Whether due to injury concerns, old age or being unable to carve out a niche, here are 10 NBA players approaching their last chance in the league in 2018-19.
Nothing lasts forever, and that old adage is especially true in the NBA. While the current generation of superstars and title contenders always takes the spotlight, every team has one eye fixed on the group that has “next.”
This cyclical turnover in the league always presents a changing of the guard, but for young players who fail to carve out a niche, older players on their last legs or mediocre role players on expiring contracts, it presents a problem. Every year there’s an influx of rookie talent, meaning there are only so many roster spots to go around.
At some point, Father Time catches up with everyone. In some cases, a sheer lack of talent or proven place in the league will do the trick before Father Time has to get involved. Already this summer, we’ve seen several recognizable players who had jobs in the NBA last year — Jamal Crawford, Nick Young, Joe Johnson, Jameer Nelson and Ty Lawson, to name a few — fail to find work just weeks before the new season begins.
Those aforementioned players won’t make our list because they’ve still got a chance of being picked up at some point in the upcoming season, and we’ll avoid known possible retirees like Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki too. But among the players actually on rosters and trying to play beyond this season, which ones are in danger of finding themselves out of the league in a year’s time?
For our purposes, we’ll try to avoid end-of-rotation guys and G League-caliber names, focusing more on prominent players and recognizable faces who have already proven themselves (or are in the process of proving themselves in the case of a few youngsters). Bearing all that in mind, here are 10 players approaching their last chance in the NBA in 2018-19.
Honorable Mentions: Darrell Arthur, Michael Carter-Williams, Nene Hilario, Alexis Ajinca, Jarrett Jack, D.J. Wilson, Jose Calderon, Tony Bradley, Raymond Felton, Nik Stauskas, Shabazz Muhammad, Damyean Dotson, Jodie Meeks, Jake Layman, Jason Smith, Quincy Pondexter, Derrick Rose, Noah Vonleh, Omri Casspi, Justin Anderson, Alec Burks