Legacies are built and torn down in the NBA playoffs and the 2020 postseason in the Orlando Bubble was no exception—in fact, it might have been one of the most legacy-altering post-seasons of the modern NBA era.
Some players took their first steps in crafting their own myths, while others were woken up once more from their reoccurring dreams of basketball immortality. A few cemented themselves as warriors and legends whom, even if they never reach the NBA Pinnacle, will always be remembered as winners. A couple took some baby-steps away from achieving their ultimate destinies. And one player saw his legacy ascend to heights in GOAT territory, which haven’t been reached by anyone in more than 20 years.
This is Part One of the first annual NBA Legacy Stocks, an in-depth look at the trajectory of star players’ legacies after their most recent postseason runs. Legacy Stocks will examine whether players’ legacies are trending up or down based on their playoff performance that year and whether or not their stocks will recover. Sometimes I might suggest abandoning the proverbial ship completely. Sometimes I might tell you to play it cool and wait a bit to make a decision. Other times, I might plead for you to handcuff yourselves to a player’s wrist or pressure you to tattoo their name on your chest.
Let the games begin.
Part 1
First Round Exits
Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks
Regular Season Averages
28.8 PTS, 9.4 RB, 8.8 AST, 1.0 STL, TS% 58.5
Playoff Averages in First Round Loss to the Los Angeles Clippers
31 PTS, 9.8 RB, 8.7 AST, 1.2 STL, TS% 59.6
Legacy Stock Trajectory: So up that you should sell your house, your car, maybe even your dog, and all of your Legacy Stock in the rest of the 2018 draft class and invest here.
Remember when I said there may be times where I argue for you to get a player’s name tattooed on your chest? Well, you’d better go find your hippy friend who does stick-and-poke because Luka Doncic is it. IT.
The 21-year-old Slovenian Wonder averaged a near 30-point triple-double in his first postseason ever. You want to know who else has put up the numbers Luka did that in their first playoff series? If you guessed Jordan, Bird, Magic, or LeBron, then you were wrong on all accounts. The answer is “no one.” The kid scored 42 in his playoff opener, sunk a buzzer-beating 3 to win Game 3, and put up 38 in a Game 6 loss that sent the Clippers to the second round. And he did this all against two peskiest defenders in the game in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
This was year two for Luka Doncic. He led his team to the playoffs in a loaded Western Conference and pushed the championship favorite to six games on a bum ankle. There’s a world where he doesn’t play hurt, and Porzingis doesn’t miss three games with a knee injury that has the Mavericks making a run to the Conference Finals to face Luka’s destiny in LeBron. Unfortunately, we do not live in that world. But in this world we do live in, Luke Doncic has begun crafting one hell of a legacy as the future face of this league. This kid has arrived, and he is coming for you.
Chris Paul
Regular Season Averages
17.6 PTS, 5 RB, 6.7 AST, 1.6 STL, TS% 61
Averages in First Round Loss to the Houston Rockets
21.3 PTS, 5.3 AST, 7.4 RB, 1.6 STL, TS% 60.4
Legacy Stock Trajectory: Up and not coming back down.
Listen, if anyone deserves to have their legacy bolstered after a first round exit, it’s Chris Paul.
The noise around the Point God going into the 2019-2020 season was resounding with condemnation. The Rockets had to attach two first round picks (TWO) and two pick swaps just to get him out of Houston in exchange for Russell Westbrook, and he had the worst contract in basketball this side of John Wall. He couldn’t stay healthy for the postseason and was clearly not the player he once was.
What an absolute load of crap. Chris Paul followed his James Harden-induced exile with an All-Star appearance and an All-NBA selection and led the Thunder to a literal against-all-odds playoff appearance. In a season where many veterans in his position (see Andre Iguodala) would have thrown in the towel or demanded a trade, Chris Paul did two things: He lead, and he won. In a series where he, like always, controlled games without dominating them, Chris Paul came within one possession of advancing his young team past the veteran Rockets team that traded him.
And, lo and behold, when the Rockets advanced to the second round against the Lakers only for Harden stumble once more into off-ball uselessness and to watch Westbrook force the issue time after time and clank open three after open three, what did the world conclude? Something along the lines of, “Man, they really could use Chris Paul right now.”
Chris Paul came into the season dismissed as a leader and cast away as an albatross and finished the season validated, revalued, and vindicated. His time in OKC solidified the man as a winner and a fighter. Cheers to hoping CP3 ends up with a title contender next season and to his Legacy Stock being fixed in an upward trajectory.
