New Year, New Me: 4 Players Who Need a Turnaround in 2025

Featuring a personal favorite rookie, a sniper turned brick layer, and a major star on the decline

Hey all!

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas season celebrations and are gearing up for the new year, which is, somehow, just four days away! This season has been, shockingly, ho-hum when it comes to players performing how we would expect. Jayson Tatum is — news flash — an MVP candidate, Giannis Antetokoumpo hasn’t lost a step, Nikola Jokic is better than ever, and the All-Star race is pretty cut and dry outside of a few outliers like Tyler Herro.

Yet, dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that, as it so happens to be every season, there are quite a few players vastly underperforming. These guys are in need of a fresh calendar year to possibly make a turnaround and are the exact players I want to take a look at today.

I’ve selected 5 different players who need to make a change in 2025, varying from major stars to fringe role players, basing their need for improvement on how well they’ve performed in previous years, how they were expected to perform this year, and whether or not they’ve made any improvements in their weaknesses, preferably ones that were the most glaring. First up, let’s talk about one of the offseason’s most hyped role player acquisitions that, so far, has fallen really flat…