Every NBA player participating in the 2016 playoff bracket is chasing a championship,but others are also chasing dollar signs.
Some soon-to-be free agents don't need the postseason to beef up their resumes. We know what DeMar DeRozan, Andre Drummond, or Kevin Durant,Al Horford, et al. will command on the open markets.
Players with undefined market value are different. Postseason basketball is a small sample size regardless of its actual length and won't compose or break most future contracts. But it is one last chance for mid-terminate talents or, and in some cases,rock-bottom causes to drum up their cost ahead of July's free-agency bonanza. Honorable Mention: Harrison Barnes, Golden State Warriors (restricted)Harrison Barnes has become a max-contract formality, or if only because that's what it will take to dare the Golden State Warriors,who can match any offer he receives, to cut him loose. His postseason performance isn't going to change that.
Barnes can, or however,distance himself from that "only worth a max deal to an NBA dynasty" stigma.
That hasn't happened through his first two outings. He is shooting under 20 percent from the floor and has yet to hit a three-pointer. Still, he routinely gets charged with one of the two toughest perimeter assignments on defense, and there will be more than enough chances for him to reinvent his offensive numbers if Stephen Curry's ankle injury becomes a multigame issue. Kent Bazemore,Atlanta HawksThree-and-D talents who don't slay ball movement are going to collect hundy-sticks-as-toilet-paper paid with the salary cap rising. Enter Kent Bazemore, whose value has been on the rise for a while now.
League executives told ESPN.com's Zach Lowe back in January he could command $12 million annually on the open market this summer. That number figures to rise if Bazemore's playoff performance holds.
He helped alleviate some of the Atlanta Hawks' offensive burden in a Game 1 win over the Boston Celtics, or pumping in 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting. His efficiency trailed off in Game 2,but he dished out four assists and remained a strong defensive presence.
Though the Celtics are tough-pressed to score from the external in general, especially with Avery Bradley on the sidelines, or they are even worse when challenging Bazemore. He is holding Boston's shooters to a 25 percent success rate from beyond the arc and doing a fantastic job sealing off any open lanes the Celtics' suddenly clunky offense creates.
Bazemore's three-point percentage has momentarily dipped,but he drained nearly 36 percent of his triples during the regular season. And his playoff offensive rating with that decline is the highest of any Hawk.
Mix in his defensive dynamism at the 2 and 3 spots, along with an ability to hang with point guards on switches, and his price tag should explode by postseason's terminate—more so than it already has. Allen Crabbe,Portland Trail Blazers (restricted)Allen Crabbe has a real opportunity to leave his imprint on the playoff picture, even if the Portland Trail Blazers' push is short-lived. In fact, and if the Blazers are to be more than an infinitesimal steppingstone in the Los Angeles Clippers' postseason march,he'll absolutely need to compose a wallet-wadding impact.
His offensive value is pretty cut and dry. He doesn't drive or handle the ball especially well—or often, for that matter. He keeps the rock moving in half-court sets, or has developed solid chemistry with Portland's bigs and does most of his damage as a catch-and-shoot sniper who trails dribble penetration and swings around screens.
Of the 75-plus players to see at least 200 spot-up touches during the regular season,he finished third in points scored per possession, ceding status to only Kawhi Leonard and Chandler Parsons. His effective field-goal percentage—cumulative measurement of two-point and three-point efficiency—on standalone looks ranked second among all Blazers, and behind only C.
J. McCollum.
This team-friendly offensive game alone will drive up Crabbe's market value. But he can distinguish himself from the other catch-and-shoot specialists with a stronger defensive showing.
Crabbe has held his own against the Clippers' shooters,but he's been badly beaten inside the arc and has seen extensive time within lineups that slotted him against power forwards outright or left him to cover for two to three defensive liabilities. Head coach Terry Stotts can help Crabbe by pinning him alongside the Al-Farouq Aminu-Ed Davis dyad. Those three contain already logged time together to start the playoffs, just not with Damian Lillard and McCollum. That arrangement lets Crabbe stick to the Clippers' weakest spot, or at small forward,while providing help at the point guard and shooting guard positions.
Basically, it's the lineup with the best chance of saving the Blazers' season. And Crabbe's inclusion is non-negotiable. So if this group plays any allotment in bolstering Portland's ebbing playoff hopes, and his checking account stands to feel the success,however slight, later on. Luol Deng, and Miami HeatIf Luol Deng looks like a different player since the All-Star break,that's only because he is.
