There are several NBA stars who are facing immense pressure heading into the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Which will come through?
At the end of the day, the NBA Playoffs are what ultimately matters the most and are usually what drive the narratives headed into the offseason. You could make the argument that every team faces pressure in the playoffs, but in this article, I'll break down eight star players that I believe are under the most pressure to perform at a high level and/or make a deep run in the 2024 NBA playoffs.
Let's start out with a few honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions: Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, Bam Adebayo, and all of the Los Angeles Lakers
Joel Embiid is just returning from a long injury absence, so that gives him a bit of a built-in reprieve. However, Embiid hasn't had much playoff success so far in his career and the Philadelphia 76ers are in the middle of a disappointing end to their regular season. Something has to click for this team in the postseason.
Karl-Anthony Towns has seemingly thrived stepping into the 1B role behind the burgeoning star that is Anthony Edwards, but if the Timberwolves bow out early again then it might raise the question of whether that core can win it all. Adebayo has also faced criticisms (sometimes unwarrantedly) in the past for being too passive in the playoffs.
The Los Angeles Lakers almost go without saying. Losing in the first round is naturally going to raise a lot of questions about the future of both LeBron James and the Lakers.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics)
It is Championship-or-bust this season for the Boston Celtics. There might not be another team in the league that that's true about this year, and if there is it is arguably not as true for them as it is for the Celtics. There is an immense amount of pressure on the Celtics to finally put it all together and win it all this year.
Boston went 64-18 this season, the best record in the NBA by 7 games. They also finished a whopping 14 games ahead of the 2-seed Knicks in the East. Boston really needs to at least make the finals this season, if not win it all.
Jayson Tatum has seemingly been on the verge of jumping into the upper echelon of being the top handful of players in the league for several years now but has yet to fully take that step. Part of the issue has been inconsistency, especially in the playoffs. While he's had some signature moments (such as his 51-point, 13-rebound performance in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last year), he's also had some performances that have left some to be desired (such as a 14-point performance in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last year).
In fact, Tatum has failed to reach the 20-point mark in 30 of his playoff games in his career (out of 94, so roughly 32% of the time).
This season Tatum averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game on 47.1% shooting (37.6% 3PT), which is a very strong season (especially considering some of the guys he's splitting shots with). However, Tatum could use a strong playoff performance this year.
Jaylen Brown had one of the best seasons of his career (23 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game on 49.9% shooting and 35.4% 3PT%), but he just signed the largest contract in NBA history (5 years, $304 million) and there is a lot of pressure that comes with that. When you sign the first 300 million dollar contract in NBA history, that raises the ante by a lot.
There have also been critics of Brown's play at times in the playoffs as well. For instance, in the Eastern Conference Finals last year he only averaged 19 points per game on 41.8% shooting (16.3% 3PT). What mounts the frustration onto that is that he had just gotten done averaging 26.7 points per game on 54.1% FG/51.5% 3PT shooting in the 1st round against the Hawks.
This is year No. 7 for Tatum and Brown together. They have just one NBA Finals appearance to show for it. There were major questions after last season's ECF loss, and if the C's come up empty again this year then the noise will get even louder for this talented duo.
We know how good this duo/the Celtics as a whole are, and it would not surprise anyone if they did win the title this season, but there is a lot of pressure on them to do so.
Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal (Phoenix Suns)
Unfair or not, this season has not been anywhere close to what the Suns envisioned when they brought in Bradley Beal this offseason to pair with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Beal missing 29 games really hurt them (33-20 (.623 Winning %) with him, 16-13 (.552 W%) without him), but this team has too much talent to be the 6-seed who barely dodged the play-in. Can you imagine what the discourse will be if this trio is dispatched by the 3-seed Timberwolves in the 1st round of the playoffs (especially if it's quickly)?
While it has been a good season for all three players this season, as a whole it has been disappointing. And part of what has made it frustrating is that Durant and Booker have both been relatively healthy for most of the season.
Durant averaged 27.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game on the season with 52.3% shooting from the field and 41.3% shooting from three. He played 75 games on the year, his most since 2018/19.
Booker averaged 27.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 6.9 assists per game on 49.2%/36.4%/88.6% shooting splits. He played 68 games this season, which is actually right above his career average of 65.5 games per season in full seasons (not counting 2020 and 2021).
