I disagree somewhat regarding effort. True, at times it doesn't seem to be there, but I see plenty of scrapping and "trying," I think what I notice more is lack of confidence plus a low degree of sharpness. How many times have we gotten a traveling call when a player is about to drive, then hesitates, but he didn't stop himself in time. Or two players in position for a rebound, nearly side-by-side, both kind of go for it, but neither secures it, then it either goes out of bounds or ball finds its way into opponent's hands for easy lay-in. (We have block-out issues, too, but this is somewhat separate from that).
Those types of things seem more glaring than pure lack of work ethic.
(I'm sure some of these deficiencies intertwine.)