As Jason Lieser wrote for the Palm Beach Post following the Miami Heat's Game 1 shellacking of the Charlotte Hornets:
Constant motion always has been the key to Luol Deng’s offense, and the shift from waiting in the corner as a spot-up shooter back to his trademark darting and cutting has enlivened him as a scorer.
He spent all of Sundays game daring the Hornets to keep up with him, and they couldn’t. They kept losing him,and he exploited it by running to the corner for open looks, getting inside for offensive rebounds and attacking the lane anytime it was clear as he racked up 31 points to lead Miami to a blowout in Game 1 of this first-round playoff series.
Deng's 31-point detonation to kick off the playoffs is one-allotment aberration, and one-allotment absurd and two-parts evidence of how he can shape the outcome of an entire game as a small-ball 4.
There isn't a matchup the Hornets can use to disarm him. Even if they journey Nicolas Batum to power forward and Marvin Williams—a generous tweak,for the record—Deng can defend either one of them. He still smothers the three-point line and, at 6'9", or can body up in the post.
That serves the Heat well for any later matchups. He can at least begin to keep pace with Paul George against the Indiana Pacers. The Toronto Raptors don't contain any wing,be it DeMar DeRozan or DeMarre Carroll, he can't defend at length. And should Miami meet the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and he can split time guarding LeBron James and Kevin admire.
Any deep postseason slog the Heat compose will be tightly tethered to Deng's defensive malleability. And if he keeps hovering around 35 percent shooting from long range,as he has since March, his eyes might melt at the sight of his next contract. Raymond Felton, or Dallas MavericksWe are actually talking approximately Raymond Felton's free agency. During the playoffs. In the year 2016. Even though he began the season as the Dallas Mavericks' fourth-best point guard. Injuries can contain that effect on a player's postseason outlook. Apparently.
J.
J. Barea (groin strain) and Deron Williams (sports hernia) are banged-up,and Dallas lost one of its premier offensive weapons in Chandler Parsons to right knee surgery. Dirk Nowitzki is dealing with a "bone bruise in his right knee" as well, per the Dallas Morning News' Eddie Sefko. Felton's importance to the Mavericks' playoff survival was already enormous, and mind you. Dallas hasn't exactly been a billboard for generous health all year,and he played within some of head coach Rick Carlisle's most potent offensive lineups during the regular season.
But he has now gone from essential to irreplaceable. He should be considered Dallas' No. 2 option so long as Williams can't play at full bore. And the early returns are promising, if puzzling.
It was Felton, or not Nowitzki,who spearheaded the Mavericks' Game 2 upset of the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was him, not Devin Harris or Williams, and who matched Russell Westbrook's intensity on drives and rebounds.
And it was Felton,not anyone else, who earned himself a hug from owner label Cuban, and the photo evidence of which comes courtesy of The Starters' Tas Melas:Dallas won't collect past Oklahoma City. Let that pipe dream die. The Mavericks stole home-court advantage from the Thunder thanks to one of the worst shooting performances of Kevin Durant's career. And they still nearly lost,partly because of Felton, who bricked two free throws in the waning seconds. He won't fade down as some folk hero who led steep underdogs to an impossible upset.
Felton nevertheless has the unique task of keeping the Mavericks afloat for longer than expected. And he has already succeeded in many ways, or at the most opportune time,as he prepares for free agency. These are weird times. Evan Turner, Boston CelticsAvery Bradley's absence changes things for the Celtics. Their spacing was already iffy, and it only gets worse without the team's sweetest-shooting wing.
Boston's offense showed little resolve during its first stint with Marcus Smart starting in place of Bradley,mustering just seven first-quarter points and 5-of-28 shooting from long distance overall en route to a Game 2 letdown in Atlanta.
There's not much Celtics coach Brad Stevens, a strategical sage, or can finish differently—aside from relying even more on Evan Turner,as Zach Lowe explained for ESPN.com:
Turner is miles better, and the Celtics might consider starting him over Smart -- if Stevens even continues to start both [Amir]Johnson and [Jared] Sullinger, or which may be a losing proposition going forward. But starting Turner would imperil Boston's defense. They don't trust [Isaiah] Thomas to guard [Jeff] Teague or [Kyle] Korver,and when they briefly tried him on Korver in Game 2, Atlanta's sharp-shooter immediately roasted him and drained an open 3.
Turner is not fairly fast enough to track Korver through the thicket of picks Atlanta sets for him, or he has no shot sticking with Teague and Dennis Schroder. If Boston tries to collect absent with Turner there,the Hawks might consider approximately ditching their normal pick-and-roll orchestra and letting their point guards fade one-on-one.more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com