Beal is the one that did deal with injuries however, being limited to 53 games. On the year he averaged 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 5 assists per game while having the most efficient season of his career (51.3% shooting from the field and 43% shooting from three).
With those three immense talents all having strong seasons, you can see the confusion as to why this team is just the 6-seed. The disappointing regular season adds to the pressure for them in the playoffs.
The Timberwolves likely are not happy with seeing this trio in the playoffs. However for the Suns, a quiet 1st round exit after adding Beal to KD and Booker would be wildly disappointing.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George (Los Angeles Clippers)
This is a make-or-break playoff run for the duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George (you could throw James Harden in there as well).
After looking like the best team in basketball for a two-month stretch, the LA Clippers are now locked into what will be a grueling 4-5 matchup in the 1st round of the playoffs where there will be loud noise about the loser no matter who it is.
After starting the year 8-10, LAC went on a 26-4 run to improve to 34-15 and looked like championship favorites. Things got a little hairy from there however as the Clippers went 10-12 over their next 22 games. They finished the year going 7-4 to finish 51-31.
The Clippers were healthy for a majority of the season, but that changed towards the end of March when Kawhi went down with a knee injury. He has not played yet in April, but the Clippers are "hopeful" that he will be available by playoff time.
Kawhi averaged 23.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game on 52.5% shooting (41.7% 3P) on the season. While, George averaged 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game on 47.1% shooting (41.3% 3PT).
There is also some residual pressure on James Harden to perform in the playoffs. Over the last three years, Harden averaged 19.6 points, six rebounds, and 8.5 assists per game on 41.6% shooting (37.1% 3PT) in 32 playoff games. That is compared to averages of 22.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 10.5 assists per game on 43.6% shooting in the regular season in the same timeframe. He also averaged just 11 points per game on 7/27 shooting in back-to-back losses in Games 6 and 7 of last year's Eastern Conference semi's loss to Boston. Harden averaged 16.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 8.5 assists per game on 42.8% shooting (38.1% 3PT) this season.
Plus with George facing a player option this offseason and Harden heading into Free Agency and already on his fourth team in four years, it's very possible that two out of these three could be playing elsewhere next season (especially if this playoff run does not go according to plan). There is a very real possibility that if the Clippers flame out early in the playoffs both George and Harden leave, and the Clippers will have had Leonard/George for five seasons (obviously many injuries were involved), with zero finals appearances and just three series wins to show for it.
Again, injuries have always been the limiting factor to the Leonard/George partnership, which if anything shows that maybe the main pressure is on them to both be healthy for a full playoff (especially with Leonard already banged up).
Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks)
Now to the guy on the other side of that huge 4-5 matchup in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Luka Doncic is a generational caliber player who is just 24 years old and in MVP discussions. However, the Dallas Mavericks have not had a ton of playoff success (just one trip to the conference finals) with Doncic. Doncic has been an excellent playoff performer (32.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 7.9 assists per game on 47.3% shooting in 28 games), but it has resulted in two first-round exits (2020 and 2021) and two missed playoffs (2019 and 2023) in his first five seasons (along with the WCF trip in 2022).
With him finally having his co-star in Kyrie Irving that everyone has been saying he's needed, this felt like it would finally be the year that Luka had help and we would see him fully formed. However, it's been an up-and-down season for Dallas as they finished as the 5-seed with a 50-32 record.. Dallas started 15-8, but then went just 11-15 in their next 26 games and it looked like they might be a play-in team while sitting at 26-23.
After an 8-5 stretch (34-28), they finished the year 16-4 and are riding into the playoffs with a ton of momentum. While their record is strong, they are looking at a tough path in the playoffs. Their path in the Western Conference very well could be Clippers-Thunder-Nuggets/TWolves (whoever wins the 2/3 matchup if there are not any 1st-round upsets) with potentially the Celtics waiting from the East. Talk about brutal
On the season, Luka led the league in scoring (33.9 points per game), while also averaging 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game on 48.7% shooting from the field and 38.2% 3-point shooting.
I think we are far too quick to judge players on their lack of playoff success, but I feel the public at large has put some pressure on Luka to make a run in these playoffs.