Athletes like to fall back on the cliché ‘pressure is a privilege’, but for these seven it might not feel that way.
Pressure in the NBA generally comes in two forms: pressure to win and pressure to get paid. There’s a bit of both on this list of the seven players facing the most pressure in the NBA this season, plus a little career legacy thrown in for good measure in a few cases (the bottom two on this list are more legacy, more “pressure is a privilege,” while the top five are more immediate).
Here’s our list of seven players to kick off a month of NBA season previews.
Trae Jong
Is Trae Young the man who led the Atlanta Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021? Or is he the man who had significantly less interest in a trade this summer than Dejonte Murray? And more importantly, which of those perceptions will shape Young’s salary going forward?
Young is eligible for an extension after this season, putting pressure on him to prove that teams have been undervaluing him. Young needs to show management that he can be one of the top two players on a team in contention, that he can lift the team around him and not just be a stat sheet and defensive liability. Or at the very least, he needs to regain enough value to get himself paid the way he expects to next summer.
Atlanta will have to decide for itself what role Young plays in their future, and they’ll be evaluating him this season as well. Do the Hawks continue to build around Young, or do they move on and execute a more traditional rebuild? If they do, how much of a trade market is there? (Some corners of the internet are eager 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 result in a contender. Which should help explain why Young is on this list.)
LaMelo Ball
LaMelo Ball may be one of the most entertaining players in the NBA, he’s a social media sensation, but can he win in the NBA? Can he lead a team? Or are his stats empty calories?
Ball will be under pressure this season to prove he can stay healthy — he’s played in just 58 games over the past two seasons — and lead the Hornets to the postseason. To be fair, Charlotte is rebuilding and isn’t going to win many games this season, but if Ball, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and the rest of the roster can gel under new coach Charles Lee, a play-in spot isn’t out of the question. Any hope of that starts with Ball, who will need to not only put up the numbers — he averaged 23.9 points and 8 assists per game last season — but also show he can be efficient. Ball’s 56.1 true shooting percentage was league average last season, and his 15 percent turnover rate needs to come down (for comparison, Jalen Brunson had a 9.1 percent turnover rate last season and speedy Tyrese Haliburton had a 12.2 percent turnover rate). Ball is under contract, but we’ll learn a lot about the kind of player he is this season.
Jamal Murray
If the Denver Nuggets want to get back to the NBA Finals, Jamal Murray needs to return to his 2023 playoff form. It’s that simple. He got paid this summer — a $208 million max extension — now he needs to deliver. With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope gone (following in the footsteps of Bruce Brown and Jeff Green the year before) and the Nuggets focused on a youth movement for role players, it’s more important than ever for the Nuggets to play Murray like an elite player.
Last season, he wasn’t among the elite in the playoffs, averaging 20.6 points and 5.8 assists per game, but he shot 31.5% from his 3-point line with a terrible true shooting percentage of 47.4. He did, however, score a pair of game-winning goals against the Lakers.
Or, look at it this way, his PER was 12.2, which is below league average and points to a rotational player. It was even worse during the Paris Olympics, where he averaged six points per game on 14.3% shooting from 3.
Nuggets president Josh Kroenke has defended Murray, saying he wasn’t 100 percent ready for the playoffs or in Paris. That may be true, but if he’s not fit and doesn’t return to his 2023 form this season, the Nuggets will be home a lot sooner than they’d like.
Paul George
Paul George was the only All-Star to switch teams this summer, moving from Southern California to Philadelphia to play with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. George’s arrival immediately made the 76ers contenders…
On paper.
Now, PG13 must stay healthy, play the way he did as an All-Star in Los Angeles last season — 22.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, plus play solid defense — and show it in the playoffs. None of that can be taken for granted, and not in the way that staying healthy can’t be taken for granted for any player. George played in 74 games last season but has never played more than 56 in the previous four seasons (two of those seasons were shorthanded because of the pandemic, but he missed significant time those years). “Playoff P” has had his share of playoff woes, including in Game 6 against Dallas last year and going back to the Clippers’ collapse in the bubble. George has had some great playoff performances, too, but he hasn’t been consistent in the way the 76ers are counting on him to be.
If George and Embiid are healthy and playing at or near their peak, Philly will undoubtedly be a threat to Boston and can win it all. Their moves this offseason have been arguably the best in the league. However, George got his big new contract and now has to prove himself on the biggest stage.
Yes Morant
Yes, Morant wants a fresh start. That’s what this season feels like, a chance for Morant to have a redemption arc, both on and off the court, and for the Grizzlies to be a sleeping giant in the West (or, at the very least, a dangerous playoff team).
Now the pressure is on to do something with that opportunity. 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 per game, and the Grizzlies outscored their opponents with him on the court. But he hasn’t played in 65 or more games (the qualifying line for postseason awards) since his rookie season. Morant needs to stay healthy. Off the court, he needs to be a good teammate, be mature, and not do the stupid things that get you suspended by the league.
I think the Grizzlies will have a good bounce-back season and finish in the top six, but I think Morant will return to form.
Anthony Edwards
It might seem a little odd to see one of the league’s fastest rising stars on this list, but hear me out:
If Minnesota is going to take a step forward and reach the NBA Finals, it’s going to be because Anthony Edwards makes the leap to being the player who can carry a contender in the biggest moments. The pressure is on him to prove he can do it. Let’s take the Paris Olympics as an example: Edwards was the U.S.’s leading scorer in the group stage, 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 game. Now Edwards has to be that guy.
The pressure is also there because no one knows for sure how long the Timberwolves’ window will last, at least in this iteration. Rudy Gobert is extension-eligible and will become 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 now on the Timberwolves to win, and that puts pressure on Edwards.
I think he’s ready, but he has to do it on the field.
Jayson Tatum
Why is he on this list? Jayson Tatum was the best player on a championship team and 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) and then got benched by Steve Kerr for parts of the Paris Olympics.
Tatum has been an All-NBA, MVP-ballot level player the past few seasons, but his reputation and legacy need some polishing after his June and summer. Plus, he’s playing in Boston, where a franchise cornerstone is expected to win more than one ring.
It’s “good pressure” and Tatum will appreciate it, but he’s under pressure regardless.
