Most Impressive! 12 NBA Writers on the Teams and Players They're Enjoying Most
NBA Substack on the playoffs ... so far
We asked a dozen leading NBA voices on Substack for their take on the playoffs:
What has impressed YOU most?
Check out their answers and subscribe!
Ant-Man!
| At the risk of stating the obvious, the way in which Anthony Edwards has established himself as one of the biggest stars of these playoffs within just two games is electric and thrilling.
The Timberwolves had a magical season but there were questions heading into a series with the veteran, star-laden Suns. The Wolves broadly and Edwards specifically have made Phoenix look like they don't belong on the same stage.
Wolves World
| Minnesota. Minnesota. And Minnesota. Fifty-six wins added up to only a No. 3 seed for the Timberwolves ... and a first-round matchup against the dreaded, surging Suns. All the Wolves have done so far is smother Phoenix all the way back to the desert, seize a commanding 2-0 series lead, reinforce the notion that no team on the NBA map plays better defense and win Game 2 when Anthony Edwards looked rather mortal.
History says a 2-0 series lead, remember, means that the Wolves areย 93% likely to win their first playoff series since 2004. Hugely impressive!
Four teams getting it done
| 1. The resilience shown by Denver and New York.
2. Cleveland's defense.
3. OKC figuring out different ways to beat New Orleans.
Both the Nuggets and Knicks have trailed big in both of their games and come out on the other side up 2-0. And the Knicks have done it while Jalen Brunson has struggled badly.
The Cavs have the Magic offense in absolute hell.
And the Thunder are just making all kinds of on-the-fly adjustments that a team this young shouldn't be able to handle, but they are.
Getting hot โฆ again
| The Heat's 3-point shooting. Again. A franchise-record 23 threes in Game 2, but the process was just as sound as the results. They generated 23 wide-open 3-point attempts, the most in any game vs. Boston since the Bubble. Not just luck.
Emotional intel
| 1. No stage fright. Aside from the Orlando Magic, no team we'd consider a novice to the postseason has flinched under the first flash of the bright lights. If anything, the games were almost tooย measured, but that all went up in a roil over the playoffs' first weekend. The Wolves, Thunder, Cavs, Pacers, Pelicans, they've all come out to compete. It's made for relatively close contests and electric basketball.
2. A thespian emerges. Anthony Edwards is just having a ball. He's competing and performing in thisย perfectย symbiosisย that is as energizing to watch as it is for his team. There is a depth to his lightness, or the levity for which he's able to take big moments, that turns the severity so often considered required for this stage on its head. His talking trash and then grinning down his hero, Kevin Durant (who grinned right back), in Game 1 is a perfect crystallization of that rare awareness.ย
3. The talent show. It's been a decentย performance so far, in terms of depth of talent on display. Watching, we have a front row seat for it and are obviously revelling. But what I've noticed and loved is all the players alongside it revelling in the same thing. There's been such a joy in these early stages, whether from bench celebrations or mobbing the floor after big shots. The steeliness of the latter rounds hasn't crept in yet. I've written about this part before, I love it.
Three impressive teams
| The Minnesota Timberwolves had all the math and matchups against them. Theyโve dominated so far.
Sure, the Oklahoma City Thunder are young. They donโt seem to care. Won a tight one and then destroyed the Pelicans in Game 2. Theyโre real and theyโre spectacular.
The Miami Heat have done it again. Erik Spoelstra is a tactical genius who has a bunch of players who just want to beat you.
Wolves spread their wings
| The NAWโJaden duo.
We already knew what Rudy Gobert could do by himself. Now, thanks to Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaden McDaniels (and company) we know what a Rudy Gobert-led defense with plus defenders around him looks like.
Guess what: Itโs scary. Ask Beal, Booker and Durant if you want. Iโm pretty sure they are having nightmares over them.
Two overcoming doubts
| Rebound by Cleveland. Both literally and figuratively. Jarrett Allen secured all the boards through the first two games, Evan Mobley stopped Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, and the Cavs as a team looked dominant.
Luka Donฤiฤโs defense. Luka constantly kept players in front of him, successfully defended Kawhi Leonard and Paul George isos, and showed much better awareness on defense. If he isnโt a defensive liability, the Mavsโ odds are greatly improved.
Challenging narratives, superpowers, and heart
| @Borracha LaranjaI was impressed (and genuinely happy) with the questioning of some narratives that we took as unspeakable truths. Rudy Gobert being exposed in the playoffs is not written in stone. The Frenchman's defensive-minded teammates on the perimeter โ unlike in Salt Lake City โ help him avoid some mismatches and even enhance his added value, but his greatest merit is his improved ability to be a plus in a 1-5 switches scheme and occasionally hold up with faster and smaller ballhandlers.
With an even smaller sample size, I took note of Luka Donฤiฤ's new superpower in Game 2. The stats are very flattering (2/17 in shots by players defended by the Slovenian, according to ESPN Stats and Info), so I'll highlight what was evident to the eye: commitment and desire to not have a target on his forehead on that side of the ball, which is something that has rarely been seen since the times when, at just 16 years old, he made his debut for the Real Madrid senior team here in Europe.
And finally, what impressed me the most was the demonstration of leadership and resilience by one guy in the series nobody is watching. I could talk here about the risks to the body (and eventually to the career) that Joel Embiid has taken in each possession just to offer the 76ers the gravity (and belief) that his presence generates, but I really want to praise Jalen Suggs' unlikely return in Game 2. He's a role player and he surely knows, like everyone else on the Orlando Magic locker room, that the team doesn't have what it takes to make a long playoff run. The limp was an undeniable manifestation of pain and the best option would be to protect him. Returning to the game, perhaps because he knows he is the catalyst for the Magic's contagious energy and identity in the defensive end, he showed what advanced analytics can't show us: Heart is a skill and intangibles will always have a place in the game.
Jaden & Co.
| We knew that Minnesotaโs defense was elite, but itโs somehow gotten better in the postseason. The Wolves are completely stifling a Phoenix offense that has two of the gameโs best individual offensive players, holding the Suns to 95 and 93 points in Games 1 and 2.
Itโs a team effort, of course โ but Jaden McDaniels deserves an individual shoutout for the sensational work heโs putting in on the defensive end.
New York, New York
| First off, how are the Knicks this good despite Jalen Brunson shooting this bad? The metaphorical Mayor of New York has shot 30% or worse in both games versus Philly, and yet guys like Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo continue to destroy doubts. It's incredible, though maybe not sustainable.
Other than that, I'm semi-impressed by the fact that the Cavs and Magic have both failed to crack the 100-point mark thus far, despite both Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell being involved.
Knicks, Pace, & Spida
| 1. The most impressive thing to me is that the Knicks have two victories in tight games, especially with Brunson not being great. That's not necessarily a good sign going forward โ Sacramento lost its first-round series last year to Golden State after winning its first two games by less than 10 points, for example โ but they actually did it. I wasn't sure they could.
2. The other thing that caught my eye is how slow the pace has been across a lot of games. Pace has traditionally gone down in the playoffs, but this year has been dramatic, going from essentially 99 possessions per game per team down to 93, That would be the biggest decline since at least the โ90s, if not longer.
3. I expected Donovan Mitchell to be good and he has been. Even against a really good defense in Orlando.ย