Donovan Mitchell
Regular Season Averages
24 PTS, 4.3 AST, 4.4 RB, 1 STL, TS% 55.8
Playoff Averages in First Round Loss to the Denver Nuggets
Games Played: 7, 36 PTS, 4.9 AST, 5 RB, 1 STL, TS% 69.6
Averages vs. Denver in the First Round
36 PTS, 4.9 AST, 5 RB, 1 STL, TS% 69.6
Legacy Stock Trajectory: It’s still not true, but maybe those Dwyane Wade comparisons weren’t the worst thing… trajectory up!
And here we have our final player whose Legacy Stock somehow improved despite a first round exit. For the first time in his career, Donovan Mitchell lent some credence to the “This guy is a young Dwyane Wade” narrative—key words there being lent and some. He’s not Dwyane Wade, but holy cow, was he awesome in this series. Yes, Denver was bad defensively. But the guy scored 50 points in a playoff series. Two times. You know who else had done that in the history of the league prior? Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson. Not exactly the worst company to be in for a young shooting guard.
More important than the 50 point games, however, was the simple fact that Mitchell showed up. That’s not all to say he hasn’t shown up in previous playoff series—he has, even dating back to his rookie year against the Thunder, back when “Pandemic P” was just “Playoff P.” The difference this year was the circumstances for the Jazz. They entered the playoffs on the heels of a confusing and lackluster regular season that was spent unsuccessfully trying to assimilate Mike Conley. The Jazz’s second-leading scorer, Bojan Bogdanovic, missed the Bubble and playoffs entirely to rehab a wrist injury which required surgery back in May. So, when it came to producing offense during the series, Mitchell was flanked by Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson as his partners on the wings. Conley struggled mightily all year and Jordan Clarkson…well the guy can certainly get a team a bucket or two, but he’s not giving them anything else. Mitchell, however, thrived with his heavy offensive burden, upping his both his scoring and efficiency astronomically.
The Jazz lost in the first round. They blew a 3-1 lead. But Donovan Mitchell was Herculean throughout, and when we look back at Jazz in this series, we will remember his efforts and his dominance.
Kristaps Porzingis
Regular Season Averages
20.4 PTS, 9.5 RB, 1.8 AST, 2.0 BLK, TS% 55.1
Playoff Averages in lost series to the Los Angeles Clippers
23.7 PTS, 8.7 RB, .7 AST, 1.0 BLK, TS% 70.8
Legacy Stock Trajectory: Slightly down, but give it a pessimistic minute
There’s a reason Porzingis is the original “unicorn.” He’s a 7’3 two-way player who can handle like a guard, shoot the ball from anywhere on the floor and block your shot on the other end. He’s a one-time All-Star playing Robin next to the future Batman of the NBA and just had his most efficient season yet. When he was on the floor against the Clippers in the First Round, there were times where he looked like a perfect complement to Doncic, hitting open shots when they came his way and working as a primary scorer when Luka was off the floor. He even stepped up to the role of enforcer when Marcus Morris Sr. tried to rough up his Slovenian partner. Heck, if Porzingis hadn’t been ejected from Game 1 of the series for his dust-up with Morris Sr., there’s a chance that series swings in an entirely different direction—had he been able to stay healthy.
Ah. And there it is—The legacy altering “H-word.” Porzingis is everything previously described, but if this magical-horned horse can’t stay on the hardwood, then he won’t ever achieve his full potential as the All-Star number two to Doncic’s number one.
Porzingis suffered a knee injury in Game 1 against the Clippers, which continued to ail him in Games 2 and 3 of the series, before keeping him out of the final three games. It was revealed before Game 6 that the injury was a torn meniscus, which ended up requiring surgical repair.
Porzingis’ Legacy Stock is trending downward because, once again, we are left wondering if he will join the ranks of slender big men who can’t stay healthy enough to contribute to long term winning. He’s played in just over 60% of his teams’ total games since he got in the league and hasn’t played more than 70 games since his rookie season. There’s a chance, of course, that he recovers marvelously and is able to maintain this level of production, but his own history, along with the history of players his size, is not on his side. Watch carefully for now, but it very well could be time to move on from this Stock.
Rudy Gobert
Regular Season Averages
15.1 PTS, 13.5 RB, 1.5 AST, 2 BLK TS% 69.9
Playoff Averages in First Round Loss to the Denver Nuggets
16.9 PTS, 11.4 RB, 1.1 AST, 1.4 BLK TS% 63.8
Playoff Outcome
Lost to the Denver Nuggets in seven games in the First Round
Legacy Stock Trajectory: Years from now, are we going to remember this guy fondly? Depends. Trajectory: Down.
Rudy Gobert left us all with a number of questions after the Jazz’s first round loss to the Nuggets. Is this guy worth the 248-million-dollar five-year extension he’s almost certainly going to demand? Can he be the second-best player on a team with serious deep-playoff aspirations? I’m going to throw a dart in this dark with this one, and guess you probably whispered “no” to yourself after reading those. Or, if you’re a Jazz fan, maybe you yelled it with an expletive or two attached.
