Every NBA player is under immense pressure.
Professional sports breeds it, fandom demands it, and social media has multiplied and amplified it time and time again. No player is spared.
However, there are varying degrees of pressure that stars typically face more than anyone else. They are the faces of their teams.
Some names face more scrutiny, both externally and internally, than others. And it is these players that we will seek to identify here.
Anyone under the usual high-stakes pressure will be excluded from this field. The stars headlining title contenders generally have more at stake than those who don’t.
This exercise is less about players trying to continue or validate championship legacies and more about those facing more existential pressures, primarily the fate of their teams this season and beyond.
Some of the pressure being put on Anthony Davis is blatantly unfair. Obsession with what he is not takes on new life every time it doesn’t have an iconic game or disappears for extended periods of time.
Context needs to be more present in these critiques. He is, above all, a game finisher. There are limits to his influence on the offense when the Los Angeles Lakers don’t give him the ball. And getting out of shape because he doesn’t do enough as a hub off the dribble makes no sense.
Davis is not meant to be that player, not on every possession, especially if you’re suggesting he needs more post touches or should be more physical in practice. That the player needs a totally different body type. And if he was that player, he would not be the same generational presence, everywhere and at the same time, he remains on the defensive side.
In reality, his burden of proof is heavier: can he be the Lakers’ best player? long enough to optimize their title chances?
The first half of this question was answered in the affirmative. He was the Lakers’ best player in last year’s Conference Finals. The “long enough” element is another story.
Uneven availability is part of the problem. The 30-year-old has missed more than 20 games in four of the last five seasons and has not made 72 appearances (or its equivalent) since 2017-18.
And then there is the offensive inconsistency. He’s been largely dominant in his role early in the year, but he’s already looked like an MVP candidate for stretches of time.
Can it maintain its two-way impact for weeks and months? That’s the question, as it has been for years. The Lakers better hope the answer is finally yes, not only so they can preserve the 39-year-old LeBron James, but also because this idea that AD is their bridge to the post-LeBron era depends on it.
James Harden just forced a trade for the third time in three years. All of these outings took place in the public eye, arguably becoming uglier as they went along.
The midgame moments in which he called it quits as he fought his way out of Houston and Brooklyn stuck in the memory. But his departure from the Philadelphia 76ers was more controversial, terribly curious and most inexplicable.
Landing with the LA Clippers fails to absolve Harden of the re-examination he was largely spared by joining the Nets and Sixers.
Murky, uninspiring playoff performances have long left him carrying the burden of proof, but the question he now faces isn’t “Can he live up to his superstar credentials when it counts most?” It’s more like, “Is Harden, 34, still worth all this trouble and focus?”
he can say what he wants on the stylistic and financial concessions he made to Philadelphia. Some of it has merit, and we may never know the full story that led him to call out Daryl Morey, his biggest defender, a liar.
Yet there’s a common denominator to all of his extremely uncomfortable exits — not to mention the generally awkward departures of high-profile running mates in Houston. It’s not Morey, it’s Harden himself.
More than ever, it’s up to the 10-time All-Star to prove he can adapt, deserves the benefit of the doubt and can still perform in the postseason.
Ja Morant was always going to be on this list.
He is currently serving a 25-game suspension for conduct detrimental to the NBA. Fair or not, the length of his absence is a direct result of recurring behavior that has sparked public concern. When he returns, he will have to rebuild all the goodwill wasted by his off-field problems.
Teammates, Memphis Grizzlies fans and members of the organization will be quicker to forgive, maybe even forget. The rest of the league and the media probably won’t.
Certainly, Morant is not beyond redemption. To deduce that much is inflammatory nonsense. But to suggest that he has nothing to prove after everything that has happened would also be wrong. If anything, he still has more to prove than initially thought.
The Grizzlies are in freefall without the 24-year-old. Injuries to Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke and, more recently, Santi Aldama, Luke Kennard and Derrick Rose have complicated things beyond measure. But Morant is the team’s only superstar, and there were hints last season that Memphis wasn’t as built to survive without him as previous years suggested.
Morant’s absence is the biggest threat, and his eventual return seems bigger than that: the Grizzlies’ best and only hope of salvaging a season that is quickly spiraling out of control and irrelevance.
Julius Randle’s on-again, off-again relationship with All-NBA Value is apparently still intact. And he is currently going through the recurrent phase.
Its rifle divisions fell into the goriness of the NFSW. Friday night, he made less than 29 percent of his two-pointers and less than 26 percent of his triples. A career-low 64 percent from the foul line rounds out what has quickly become an incomprehensibly rough start, worthy of ringing alarm bells.
Offseason ankle surgery could be a factor here. But it’s hard to ignore his struggles in the recovery process as the New York Knicks continue to play him more than 33 minutes a night.
Ongoing ankle problems also don’t explain a sudden aversion to three-man throwing. Her volume per minute from beyond the arc is down from last year, and the 28-year-old seems visibly hesitant to shoot on potentially open looks.
New York’s half-court offense cannot afford such reluctance. Defenses are packing the paint harder than ever, and it’s made Jalen Brunson’s life hell.
Randle’s flashes of better play aren’t good enough to compensate for both his efficiency and his shot selection flaws. The Knicks need him to open the floor, if only through willing outfield volume.
Never mind proving he can play at an All-NBA level for back-to-back seasons. If Randle doesn’t want to repeat last year’s performance, he needs to at least show that he won’t be an active part of the problem.
Inconsistency continues to be Karl-Anthony Towns’ calling card. It is a problem.
It’s also infuriating, because we’ve seen the best version of him in segments. He will make quick decisions from the start. He will attack downhill after the dribble. He will vomit three in great volume. He will lead the prosecution. He will struggle on defense: harder closeouts, resistance to screens, better positioning in the pick-and-roll and away from the ball.
This isn’t the city’s version the Minnesota Timberwolves have gotten thus far, however. Its pockets of aggression and defensive engagement are currently the exception, residing miles and miles from The Rule’s village.
Fundamental issues with the Wolves roster could be at work. Here again, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid both largely dominated the 27-year-old. And that should never be a thing, no matter how you feel about core composition.
Minnesota desperately needs cities to get by, at a minimum, for weeks. He’s too valuable to the offense, even with Reid teasing yet another big step forward. He’s also too expensive to be a team’s third-best player. His $36 million salary will rise to $49.7 million next season, the first of a four-year, $222.7 million extension.
Whether it’s showing that he can find and maintain a long-term peak on this team or that he can play well enough and long enough to bolster his trade appeal, the pressure is on Towns to prove he is more than a polarizing swing.
Unless otherwise stated, statistics provided by NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Statistics head Or Clean the glass and specific entry games on Friday, November 3. Salary information via Spotrac.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to Hardwood shots podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes.
