We are well into the new year, and the NBA season has just crossed it half-way point. The months of January and February are the dog days of the league as this is where we see some performance decline as players try to just make it to the All-Star break.

With that being said, let's check in some Orange alumni.

The forward has had a disappointing season to say the least. Grant has hit a massive decline in his production, and this actually puts the Trail Blazers in a tough position.

To start, here’s the breakdown of his performance. His points per game dropped by a staggering 33% from last season, falling all the way to 14.9 points per game.

This is his lowest ppg in five years. Grant has played and started in 32 of 43 games for the Blazers this season, and his minutes per game have remained stable from the past seven seasons, sitting at 32.4 mpg this season.

Where we see his production fall off is in the midrange and closer game. Grant is shooting the most 3s per game of his career, at 6.3 attempts per game, and he’s not shooting at that bad of a clip at 37.9 percent, which puts him well above league average.

But after back-to-back seasons of greater than 40 percent from beyond the arc, this can look like a decline. Moving over to the inside game, this is where a problem arises. The Trail Blazers have been using Grant as 4, which is a role he hasn’t yet played in Portland.

Grant’s shot selection used to vary widely, but this season his shots have been polarized to either a wing 3 (mainly the right-side), or finishing at the rim (mainly the left-side). Threes represent 48 percent of Grant’s shots, this up from 30 percent last season, and mid-range shots only account for 25 percent of his shots, this marks a decline from 37% last season. On shots at the rim, he is shooting an abhorrent 48 percent, on shots from 4-feet to 14-feet, 28 percent.

Grant’s game has become very one-dimensional, as he is relying solely on his outside play.

Overall, on 2-pointers, he shot 38.6 percent. For Portland, this spells trouble.

This season is already out the window, but they have the framework of a young playoff team. The problem is, Grant is only on year two of five on a contract that has an AAV that sits around $30 million. This will be a tough contract for the Blazers to get off, not impossible, but tough.

Boeheim is still trying to find his way on his new team. After a trade over the summer that sent him from Detroit to Oklahoma, Boeheim has yet to get the same footing he had with the Motor City Cruise. He actually started off his tenure playing pretty well.

In the Tip-Off Tournament, Boeheim Started in nine of the 16 games, averaged 15.2 points per game, and played 28.8 minutes per game. He shot an efficient 42.4 percent on 10.3 3s per game. His true shooting percentage was an astounding 63.1 percent, and he tallied a 121 Ortg.

Despite this great play, the regular season has told a different story for Boehiem. He's started in seven of 11 games, and played 23.8 minutes per game. His points per game is a mediocre 8.5 points per game, a steep drop from 17.2 last season.

Shooting-wise, Boehiem has been shooting 27.9 percent from 3, this marks a huge fall off from 43.1 percent last regular season. His true-shooting has also experienced the same dip, dropping from 64 percent all the way down to 45.2 percent. This may be a case where there’s no direct cause for the poor play other than just lack of skill.

However, just since Boehiem has shown his ability to shoot at a high clip, he deserves the rest of the season before being reevaluated.

The start to Mintz’s G-League career has been bumpy, but there seems to be a lot of potential upside later in the season. Starting with his Tip-Off Tournament play, Mintz averaged 14.2 points per game while getting 25.8 minutes per game, and he started in just eight of the 16 games the Blue Coats played.

As a team they finished 9-7 in the tournament. Mintz shot just 30.2 percent from 3 on 2.7 attempts per game, and shot 45.2 percent on 2-point shots, but shot a great 88 percent from the line. Overall, his true-shooting was 61.7 percent, which shows promise.

Mintz also finished with a positive DWS (Defensive Win-Share). Moving over to the regular season, Mintz has kind of seen a decline. He has started in seven of 10 games played and is averaging 34 minutes per game. He is averaging 16.5 points per game, but his field goal percentage has fallen to 35.5 percent, and his true shooting has also dipped to 51.8 percent. He is maintaining the positive DWS, but his Ortg is 96 and Drtg is 119, both numbers are sub-optimal.

A lot of this decline can be blamed on over-usage. Mintz’s usg% is at 23.7, which is high, especially for a rookie. Moreover, this is too high of a usage for a player that has such a shallow bag in terms of ability to score. Mintz is most effective driving to the rim and making tough finishes and getting fouled, however, this is very easy to adjust for defenses.

Mintz will need to drastically change his game to be able to get a designation for assignment in the NBA. It is very likely Mintz gets NBA run this season simply due to the fact that Sixers may end up punting on the season, so Mintz may see some run by the end of February, or early March.

Swider has had a very productive season thus far for Detroit's affiliate, the Motor City Cruise. Starting off with the Tip-Off Tournament, the Cruise finished middle of the pack with a record of 7-9, however, Swider shined. Swider played 33 minutes per game and averaged 21.5 points per game.

He was also very efficient, shooting 44.3 percent from three on 10.1 attempts per game. 3s accounted for 66.7% off his shots during the tournament. Moving onto the regular season tournament, the MCC have started off a modest 5-6, and Swider has continued his great play. In the regular season, Swider is playing 34.3 minutes per game and averaging 19.6 points per game.

He’s continuing his efficiency from three from the Tip-Off Tournament, as he has been shooting 43.6 percent from 3 on 11 3s per game. Along with his shooting, he has grabbed 5.4 rebounds per game and tallied 3.0 assists per game. Swider is currently on a two-way with Pistons and has already seen some time up in the NBA this season.

Swider played in two games this season, both were in late November. In his two games, he played 13 minutes and went 0-5 from the field. Swider has shown his ability to make 3s in the G-League, so to get some actual NBA run he will need to lean on this ability.

Oshae Brissett finally signed with a team.

After being a part of the Celtics championship this past year, Brissett was and remained a free agent until Jan. 20. Brissett signed with the Brooklyn Nets G-League affiliate, Long Island Nets and has already played a game for them.

In that game, he played 20 minutes and scored 8 points, and snagged 9 rebounds. The lockdown defender is getting another shot at the NBA, but it seems his skill set does not make him a viable day-to-day option in the NBA.

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