thelesterlee
The 2025 NBA Playoffs are a few weeks away—you can tell from the god awful basketball played nightly as half the NBA loses everything for a chance at a teenager—like Subway Jared—and the other half exhausts their PTO in an attempt to maintain their health for the postseason.
It’s the worst time in the calendar so let’s ignore it and jump right into discussing the playoffs—where some players carve their legacy in stone and others leave the arena in fear of fans stoning them after their awful performances.
How you play in the postseason determines your future in this league.
Luka Doncic led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, where he was exposed as, at best, physically incapable of playing defense—and at worst, totally disinterested in that part of the game.
How a player performs in the postseason doesn’t exclusively alter his perception amongst fans—but also how organizations view their worth.
So let’s talk about 31 players who have the most to prove in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Key Role Players
1. Dyson Daniels
Dyson Daniels is one of the best perimeter defenders I’ve ever seen—but unfortunately, he isn’t a rim protector—or whatever Draymond Green is— so he’ll never win a Defensive Player of the Year trophy—despite leading the NBA with ONE HUNDRED more steals than the player with the 2nd most steals.
DYSON DANIELS STEAL. CARIS LEVERT GAME-WINNING LAYUP.pic.twitter.com/VbVVaGK6WR
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) March 4, 2025
I hate that the DPOY became the Best Center trophy but Dyson Daniels has big playoff defense moments with all eyes watching—he’ll enter that S-tier conversation he belongs in with guys like Ron Artest or Tony Allen and that one time Avery Bradley tried.
2. Santi Aldama
I know all eyes are on Ja Morant. The Memphis Grizzlies fired their head coach with less than 10 games left in the season and it appears Ja’s disinterest in the offensive scheme played a major part in the decision but let’s not forget this awkward sideline fight between Santi Aldama and Desmond Bane right before Taylor Jenkins lost his job.
The interaction between Desmond Bane and Santi Aldama has come to light:
Bane – “Are you gonna f****** guard anybody?”
Aldama – “F*** you.”
Bane – “No, f*** you. Play harder.”
(via @TheAthletic, @CourtsideBuzzX)pic.twitter.com/hOrZ96MAFd
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 29, 2025
If and when the Grizzlies flame out in the first round—ya know, because of the not having a head coach thing—who do you think this organization is more likely to keep around? Desmond Bane—a player who’s proven he can run an offense with Ja and Jaren Jackson in and out of the lineup—or Santi Aldama—the player Desmond Bane hates?
Play some D, Santi. Or pack your bags.
3. Norman Powell
Norman Powell is balling for all of us washed, over-the-hill, graying underachievers who still think they can reach their potential, at our big ages.
At 31 years old, Norm is averaging a career-high 22.4 points a game—casually stepping right into Paul George’s clown shoes, shooting 48% from the field and 42% from 3. On 16 shot attempts a game, Norm is one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA.
This will be Norm’s 9th playoff appearance but his first as a team’s no. 1 scoring option.
2 seasons ago—with Kawhi and PG out—Norm Powell scored 42 points against the Phoenix Suns in the first round. Powell’s proven an ability to rise in the playoffs but if he puts up a couple 30-point games for a Clippers team no one is seriously considering as title contenders, the national perception of Powell will change.
My guy could make an All-NBA roster. This is the best year of Norm Powell’s life. An excellent postseason could lead to one of the best summers for Norm ever.
4. Ryan Rollins
Damian Lillard is currently seeing visions of his death, stumbling around Harrenhal with Daemon. In his absence, 22-year-old Ryan Rollins—who joined the Bucks on a two-way minimum wage contract after being drafted by the Hawks in 2022. Rollins was then immediately traded to the Golden State Warriors, suffering injuries that forced Golden State to move on, sending him to Washington with Jordan Poole—before getting cut halfway through last season and working his way back up through the G-League.
Ryan Rollins was fantastic tonight.
