9. Patrick Beverley, Los Angeles Clippers
Whether he stays with the Los Angeles Clippers, is traded to the Phoenix Suns or winds up on some other team midseason, Patrick Beverley really needs to stay on the floor in 2018-19, especially with only one, non-guaranteed year left on his contract.
Last year, Bev only played in 11 games thanks to a knee injury that required surgery in November and sidelined him for the rest of the season. The two years prior he had played in 67 and 71 games for the Houston Rockets, but in the two seasons before that, he missed 26 games apiece thanks to a right hand fracture and then a left wrist injury.
On a Clippers team that also has Milos Teodosic, Lou Williams, Avery Bradley, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jerome Williams and Jawun Evans in the backcourt, Beverley can’t afford any setbacks in a hopeful bounce-back year. For the sake of the Clippers’ distant playoff hopes/mentoring the young guys/helping the young Suns/setting himself up for a payday in free agency, Bev has to shed his recent injury woes.