Look, Gobert is truly elite at what he does best—protecting the rim. He’s literally made a career out of it, having earned an All-Star appearance along with multiple All NBA, All Defense, and Defensive Player of the Year nods. Those are incredible accolades and rightfully earned. But after watching the Jazz play the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic made it forcefully clear that Gobert’s one elite skill doesn’t give a team enough to contend in the NBA going forward. The Joker lit up the Eiffel Tower to the tune of 26.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 5.4 assists, all while shooting 51% from the field and nearly 48% from downtown. If there was a way to capitalize numbers, that “48%” would take up an entire page.
Whether it’s Anthony Davis and Jokic in the West, or Embiid, Giannis, and Bam Adebayo in the East, the road to the NBA Finals for the foreseeable is going to go through elite, multifaceted big men. If the big man you’re potentially going to pay close to 50-million-per-year isn’t going to compete with those guys on the offensive end, or even stretch the floor for that matter, and is going to be abused like Gobert was by Jokic on the defensive end, then, well, you can’t pay that guy 50 million a year. And he definitely can’t be your second-best player.
The 2020 Playoffs showed that the NBA is moving on from Gobert’s limited skill set in the middle of his prime. His legacy is going to be affected as such. His Legacy Stock trajectory is salvageable, however, but it is contingent upon his next paycheck. If he collects a max contract somewhere, he is bound to be remembered as an overpaid and overrated player. If in total unlikelihood, he takes a big discount to keep doing what he’s great at for a great team when they need it, then he has a chance to be remembered as the decorated player that he is.
Joel Embiid
Regular Season Averages
23 PTS, 11.6 RB, 3.0
AST, 1.3 BLK, TS% 59
Playoff Averages in
First Round Loss to the Celtics
30 PTS, 12.3 RB, 1.3
AST, 1.3 BLK, TS% 60
Playoff Outcome
Lost to the Boston
Celtics in four games in the First Round
Legacy Stock Trajectory: Embiid looks tired…again! Down.
Yes, I realize the Sixers would have been outmatched going into this series even if Ben Simmons was available. And yes, I remember that the team’s next best players on the roster were one-trick pony Tobias Harris and wishful-thinking-rising-star Shake Milton (with all due respect to Al Harford.) It’s all totally true. The Sixers were never going to beat the Celtics in this first round series. But Embiid’s Legacy Stock trajectory isn’t going down because his team lost—It’s going down because Embiid once again gave up.
The Sixers had a long, disjointed season plagued by coaching and chemistry issues alike. They had every excuse to sizzle out of the playoffs unspectacularly, and they did. But Joel Embiid? Physically speaking, he’s as gifted as anyone in the league. He is one, maybe two or three players who actually has a chance at individually slowing down Giannis. When he’s engaged, he can protect the paint with more agility and intensity than Rudy Gobert. He led the league in points on the block and probably should have gotten more touches than he did. But somehow, we left that Boston series all feeling one thing: This guy just might not have it. Instead of going down low, he settled for fadeaway jump shots or three-pointers. Instead of sprinting back in transition for easy opportunities, he often crossed half court with barely half of the shot clock left.
Joel Embiid has been hovering slightly above the players-who-never-live-up-to-their-potential line for a couple of years now. At this point, we can call what we’ve seen from him a pattern. There’s a chance, of course, that he comes back next season and looks like one of the three best players in the world. But, until he proves otherwise, a postseason Embiid flameout needs to be the expectation, and a Legacy Stock cannot point anywhere but down after establishing a new norm as such.
Victor Oladipo
Regular Season Averages
14.5 PTS, 3.9 RB, 2.9 AST, .9 STL, TS% 50.6
Playoff Averages vs. Miami in the First Round
17.8 PTS, 3.3 RB, 2.5 AST, 2.3 STL TS% 56.3
Outcome
Lost to Miami Heat in four Games
Legacy Stock: The numbers went up, but the stock went down.
Oladipo entered the bubble reluctantly. He only came back from injury last winter, and by the time the season shut down in March, it was clear he was still finding his legs. Unfortunately, that didn’t change once the playoffs started in the Orlando Bubble.
On the surface, it looks as though Oladipo may have been rounding out as his scoring and efficiency both increased. But the eye test showed something much different. He clearly lacked the burst and explosion that fueled him to All NBA and All-Defensive selections in 2018. He didn’t get to the basket with nearly the same ease and wasn’t able to pester his opponents defensively like we are used to seeing.
There’s a chance Oladipo rounds back into form as he becomes farther removed from his injury and rehab, but this postseason did nothing to make us believe he will be returning to his All NBA self anytime soon.
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