23 PTS | 5 REB | 5 AST | 5 3PM | 80% FG pic.twitter.com/JAfzRaRDWh
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 2, 2025
Rollins is fearless, willing to continue aggressively attacking the basket in 4th quarters instead of passively differing to Giannis or the other vets on this team.
Without Rollins’s rise to power, the Bucks were a predictable team without many fantastical potential outcomes. Ryan Rollins—if he plays as well as he is right now—unlocks a new ceiling for Milwaukee.
5. Isaiah Stewart
Isaiah Stewart has more blocks this season than Rudy Gobert, Zach Edey, Giannis and Jarrett Allen—but you wouldn’t know it because any time his highlights appear on your social media feed of choice, it’s a video of him committing a flagrant foul or stealing candy from a baby or what happened against the Timberwolves this week.
A fight breaks out between the Pistons and Timberwolves
Donte DiVincenzo, Naz Reid, Ron Holland, Isaiah Stewart, Marcus Sasser, Pistons HC J. B. Bickerstaff and Wolves assistant coach Pablo Prigioni were all ejected pic.twitter.com/TJA3OczOxB
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 31, 2025
Although the Pistons almost beat the OKC Thunder on Wednesday night without Cade Cunningham and the guys suspended for the fight—if Detroit wants to make a statement this postseason, they’ll need all their soldiers. They can’t lose Stewart for a game or two because he tackled someone on a fastbreak or spit on a ref or something.
Lock the fuck in.
6. Jaxson Hayes
Your organization should trade Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic 10 times out of 11. I know the Mavs front office wants you to believe he was drunk driving to practice and working out with a cigarette dangling from his mouth but his arrival to Los Angeles instantly, in the blink of an eye, turned the Lakers into title contenders.
But by trading AD, the Lakers lost their size advantage. Jaxson Hayes is thrust into the starting lineup as the clear weak link in their starting 5. Playing with LeBron adds pressure—pressure that broke JR Smith and Kevin Love—two astronomically more talented players than Hayes.
Can Jaxson Hayes guard Jokic or Chet Holmgren or Alperen Senguin? We’re about to find out.
7. Russell Westbrook
On Tuesday night, at the end of a double-overtime loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves in which Jokic scored a career-high 61 points, Westbrook singlehandedly lost the game—shanking an open layup and then fouling a 3-point shooter on the other end—allowing the T-Wolves to win the game off free throws.
The Denver Nuggets rely on Westbrook far more than they should.
He is the MAN over the course of an 82-game season but once the playoffs start and every possession matters, it’s impossible to ignore how many possesions Westbrook punts with stupid, irrational, random fouls, embarrassing turnovers and a jumper indistinguishable from the halftime t-shirt gun—sending balls to the fans sitting in the front row.
Just be normal.
Rising Stars
8. Franz Wagner
The Orlando Magic 2024 season ended after a first-round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 7 brutal games.
Here’s how Franz performed in that big Game 7:
- 6 points
- 1-for-15 from the field (6%)
- 0-for-5 from 3 (0%)
- -13
Franz takes a ton of shots and the Magic need him too. Outside of Paolo Banchero, this team hasn’t figured out how to put the ball in the basket, but man, Franz sure does miss a ton of those shots. He’s shooting only 29% from 3 this year and after seeing him shrink in that Game 7, I have no reason to believe his perimeter shooting will suddenly improve when the playoffs start.
Get ready to become Playoff P for a new generation of fans.
9. Jalen Duren
The 13th overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft finally looks like he’s ready to become a true difference maker for a Pistons team that, last season, Monty Williams was running with the same amount of vigilance I have with my fantasy baseball—a team I autodrafted and have still yet to even check who’s on my roster.
Duren is an automatic double-double when he steps on the court, averaging 11 and 10 and although his counting stats may be down from last season—his impact on winning is far greater now.
But as of right now, he’s another center in the league. A few massive offensive rebounds and blocked shots to help Detroit advance to the second round and Jalen Duren may be perceived as a key piece to the Pistons future success.
