement, but even that isn't enough to lift the Lakers out of the doldrums of the West cellar. Still, that won't stop him from trying, and it doesn't hurt that coach Byron Scott plans to run the offense through Bryant like it's 2004 and not 2014. And while Bryant (No. 40 in ESPN's #NBArank) doesn't have the same physical gifts he had 10 years ago, he's still a brilliant basketball mind with probably the best footwork of any player in the league. The skill level is there and the desire is there, but will the health hold up?


Cousins
DeMarcus Cousins | C | Sacramento Kings

The Kings arguably took a step when they swapped out Isaiah Thomas for Darren Collison, but the continued improvement of Cousins and the drafting of Nik Stauskas -- along with the continuity of the roster carryover -- should help them improve slightly this season. That said, they still are far beyond the pack in the West -- and by the pack, I mean the teams that are fighting for the No. 8 seed (Portland, Phoenix, New Orleans, Denver).

Still, that will have little effect on Cousins' performance, who was one of just five players in the league last season to average 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds. He's a big body with a lot of skill, able to overwhelm defenders with brute force with his back to the basket, or attack off the dribble and finesse his way to the basket. The experience gained at the FIBA Basketball World Cup hopefully gave him some perspective on how other successful players prepare for the game, as well as how they interact within the team dynamic. That should make him a better player and teammate, but he's still going to get his touches and put up numbers.


Young
Thaddeus Young | F | Minnesota Timberwolves

Poor Thad Young. He finally escapes the cesspool that was Philadelphia and lands in another situation where he's likely to experience 60 or so losses. The good news is that he won't be playing on a D-League caliber roster, and the Timberwolves want to try to be good (even though they'll be unsuccessful in that endeavor), meaning coach Flip Saunders will find ways to get his best and most accomplished scorer shots.

Having other offensive weapons might seem counterintuitive to the notion that Young will post superlative numbers, but those threats (e.g., Andrew Wiggins, etc.) will make the game easier by providing opposing defenses something other than Young to focus on. Finally, he's getting ready to work with the best passer he's ever played with in Ricky Rubio, who has the vision and creativity to get scorers easy scoring opportunities.


Parker
Jabari Parker | F | Milwaukee Bucks

The motto last season was "Sorry for Jabari," an allusion to bad teams tanking to make sure they got the best chances to draft a blue-chip talent like Parker. The Bucks ended up with the second overall pick and selected Parker, but they're still going to be terrible, so the motto is now "Sorry with Jabari."

Save for vets like O.J. Mayo and Jared Dudley, the Bucks' roster is overwhelmingly young, and Parker is unquestionably the centerpiece of the future, not only as a high lottery pick from a heralded draft class, but also as a Midwest kid who openly embraced the idea of playing specifically in small-market Milwaukee (mainly due to its proximity to his hometown of Chicago).

His bread and butter is scoring, and the team will do everything to make sure he's maximizing his potential on that end of the floor. He has the size (6-foot-8, 235 pounds) to take advantage of smaller defenders in the post, and the skill to attack bigger defenders off the bounce and finish.


Harris
Tobias Harris | F | Orlando Magic

Like Thad Young, Harris is on a team that is trying to do better and develop winning habits, and he represents the best scoring option on the roster. Sure, Channing Frye and Ben Gordon have more experience, Victor Oladipo will have the ball in his hands a ton and Nikola Vucevic is going to get more than his fair share of touches out of pick-and-roll action and on offensive rebounds, but in terms of being the go-to offensive option, no one else on the Magic brings Harris' skill set or efficiency when it comes to scoring.

He's a big wing with a nice touch around the basket and the versatility to play up a position at power forward. While his 3-point range is still a work in progress, he does a good job of drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line, where he converted at an 81 percent clip last season.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11710329/kobe-bryant-terrible-team-stars-2014-15-nba

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I refuse to click on another ESPN link, lemme guess, Chad Ford?