Amare Stoudamire has always been tremendously injury prone. With this shortened season one of two things will happen, either Amare will be overplayed and his poor little knees will give in on him, or he will lose a lot of minutes and possibly not get injured. Additionally, they didn't really address their backcourt issues so the ball will probably be in Carmelo's hands a lot, and while Carmelo is a great scorer, don't look for him to get Amare the ball too often.
Deron Williams
In the past Deron Williams has been one of the best point guards in the league, and don't get me wrong, he still is. However, in Brooklyn Deron Williams is the only player. Maybe Humphries will up his numbers to 14 but without Brook Lopez, Deron Williams just doesn't have anyone to pass to. Not only does he not have anyone to pass to, but playing crappy basketball for a team that can't even imagine making the playoffs in their wildest dreams won't exactly drive Deron to have an MVP output.
Gerald Wallace
The Trail Blazers have a terrific back up small forward in Nicolas Batum who is not only young but also in a contract year. The Trail Blazers will be giving him more minutes so he feels like he really has a place in their organization, and he'll probably fill those minutes with terrific play. (Generally players play well in contract years.) Additionally, even if they didn't have Batum, the season would kill Gerald Wallace. He's 29 years old and plays an extremely physically demanding style, he will burn out quick in this season. He might still do O.K. on steals and maybe boards, but don't expect any more than 12 points a game from him.
Paul Pierce
He's old so he's probably not overjoyed about playing back to back to back to back... and also, the Celtics are not going to be at the same level that they usually are and when that happens Pierce tends to have a little less determination.
David Lee
No explanation necessary, he's just not a great player.
Serge Ibaka
Saying he will under-perform may be a bit of a stretch, because Serge will certainly not take a step backwards; However, there is a common assumption that Serge will make a Kevin Love, or Lamarcus Aldridge level jump. But he won't do this. Those players made their jumps because their teams lost key offensive players and they were asked to essentially become the teams entire offense (Kevin Love was just asked to become the team). Serge Ibaka however does not have the same fate, They pretty much have the same squad as they did last year and Serge will just be asked to continue improving his defense.
Metta World Peace
Just wanted to say it.
Also, something of note, pretty much all of the old players will have declines this season because of the condensed schedule, but I don't wan't to explain each one of their problems. This year youth will rule the League