10. Amen Thompson
Going into this season, I have no doubts this Rockets organization thought they were building around Alperen Senguin and Jalen Green—with Cam Whitmore, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith and Reed Sheppard gelling around them.
And then Amen Thompson turned into this.
Amen Thompson RAISED THE BAR once again for the Rockets!
🚀 33 PTS (career-high)
🚀 9 REB
🚀 4 ASTIt’s his 2nd straight game with a new career-high and it comes with the GAME-WINNING bucket 😤 pic.twitter.com/2hWHJupP0L
— NBA (@NBA) January 28, 2025
At any spontaneous moment, Amen Thompson will just look exactly like early Cleveland LeBron—the one with the headband who couldn’t shoot for shit.
Spoilers: I have more to say about Jalen Green later—but the Houston Rockets might be Amen’s team by the time the ’25-’26 season begins.
11. Evan Mobley
This is a new era of Deadseriousness where I curb my pettiness and allow myself to enjoy the greatest athletes on the planet without letting podcasters and Knicks games alter my perception of these titans but man, I did not like Evan Mobley.
Between the comparisons to Tim Duncan from basketball snobs and their employers (But first, Pearl Jam) and that 2023 first-round series against the Knicks where the Cavs looked like Alabama High playing Nick Saban’s Alabama University—I had nothing positive to say about Evan Mobley.
This season, Evan Mobley has 28 games scoring 20+ points—more than twice as many as last year (13). He scored a career-high 41 points early December. Buuuut it was against the Charlotte Hornets with LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and Nick Richards out—and it was the same day Grant Williams announced he was having season-ending surgery—still impressive to give 39-year-old Taj Gibson a slightly early 41st birthday gift.
Let’s see how often Mobley shows up against the same team 4,5,6,7 games in a row.
12. Chet Holmgren
In two playoff series last year, Chet averaged 15.6 points in 10 games. Not too far off from his career average of 15 a game. Just feels like the No. 2 overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft—who was the best basketball player in the country coming out of high school—should be more of a consistent scoring threat.
I reckon it’s tough to be an impactful big man every night when you’re not your team’s primary playmaker. Guys like Giannis and Nikola Jokic and even Joel Embiid, have coworkers who look up at them the way Jorah Mormont looked up at Danaerys Targaryen when those dragon eggs hatched. While guys like Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Davis and Chet Holmgren are secondary options who get in where they fit in.
Whatever, Chet had 6 blocks and 2 steals against the Pistons this week. The Thunder won’t need Chet to score if he’s blocking multiple shots a game, creating easy fastbreak points on the other end.
13. Anthony Black
Anthony Black is auditioning to become the Orlando Magic starting shooting guard next season.
With Jalen Suggs and Cole Anthony injured and Kentavious Caldwell Pope busy refreshing his Bank of America app grinning—Anthony Black has been given the opportunity to show what he’s capable of. In his last 6 games, Anthony Black is averaging 14.8 with 4.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists on 57% shooting from the field and 42% from 3.
And Orlando will need him. The Magic rank 29th in scoring right above the Brooklyn Nets—a team openly shopping all their talented players all season to ensure the best chance of drafting Cooper Flagg. Orlando scores 0.1 more points than a team 26 games under .500.
All Anthony Black has to do is turn into Prime Dwyane Wade. No prob.
Knicks Corner
14. Jalen Brunson
Jalen Brunson dropped 39 on the Lakers, turned his ankle and missed the last 14 games. No one will remember anything I just wrote if the playoffs start and he isn’t the same game-changing player everyone expects him to be.
That context only matters to Knicks sickos like myself. The rest of the world does not give a single shit about how much my man’s ankle hurts. If Jalen Brunson goes 4-for-13 shooting with 14 points in Game 1 or 2, ESPN is opening the velvet rope, allowing all the analysts waiting outside to get their “Jalen Brunson is too small to be the best player on a championship team”, takes off.
I don’t want my short king to have to answer to this anymore. Let us pray Jalen’s ankles are 110% healthy and his shooting touch returns—unharmed from the weeks off. They will massacre my baby boy.
15. Karl-Anthony Towns
Sometimes I watch Karl-Anthony Towns and think he’s the most talented basketball player on planet Earth. Whenever he shoots a 3, I assume it’s going in. Put any big man on him and he’s skirting right by them to the basket. He’s a far better rebounder than I thought he was and sure, he’s not a rim protector but he clearly tries the best he can after a ton of leg injuries over his 10-year career.
Heee Heee!
Karl-Anthony Towns had 40 PTS, 12 REB, 5 AST, 3 STL, 3 3PTS & these passes!The postgame🤣 pic.twitter.com/cjweb18TJ1
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) February 12, 2025
But then sometimes I watch Karl-Anthony Towns and think the Knicks bought a lemon.
He frequently interacts with the refs—begging for foul calls every time he drives. He physically cannot jump to block shots so he often just commits stupid fouls—forcing him to the bench and removing the best 3-point shooter from the floor. And god forbid a defender puts his hands on him. When a defender plays up on him, KAT acts like he’s stuck in the back of an Uber pool with two guys coughing a week after the March 2020 Covid lockdowns.
I say all this to say, it’s interesting how KAT and Giannis have almost identical contracts. Would be easy to make the money match in a trade.
16. Mikal Bridges
Mikal Bridges is my favorite Knicks not named Jalen. When he’s confident, Bridges has a beautiful fadeaway jumper that only hits the bottom of the net. Seriously, that shit never touches the rim like me any time I’m near a basketball court and pretend like I can dunk.
Bridges can create minor seismic events under Penn Station when he gets hot—rattling off 2 or 3 jumpers in a row—shattering Richter Scales in Madison Square Garden. And when his shot is going in, he can put players in the torture chamber with arms long enough to guard just about anyone.
But man, when that shot isn’t falling, Bridges vanishes.
They’re saying Austin Reeves is the best third option in the NBA. Fight back, Mikal.
17. Josh Hart
Hey, are we sure Josh Hart doesn’t suck?
I’m frustrated. I know Josh Hart is good. He’s the best in the league in his specific role. But without Jalen Brunson in the lineup—forcing everyone to take more responsibility—Josh Hart has the ball way more than he should, making more decisions than he should—looking like the guy they got from Portland for Cam Reddish (currently not on an NBA roster) and an egg everything bagel.
I don’t have anything more to add. I just needed to get this Josh Hart hate out of my heart. Please go back to rebounding and leading the fast break. Stop slowly bringing the ball up and trying to set up the offense like Mike Conley Jr.
You are not someone else. Someone else is someone else. You are you.
[Magic Johnson Voice] “I’m Not Gonna Be Here” Players
18. Trae Young
I actually enjoyed watching Trae Young this season. He’s passing the ball early instead of dribbling in place for 19 seconds before making a decision.
Once Jalen Johnson tore his labrum at the end of January, the Hawks didn’t waste a second trading away Bogdan Bogdanović and DeAndre Hunter—two key pieces of their squad.
Atlanta drafted 19-year-old Zaccharie Risacher with the no. 1 pick last summer. Jalen Johnson is 23. 26-year-old, expensive Trae Young may slip out of their timeline.
Trae Young needs to show and prove. He can’t lose play-in games anymore. He honestly can’t lose in the first round either. Trae has to put together Herculean efforts to drag this Hawks team to at least a 7-game first-round battle or he’ll have to sell his Atlanta mansion.
19. Julius Randle
I was prepared to say Anthony Edwards has the most to prove on the Minnesota Timberwolves but he’s 23 years old and just went to the Western Conference Finals.
The Timberwolves have important decisions to make this season and none of them involve Anthony Edwards, outside of maybe donating a lifetime supply of condoms to his front door.
Julius Randle locked in that month of March
20. Jalen Green
The Houston Rockets aren’t winning the title this year, believe it or not. Ime, please don’t DM my wife.
This playoff run is an audition for all 12 players to prove to the front office they can help contribute to their inevitable Finals team, once they consolidate the roster, packaging together some of their young talent for a guy like Devin Booker or even Giannis, if Milwaukee had the balls to reset.
Unfortunately, I fear Jalen Green may be the odd one out. When Fred VanVleet missed 16 games from an injury, Jalen was supposed to step up and run the show in his absence. The Rockets lost most of those games and Green had no impact on the outcomes.
Jalen has the highest ceiling of anyone on the Rockets roster but if he has some playoff stinkers, Houston may go tell Jalen to go take his hypothetical potential elsewhere.
21. Donovan Mitchell
Donovan Mitchell leads the 60-win Cleveland Cavaliers with 24 points a game. He is the emotional leader of a ball club that’s ragdolled every team they’ve faced this season—running opponents out of the gym.
The Mitchell trade, 2 seasons ago, was a dice roll. Donovan was a fantastic perimeter scorer—breaking out magical playoff performances with Utah, but all his points didn’t lead to consistent deep playoff runs for the Jazz.
In 2 seasons with Cleveland, the Donovan Mitchell-led Cavs got bullied out of the first round by the Knicks and sat in the corner by the Celtcs in the second round.
The 2024-25 Celtics have been historically great. A lot of that credit goes to Evan Mobley stepping up both offensively and defensively—but this team lives and dies by how confident Mitchell plays in the 4th (or how afraid he sometimes plays when the game gets tight...)
But if the Cavs don’t advance to at least the Eastern Conference Finals then Cleveland’s front office has to ask themselves if Donovan Mitchell just isn’t great enough to lead a championship roster.
22. Jaylen Brown
The Boston Celtics have a new owner, Bill Chisholm, the venture capitalist.
Every VC watched the movie Wall Street and thought Michael Douglas—the guy purchasing an airline to strip it for parts and cash out, leaving hundreds jobless—was the good guy.
The Celtics have the 3rd highest payroll in the NBA with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown set to make $70 million annually going forward. Not a single VC in America would keep their costs that high without a run of championships, and more importantly, championship revenue, attached to them.
If the Celtics fall short of becoming back-to-back champs, Jaylen Brown will be sold for scrap parts to cut costs and maximize profits.
GOATs
23. Cade Cunningham
Cade Cunningham has the 8th most points in the NBA—leading a weird-ass Detroit Pistons team to the playoffs one year removed from this same team suffering the longest losing streak in the history of the league.
He has a greater chance of winning Most Improved than MVP but this is Cade’s first playoff appearance. This could determine the way fans and the media feel about Cunningham going forward. He maintains this high caliber play and he starts the 2025-26 automatically in MVP discussions. He turns into James Harden—a shell of himself, visibly afraid of the smoke—and Cade will become a punchline like his teammate Isaiah Stewart.
24. Steph Curry
Steph Curry’s legacy is set in stone. One of the most influential players in NBA history—singlehandedly reshaping the way teams build their rosters, run their offenses and scheme their defenses.
But another championship could turn Steph Curry into the new NBA logo.
25. Kawhi Leonard
I know people get irritated about Kawhi’s lack of availability but this man is an unbelievable basketball player. If he could physically play, he would. You don’t become that great without sacrificing hours upon hours upon hours upon hours of your life in the gym practicing that little pull-up middy.
Kawhi’s played only 32 games this season. He’s scored 20+ points in 16 of them. He scored 31 last Friday against the Nets.
Lowkey, Kawhi is in his peak playoff form right now. Not saying he’s going full 2019 Toronto Raptors on anyone but Kawhi might remind the world why the Clippers keep giving him max contracts despite his inability to walk straight.
26. Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis is averaging 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists, shooting a career-high in field goal attempts at 60% from the field. This week, he scored 35 points with 17 rebounds and 20 ASSISTS against Quentin Grimes’s team. One of the best NBA seasons ever and no one cares because no one believes he, Kyle Kuzma and Brook Lopez have any chance of winning a championship.
Out of everyone on this list, Giannis has the least to prove. It’s actually the other way around. The other 11 guys on this roster and the Bucks coaching staff must prove to Giannis how serious they are about winning. As mentioned earlier, Giannis’s contract sure looks a lot like Karl-Anthony Towns’s. Interesting. It’d be a shame if he were to request a trade, specifically adding the Knicks to his list of destinations.
It’s fine though. Doc Rivers will blame the weather or his acid reflux or something.
27. Luka Doncic
Luka Doncic was a turnstile on defense in the NBA Finals. Barbeque chicken. Play after play, the Celtics were turning Luka into a practice cone. He needn’t have even jogged to that side of the floor. The Mavs would’ve had a better chance of winning if he just stayed by the basket, cherry-picking all game long.
Of everyone on this list, Luka genuinely has the most to prove. Last year ended with the perception he was a Top 3 player in the NBA—and not 3. But instead of taking that Finals L as motivation to get into the best shape of his life and make this his first true MVP season, Luka gained weight and suffered little ticky-tack, out-of-shape injuries before Dallas dropped him off at the Lakers team facility overnight.
In 23 games with the Lakers, he is having one of the worst shooting stretches of his life—shooting a career-low 47% on 2-pointers after never falling below 50% in his NBA career. And when his shot isn’t falling, he’s kind of a slow, methodical, predictable player—dragging the offense to a tortoise pace—allowing opposing defenses to force Lakers possessions to end with Dorian Finney-Smith jumpers.
It’s not fair, given he hasn’t had a full season in LA and probably hasn’t finished moving in yet but again, I thought Luka was the second-best player in the NBA when the Finals ended. If he’s so great, why does it feel like the Lakers still have to play perfect basketball to win against any team?
28. Jamal Murray
I was about to write something for Nikola Jokic but what would you like me to say? He’s really good at basketball. We know this.
If Jamal Murray doesn’t show up to these playoff games, the Nuggets have to take a step back and recalibrate this roster around a man who—on any given day—could announce his retirement to go live in a horse stable on the outskirts of a wartorn nation.
Murray’s missed the last 3 games with a hamstring injury—not his fault—but the Nuggets lost 2 of those 3 games including an L against a Wemby-less, Fox-less Spurs. Sure would’ve been nice to have the second-best player on the team.
If the season ended today, Denver would play the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round—and I can imagine the Grizzlies getting under Russell Westbrook’s skin—leading to unprovoked flagrant fouls and technicals and yea, the Nuggets need Jamal Murray to take Westbrook off the floor.
29. Anthony Edwards
I love Ant Edwards, yo. This kid is raw. He makes rim protectors abort mission when he’s driving full speed down the lane. He has no Plan B. When he decides to penetrate, he’s scoring and he’ll deal with the consequences later.
30. James Harden
Harden is having the time of his life. He’s in Los Angeles averaging 22 and 8 without a whiff of real national media coverage or day-to-day scrutiny. James Harden thrives playing in a vacuum with no stakes.
But once those games start to matter and you can’t beat up on the Utah Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans, James Harden forgets how to dribble as if there is a Monstar out there dominating the galaxy with his step-back 3.
31. Bronny Jr
Can’t talk about superstar legacies without mentioning the true GOAT, Bronny James—who has a chance to win his first NBA championship his rookie season—and if you account for his genetics—he’ll be on pace to win 22 NBA Titles, 18 more than his father.
I was going to make a joke about Stephen A. Smith reading this and ripping his phone in half but the only thing Stephen A. Smith reads are box scores his staff puts on his desk moments before they go on air, expensive restaurant menus and escort prices.
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