With Some Of These Playoff Performances So Far, Who Needs LeBron
For the first playoffs without LeBron James in the last 14 years, one of the pleasant surprises has been all these other star players that have been able to snag the attention and the headlines for their pretty ridiculous play. LeBron gets so much attention and it’s obviously deserved, but these first two rounds have been a nice reminder that ya know what? There are some other badass dudes in this league who are ready to dominate the next decade plus of this league. I think we’re all better off not having to listen to ESPN and every talking head do nothing but talk about LeBron and the Lakers. The dominance of some of these guys is pretty much expected, for example nobody is going to be surprised that Kevin Durant is torching people this year, but with so many candidates up until this point, who would you say is having the best postseason? We’ve seen a bunch of people elevate their game to a pretty ridiculous level and in my opinion it has these playoffs living up to the hype. Let’s look at everyone’s case
Kawhi Leonard: 31.2/8.2/4 on 57/46%
Kawhi has obviously shown the ability to thrive in a postseason, the man does have a Finals MVP under his belt. But after sitting out all of last year and then TOR being very cautious with him this year, we couldn’t say with certainty which Kawhi we were going to get, and certainly not one as dominant as we’ve seen through two rounds. The work he is going in this second round has been incredible as he essentially hasn’t missed, and he’s been so good he pretty much single handedly solved TOR’s previous playoff failures.
He’s dominating at every level, he’s the same lockdown defender we always knew he was and he does all this with zero drama. Doesn’t care about shots, doesn’t care about numbers, only cares about winning. The Raptors took a huge gamble on making this trade in the first place, and so far Kawhi has more than delivered.
Giannis Antetokounmpo: 28.4/11.8/4.0 on 52/34%
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I think it’s pretty much the consensus that Giannis is the next face of the NBA once LeBron retires. After a terrific MVP caliber regular season, nobody has backed up that dominance in the playoffs quite like Giannis. The scary part is he’s even starting to hit his threes, which we all know was his one supposed weakness. They say defenses get tougher and you’re not going to score with the same sort of ease as the regular season but I’m pretty confident that does not apply to Giannis. He’s still able to get to wherever he wants, he’s impacting the floor on both ends and it certainly feels like he’s making yet another leap right before our eyes.
He’s figured out how to use his body to get to the line better than anyone else, and now that he got the monkey off his back in terms of finally winning a playoff series you can tell this man is on a mission.
Kevin Durant: 35.4/5.2/5.0 on 51.8/42.9%
In the epic battle for whose team the Warriors really are, I think it’s pretty clear that once this team gets into the postseason it’s Durant’s team. So far through two rounds these playoffs have reminded us that there is no better bucket getting in the NBA right now than Kevin Durant, and really he’s making a very strong case for the best overall player in the league right now. If this truly is his last go around with the Warriors he’s putting on one hell of a performance and I’m not ready to say that his play may be a reason for Curry’s struggles. It does seem weird that when Durant goes off for 40+ the Warriors are under .500 on the season, but there’s no denying he’s been about as unstoppable as it gets up until this point.
Damian Lillard: 29.6/4.4/5.9 on 44.5/37.8
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Dame has cooled off slightly in this second round, but in my opinion he may have been the biggest winner of Round 1. After completely destroying Russell Westbrook you could look around the internet and see a lot of people talking about how Dame was now a Top 3 point guard in the league right now or at least somewhere close to that. He’s been about as clutch as it comes to help the Blazers avenge their brutal postseason sweep last year, and honestly he’s really everything you want in a franchise player. He doesn’t do much talking, he shows up when it matters most, and he is a great leader. For a guy that always feels disrespected, I think this postseason has officially put that to rest. He may have had the biggest rise of any of these stars in terms of overall perception.
Nikola Jokic: 24.5/13.1/9.0 on 50.5/38.3%
Big Honey is having himself one hell of a playoff debut. Call me crazy put putting up a near triple double with great efficiency while leading your team to a 3-2 advantage is pretty damn impressive. Especially when nobody outside of Paul Millsap really has any playoff experience. What Jokic did in that 4OT thriller is the stuff of legends, and the best part about this is nobody can really believe he’s able to do all this stuff. He isn’t some physical freak like some of the other guys on this list, but he’s so goddamn smart that more than makes up for it. You watch him play and you don’t understand how he’s so unstoppable, but then you look up and he has like 35/15/11. Of everyone on this list he’s probably the most fun to play with because of how unselfish he is, and in my opinion nobody has had a bigger coming out party than Jokic this playoffs. Nuggets fans knew how good he was sure, but the overall casual fan definitely had no idea what he was capable of and why he’s arguably the best or at the very least top 2 center in the league right now.
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James Harden: 31.3/7.0/6.7 on 39.5/34.5%
Few stars in the league have the playoff demons that James Harden has. There’s a long list of his playoff failures, and seeing as how he may win back to back MVPs you could say he had a pretty large amount of pressure on him this postseason. While the efficiency may not be there, the production sure as shit is. Busted eye or not Harden has been able to be effective on both ends and has been there every time the Rockets have needed him. Even in the two losses against the Warriors those were by 4 points so it’s not as if we’ve seen him disappear in big moments which was always a huge thing for him. He may not be as high on the list as some other guys in this blog, but he’s certainly backing up his regular season in my opinion.
For me, it really comes down to those 6 guys. If I had to rank em it would probably go like this
6. James Harden
5. Damian Lillard
4. Kevin Durant
3. Kawhi Leonard
2. Giannis
1. Nikola Jokic
The fun part is there’s no wrong answer to however you would order these guys. You could make a case for each and every one that’s what has made this postseason so fun. For once it’s great that we can focus on people other than LeBron, because we’re seeing some truly incredible postseason runs.
So now I’ll ask you, who would you say has had the best postseason so far?