The 5 biggest turkeys in the NBA

The NBA has plenty to be thankful for this holiday season, but a handful of the league's employees have been getting carved up.

Before we sit down to our Thanksgiving feasts, let's have a look at the NBA's biggest turkeys so far this season.

Evan Turner

Turner's tenure in Portland couldn't have gotten off to a worse start, with the reserve guard - struggling mightily as both a nominal bench-unit captain and a complement to the Blazers' high-scoring starting backcourt - posting a historically bad net rating. The team has been 26.3 points per 100 possessions better with him on the bench.

It probably didn't boost Blazers fans' confidence to learn that Turner was as surprised as anyone by the four-year, $70-million contract Portland lavished on him in the offseason. Might've been best to keep that one under your hat, you turkey.

Rob Hennigan

The Orlando Magic general manager's offseason moves seemed questionable at the time. Now that we've had a chance to watch the shambolic Magic in action, his decisions look positively fowl.

Hennigan got fleeced by the Thunder in the Serge Ibaka deal, overpaid Jeff Green just to steal minutes from Aaron Gordon, and sunk a combined $100 million into two backups. As feared, the Magic's frontcourt has been an overcrowded mess, and their offense - thanks to a catastrophic lack of shooting - ranks dead last in the NBA.

If things don't turn around soon, this turkey is likely cooked.

Ty Lawson

Lawson hasn't been the answer at point guard for the perpetually point-guard-starved Kings. He's shooting a career-worst 36.8 percent from the field, and many of his shots aren't even reaching their destination.

Lawson has attempted 95 field goals so far this season. A staggering 17 of them have been blocked. That 18 percent blocked-shot rate is the highest by far for any player with at least 60 attempts. When you get stuffed that often, you're a turkey.

Enes Kanter

It feels like Kanter needs a nickname. And what better moniker for the Thunder's earthbound, 6-foot-11, Istanbul-bred center - who bears a striking resemblance to a flightless bird when he plays defense - than Big Turkey?

Mark Cuban

In a fit of pique, the Mavericks owner revoked the credentials of two Dallas-based ESPN reporters earlier this month after learning that the Worldwide Leader wouldn't assign a dedicated on-site beat writer to his team this season.

Cuban tried to sell his decision as a righteous protest that would help save sports journalism from the looming threat of automated recaps. Even putting aside the ass-backward logic of barring human reporters from your games to purportedly defend against the robot-blogger apocalypse, there's no indication ESPN plans (or has ever planned) to use automated technology for its NBA coverage.

Cuban has publicly made peace with ESPN, but don't let that distract you from the fact that he acted like a petulant turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving.