The Top Five Most Intriguing Players for the 2018 NBA Playoffs
The long NBA regular season has finally concluded, and now it's time for the real season to begin.
With the NBA Playoffs set to begin on April 14, the eyes of basketball fans all over the world will again be fixed upon some of the finest athletes to ever set foot on the hardwood.
As with every postseason, there are a few players who become more interesting within the playoff setting.
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These players are intriguing for different reasons and five of them are listed below in descending order.
5. Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics
Expectations are low or at least tempered for the Boston Celtics heading into this postseason, and with good reason. Though the team showed great resilience to ultimately end up with the number two seed in the Eastern Conference, fans and analysts alike don't expect them to stick around in the postseason for that long because they are missing both Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving.
That said, the Celtics aren't exactly just waiting to be eliminated. For the Celtics to go on an extended postseason run, they will need rookie Jayson Tatum to show that he is ready for primetime.
Per Basketball Reference, Tatum has managed to score 20 or more points in five games over the past month or so, and he's also flashed a better feel for running the offense. The Celtics are going to be fine — and maybe even better — on defense with Irving out of the lineup, but they will need Tatum to step up if they are going to keep pace with the other high-powered teams in the Eastern Conference.
4. Anthony Davis, New Orleans Pelicans
Anthony Davis has already accomplished one truly remarkable feat this season, as he kept the New Orleans Pelicans in playoff contention even after fellow All-Star DeMarcus Cousins was sidelined by an injury.
The Pelicans will be hard-pressed to make any real noise in the west since they simply do not have the same firepower other clubs possess, but nevertheless, Davis will be a delight to watch this postseason.
Davis went on a tear during the second half of this season, and it will be worth seeing if he can keep putting up video game numbers now that it's playoff time.
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo may still be a year away from fully unleashing his wrath on the league, but even now, he is a must-watch player. Antetokounmpo made huge strides this year and had the Bucks won more games, who knows, maybe he would've been a viable contender for the MVP award.
Antetokounmpo will face great opposition this postseason because the Bucks lack shooters to give him enough space to comfortably work with, and there's really no secondary star on the team who can take some of the burden off of him.
How Antetokounmpo will react to defenses focusing only on him will hint at how good he can still become in the not too distant future.
2. Ben Simmons, Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia 76ers rookie phenom Ben Simmons averaged more than 15 points to go with eight rebounds and eight assists for this season, and yet, those may not be the most remarkable numbers on his stat line.
According to Simmons' Basketball Reference page, he attempted 11 three-pointers this season and made exactly zero of them.
Now, there are still players in the NBA who can be effective without a three-point shot, but many of them are rim-protecting big men. It's so much harder to be a star perimeter player in the league today without a reliable three-point shot, and yet Simmons was exactly that for this season.
Simmons refusal to even attempt three-pointers consistently is part of what makes him such an intriguing player to watch this postseason. Defenses will likely force him to take jumpers, and he will probably respond by attacking them and trying to get into the paint.
In recent years, playoff teams have been hurt on offense by a player who is a non-entity from beyond the three-point line, and it will be interesting to see if Simmons also negatively impacts the 76ers in that way.
1. Steph Curry, Golden State Warriors
Steph Curry is not expected to play in the Golden State Warriors' first-round series, but whenever he does come back, fans will be watching his every move.
The last time Curry was at less than 100 percent for a Warriors' playoff run, the team lost in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Warriors are definitely stronger now with Kevin Durant onboard, but Curry is still the leader of the team's offense.
If Curry can come back healthy, the Warriors are again the clear favorites to win the title. Anything less than that means that the title will very much be up for grabs.
