Athletes love to fall back on the cliche “pressure is a privilege” — except it may not feel like it for these seven.
Pressure in the NBA generally comes in two forms: Pressure to win and pressure to get paid. There are some of both of those on this list of the seven players facing the most pressure in the NBA this season, plus a little career legacy thrown in for a few cases (the bottom two on this list are more legacy, more “pressure is a privilege,” while the top five it is more immediate).
Here is our seven-man list, kicking off a month of NBA season preview stories.
Trae Young
Is Trae Young the guy who led the Atlanta Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021? Or is he the guy who had considerably less trade interest this summer than Dejonte Murray? More importantly, which one of those perceptions will decide Young’s pay going forward?
Young is extension eligible after this season, which puts the pressure on him to prove teams have undervalued him. Young needs to show front offices that hat he can be one of the two best players on a contending team, that he can lift up the team around him, and is not simply a stat stuffer and defensive liability. Or, at least he has to re-establish enough value to get himself paid like he expects next summer.
Atlanta has to decide that for themselves by next summer what role Young plays in their future, and they will be evaluating him this season as well. Are the Hawks still building around Young or are they moving on and doing a more traditional rebuild? If they want to move on, how much of a trade market is there? (Some corners of the Internet love to try to push Young to San Antonio, but league sources told NBC Sports that the Spurs don’t share that interest and don’t think pairing him with Victor Wembanyama would lead to a contender. Which directly speaks to why Young is on this list.)
LaMelo Ball
LaMelo Ball can be one of the most entertaining players in the NBA, he is a social media sensation, but can he win in the NBA? Can he lead a team? Or are his stats empty calories?
The pressure is on Ball this season to prove he can stay healthy — he’s played in just 58 games across the past two seasons — and that he can lead the Hornets to the postseason. To be fair, Charlotte is rebuilding and isn’t going to win a lot of games this season, but if Ball, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and the rest of the roster can click under new coach Charles Lee, a play-in berth is not out of the question. Any hope of that starts with Ball, who has to not just put up numbers — 23.9 points and 8 assists a game last season — but show he can be efficient doing it. Ball’s 56.1 true shooting percentage was at the league average last season and his turnover percentage of 15% has to come down (for comparison, Jalen Brunson had a 9.1% turnover percentage last season and the high-paced Tyrese Haliburton was 12.2%). Ball has his contract, but we’ll learn a lot this season about what kind of player he is.
Jamal Murray
If the Denver Nuggets are going to get back to the NBA Finals, Jamal Murray has to return to his 2023 playoff form. It’s that simple. He got paid this summer — a $208 million max extension — now he has to live up to it. With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope gone (following in the footsteps of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green a year before) and the Nuggets leaning into a youth movement for role players, Murray being elite matters more than ever to the Nuggets.
He wasn’t elite in the playoffs last season, averaging 20.6 points and 5.8 assists a game but shooting 31.5% from 3 with a dreadful 47.4 true shooting percentage — although he hit a couple of clutch game winners against the Lakers.
Or, look at it this way, his PER was 12.2, which is below the league average and suggests a bench player. It was worse in the Paris Olympics, where he averaged six points a game and shot 14.3% from 3.
Nuggets president Josh Kroenke stood up for Murray and said he wasn’t 100% healthy in the playoffs or in Paris. That may well be true, but if he’s not healthy and back to his 2023 form this season the Nuggets will be home a lot sooner than they would like.
Paul George
Paul George was the only All-Star to switch teams this summer, bolting from Southern California to head to Philadelphia and play with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. George’s arrival made the 76ers instant contenders…
On paper.
Now PG13 has to stay healthy, play like he did as an All-Star last season in Los Angeles — 22.6 points and 5.8 rebounds a game, plus quality defense — and bring it in the playoffs. None of that is a given, and not in the way its not a given for any player to stay healthy. George played in 74 games last season but never got above 56 in the previous four seasons (two of those seasons did have reduced games played due to the pandemic, but he missed considerable time those years). “Playoff P” has also had his share of playoff struggles, including in Game 6 against Dallas last year and going back to the Clippers’ collapse in the bubble. George has had some amazing playoff performances as well, but he has not been consistent in the way the 76ers are banking on him to be.
If George and Embiid are healthy and playing at or near their peak, Philly is unquestionably a threat to Boston and could win it all. Their moves this offseason were maybe the best in the league. However, George got his fat new contract and now has to prove he’s worth it on the biggest of stages.
Ja Morant
Ja Morant wants a fresh start. That’s what this season feels like, a chance for Morant to have a redemption arc, both on the court and off, and for the Grizzlies to be a sleeping giant in the West (or, at least, a dangerous playoff team).
Now the pressure is on him to do something with that chance. The question isn’t the quality of his play, even in the nine games he played last season between his suspension and shoulder injury, Morant averaged 25.1 points and 8.1 assists a game, and the Grizzlies were outscoring opponents with him on the court. However, he has not played in 65 games or more (the qualifying line for postseason awards) since his rookie season. Morant has to stay healthy. Off the court, he needs to be a good teammate, be mature and not do the foolish things that get you suspended by the league.
I’m high on the Grizzlies having a big bounce-back season and making the top six, but that is a bet on Morant returning to form.
Anthony Edwards
It could seem a little odd to see one of the fast rising stars in the league on this list, but hear me out:
If Minnesota is going to make a step forward and reach the NBA Finals, it will be because Anthony Edwards makes the leap to the player who can carry a contender in the biggest moments. The pressure is on him to prove he can do that. Let’s use the Paris Olympics as an example: Through the group stage games Edwards was the USA’s leading scorer, but when it came time for the medal rounds it was the guys with championship experience — Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, LeBron James — who stepped up their games. Now, Edwards needs to be that guy.
The pressure also is there because nobody is sure how long the Timberwolves window will last, at least in this iteration. Rudy Gobert is extension eligible and will get more expensive after this season, this entire roster is about to get radically expensive, Mike Conley is 37, and this team is in the midst of an ownership battle that could lead to changes. The pressure is on the Timberwolves to win now, and that puts pressure on Edwards.
I think he’s ready to handle it, but he’s got to do it on the court.
Jayson Tatum
Why is he on this list? Jayson Tatum was the best player on a championship team then won a Gold Medal this summer, doesn’t that mean the pressure is off him? Not after Tatum struggled through the playoffs (by his standards) then got benched by Steve Kerr for chunks of the Paris Olympics.
Tatum has been an All-NBA, MVP-ballot level player in recent seasons but his reputation and legacy need a little polishing after his June and summer. Plus, he plays in Boston, where a franchise cornerstone is expected to win more than one ring.
It’s “good pressure” and Tatum will welcome it, but he faces pressure nonetheless.
