Most Underrated NBA Playoff Storylines
13 NBA Substack writers on the unsung, the underplayed, and what to watch for
We asked 13 leading NBA voices on Substack for their …
Underrated NBA Playoff Storylines
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Championship carousel
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I continue to be fascinated by the prospect of six different NBA champions over a span of six seasons, which hasn't happened since 1974-75 through 1979-80 when I was just becoming a serious NBA fan. This can only happen, mind you, if Denver doesn't win it all again, which has to be back on the table after the defending champs were routed in Minneapolis on Thursday and suddenly face a Game 7 on Sunday to keep their season going.
West’s upper crust
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It's going to be a major bummer for whoever doesn't win the West between Denver, OKC and Minnesota. As I noted the other day, there's a big gap in the power ratings between the top four remaining teams and the next four. Of those top four, all but one (Boston) are in the West, so at least two unfortunate great teams will get knocked out before the Finals. (Or all three could get booted, if Dallas gets hot again, although their overall résumé isn't on the same level with those other Western teams.)
Meanwhile, Boston will get what looks like a comparatively easy Finals path no matter who wins between NY and Indy. Is that good or bad for the Celtics? On the one hand, it would seem to be an advantage if they make the Finals without having to expend themselves on so many good opponents. But we've also seen this team fail as a favorite before, so who really knows?
New grade for the midseason trade
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It's been conventional wisdom for a while now that midseason/trade deadline acquisitions don't move the needle all that much. But is that true anymore?
Look at Dallas with P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. Look at New York, two years in a row, with Josh Hart and then OG Anunoby and Bojan Bogdanović and Alec Burks. Even Minnesota got Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker midseason last year. And of course, the Nuggets got Aaron Gordon at the deadline a few years ago.
So, maybe the strength of the midseason acquisition is back.
The Janitor still has a job
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I know the Cavs were knocked out, but can we talk about Tristan Thompson still getting playoff minutes in 2024?! There is something wild about the fact that he’s still playing while Blake Griffin is retiring.
Thompson got more court time than air time on the latest season of The Kardashians. At this point, I hope he becomes the Udonis Haslem of the Cavs and is just there to cheer rookies on and occasionally be shown on TV for me to point and yell at it.
NBA biodiversity
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In boxing, they say styles make fights. That must hold for basketball, too, because we’ve had some beautiful donnybrooks in these playoffs.
We have the long-tentacled menaces in Minnesota battling the geometric silliness of Jokić. We have the Maverick puppet masters duking it out with a Thunder squad purposefully punting the rebounding game. We have the run-and-gun Pacers grappling with the walk-it-up Knicks, and the winner faces a team full of 3-and-D-and-3-again Bostonians.
That variegation wasn’t always the case a half-decade ago, when it felt like we were veering dangerously close to offensive homogeneity. Today, thankfully, NBA play has never been more diverse or more fun.
Still the champs
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Is it weird to say the defending champs are underrated? The Nuggets have been a bit overshadowed by how talented — and not just competitive anomalies — the Wolves, Thunder, Pacers and Knicks are, and people have been quick to dismiss Denver as clunky, or out of step, by comparison.
What seems to really be happening is a mature team understanding its strengths, and putting opponents through their paces (almost wrote Pacers). A discerning and equally slick way to tire your matchup out before running through them like a well-oiled buzz saw.
Eastern frontrunners
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Call me crazy, but I think the Boston Celtics are pretty good. I get it, they're catching breaks.
But who's the East powerhouse they've been spared from playing? The Bucks? Even healthy, you can't convince me this Milwaukee roster is better than the 2022 roster that a far weaker version of these Celtics beat the last time. Same with the Heat. You can put Butler back on the floor. I still wouldn't have picked them. And you know what else? The Sixers lost to the Knicks fair and square.
I wouldn't pick Boston over Denver, as I set down in another roundup, but it feels like this team is drawing a level of skepticism it hasn't quite earned.
Ouch!
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Health is an underrated story. These playoffs have been wrecked by injuries, especially so in the Eastern Conference.
After all of the NBA's crowing about load management and how guys played more this year and injuries were down, we've had several teams see their postseasons impacted by injuries. And for a handful of those teams, they've seen their seasons get ruined. The NBA may have championed their new participation policies as a huge success a little too early.
Big D’s D
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Maybe it's because they don't have a DPOY like Rudy Gobert, exciting young defenders like Jaden McDaniels and NAW, or because we don't really consider them real contenders like Boston. Or maybe it's because we are accustomed to think that their two stars are bad defenders.
But I think that the Dallas Mavericks’ defense is STILL being underrated. With a rookie center, good but not great defenders, and two committed stars, Jason Kidd has the Mavs defending like dogs out there.
Energy policy
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In the Knicks-Pacers series, whoever strikes early sets the tone for the entire night. Of the five games played so far, four have been won by the team that won the scoring battle in the first quarter, with the remaining contest — Game 2 — being a Knicks victory in which the teams were deadlocked after the first 12 minutes.
This has clearly been a series about energy and pace, so going for the early knockout is the key to victory for tonight’s matchup.
Malone with his thoughts
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Sure, it helps to have 3x MVP and maybe the best player in the game on your team, but Denver coach Michael Malone has shown:
Game-to-game adjustment → Gordon handling the ball more.
In-game adjustment → KAT (early double), Edwards (blitz/trap to force the ball out).
Flexibility → benching MPJ, maybe the best Nugget after Jokić in the first-round series, for Braun, who brings better defensive effort.
Finding the hot hand(s) → Justin Holiday has a bigger role in the second round as shooting is needed.
Payton attention
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Don't look now, but Payton Pritchard has become one of the most elite shooters in the East, and at the perfect time.
The 26-year-old guard — one that some Celtics fans were wanting to get rid of last offseason due to inconsistency — shot a whopping 50% from beyond the arc and has scored the fifth-most points on the Celtics’ roster despite playing just 22 minutes per contest.
While his defense is still average at best, his offense could push this squad over the hump against the supposedly "more difficult" opponents.
P.J. day
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Is there something in the water in Charlotte?
When the Dallas Mavericks traded for P.J. Washington, the overwhelming response could've been described as lukewarm, at best. (ESPN’s grade for the trade was a D.)
Several months removed from a four-year Charlotte career where he never sported a positive BPM, Washington looks like a totally different player. It's not unreasonable to call him the Mavs’ second-best player in their series with OKC — unexpected for a team that also has Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving.
Washington is about 4 PPG away from being Dallas's top scorer while making 48% of his 3s with nine rebounds per game while playing great defense. Where was that player in Charlotte?