Commentary

2007-08 All-Decline Team: Who's taking a step back?

Originally Published: November 8, 2007
By John Hollinger | ESPN Insider
With the good must come the bad. And thus, with my All-Breakout Team of last week must come the companion piece. Players can only break out if other players take a step back, and inevitably some of them will.

Most of these guys are older players who you won't be surprised to see on the list. Some are a bit younger but have statistical trends pointing in the opposite direction. What they all have in common is I'm expecting them to contribute substantially less than they did last season.

As with the All-Breakout Team, my 23-man All-Decline Team is chopped up into groups, making it easier for you to figure out exactly how much of a decline we're talking about. As with the breakout players, I've included projected player efficiency ratings for each, as well as last season's PER for comparison.

But before we get started, let me go to great pains to repeat that everyone on this list is on it because I expect a decrease relative to what they did last season. There are some All-Star players on this list and my point isn't that I expect them to stink; I just think they're unlikely to match their numbers from a season ago.

With that out of the way, let's move on to the envelopes:


To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

SPONSORED HEADLINES

MORE NBA HEADLINES

MOST SENT STORIES ON ESPN.COM