The most intriguing player on every NBA team

Something tells me we’re going to find out a lot about Trae Young during the final sprint of this season. He’s already gotten two coaches fired (Lloyd Pierce and Nate McMillan) and one GM (Travis Schlenk) faux-demoted (aka fired). Does he want to be the face of the Hawks franchise? Can he learn to be a leader? Will he be willing to play off-ball so as to maximize what abilities of Dejounte Murray, John Collins and their slew of talented wings and big men? Or is the 24-year-old still just looking to get his at this point in his career? Something tells me that the buck will stop with Quin Snyder – if he can’t get the most out of Trae, Trae might not be long for Atlanta.

Much like last season, Robert Williams is the lynchpin for the Celtics – when he plays, the Celtics are elite on both ends of the court. The offensive/defensive splits are absurd. Last season, in the minutes he played, the Celtics had an offensive rating of 148 points per 100 possessions and a defensive rating of only 102 points per 100 possessions. This season is about the same, in the 25 games he’s played, the Celtics have an offensive rating of 147 and a defensive rating of 109. The issue is…he’s only played in 25 games this season!! Most of those missed games were at the start of the season, so the Celtics are obviously hoping that he’ll stay healthy the rest of the way.

Before this February, everyone seemed to have similar perceptions about Cam Thomas – he’s a young, somewhat out-of-control scorer who brings little else to the table. Most figured he’d bounce around the NBA, scoring in bunches while giving his own coaches heartburn with his defense for the rest of the decade. Then, the explosion happened – amidst the final days of the Kyrie Irving-circus in Brooklyn, Thomas scored 134 points over the course of three games, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to score 40-plus points in three consecutive games. The ceiling for Cam Thomas is now a lot higher than before. Is he a core piece for the Nets moving forward now? Could a team win with him as a go-to scorer? Will he be able to maintain the elite shooting efficiency once opponents start scouting him? We should find out the answers to a couple of those questions over the last stretch of this season.

LaMelo Ball is the Hornets’ most intriguing player by default. Charlotte has a completely listless franchise. Their roster is directionless. Their head coach is a retread. Michael Jordan, the owner, is the antithesis of Michael Jordan, the player. He’s essentially the Ben Simmons of NBA owners – uncompetitive and apathetic. The NBA better hope that the Hornets don’t win the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes because if there’s one franchise that could cause his career to sputter, it would be Charlotte under its current regime. Despite the franchise’s incompetence, Ball remains an impressive young star, averaging 23.3 PPG, 8.4 APG and 6.4 RPG with 41-38-84 shooting splits. It’ll be interesting to see what he does once the Hornets offer him his rookie extension – he’d be the first big-time player to turn it down to enter free agency earlier in his career. Time will tell. 

[Note: Ball was injured (ankle) on February 27th and is out for the season.]

The Bulls’ highest-paid player, Zach LaVine, doubles as their most intriguing player for the rest of the 2022-23 NBA season because Chicago needs to determine whether he should remain a core piece or be moved in the offseason as part of a reboot. After a slow start to the season following an offseason knee surgery, LaVine has hit his stride as of late and is looking like an All-Star guard again for the aimless Bulls. Despite the recent surge (26.4 PPG in his last 27 games), if the Bulls lose in the Play-In Tournament or miss the playoffs altogether, what’s the point in continuing to build around the LaVine-DeMar DeRozan-Nikola Vucevic trio? 

Somewhat surprisingly, the Cavaliers were one of only two teams to have a completely inactive trade deadline (the other being the Heat). After acquiring Donovan Mitchell and looking like a fringe contender for the first half of the season, many assumed the Cavs would look to upgrade the small forward position with a veteran three-and-D wing like Jae Crowder. They chose to keep the status quo and, thus, the development of 22-year-old, Isaac Okoro, will be paramount to Cleveland’s title hopes. While his defense is fairly stout, the Cavs championship hopes may hinge on his ability to hit open three-pointers. After shooting a hilarious 0 percent in October, 28 percent in November, and 29 percent in December, Okoro has shown signs of remarkable improvement in January (47 percent) and February (43 percent). Is it real? We’re about to find out this spring!

I mean, who else were you expecting? Kyrie Irving, fresh off a tumultuous tenure in Brooklyn but also playing arguably the best basketball of his career (averaging 27.0 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 5.4 APG on 49-38-90 shooting), is one of the most (begrudgingly) intriguing players in the NBA the rest of this season. On one end of the spectrum, he could swing the NBA Championship – if you thought the Mavs were tough to guard with Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson last playoffs, wait until you see Luka and Kyrie! On the other end of the spectrum, Kyrie could continue his sporadic erratic behavior and do something to cause Dallas to implode this spring and anger Doncic to the point where he starts considering a trade demand. My guess: He balls out the rest of the season, but the Mavs fall after a difficult series late in the playoffs. Then, he bolts for the Lakers this offseason, leaving Luka all alone once again.

The good news for the Nuggets is that Michael Porter Jr. appears to be relatively healthy this season and has regained some of his lethal stroke that made him look like he was poised to become a taller version of Klay Thompson back in 2020-21. On the season, MPJ is averaging a solid 17.0 PPG with 48-41-80 shooting splits – close, but not quite what he was doing in 2020-21 when he averaged 19.0 PPG on 54-45-79 shooting. With the sustained dominance of Nikola Jokic, the return of Jamal Murray, and the emergence of Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets don’t have to rely on MPJ like they did the past two years, but if he balls out, he makes them nearly unbeatable. That makes him the ultimate X-factor in the Western Conference heading into the spring.

The Pistons seem to have a penchant for acquiring former number two draft picks who look like busts with their first team (hello, Marvin Bagley III). With the team tanking for a shot at Victor Wembanyama or Scoot Henderson, the obvious candidate in Detroit for most intriguing player is James Wiseman – the former Warrior who wasn’t ready to contribute to a title contender as quickly as Golden State would have liked. While he’s only played three games thus far for the Pistons (averaging 13.0 PPG and 8.0 RPG), Detroit has already let him play 20-plus minutes more times (4) than the Warriors did all season (2). And that’s exactly what he needs: playing time. Recall, he basically didn’t play basketball during his one year at Memphis, then missed all of last season with a knee injury. If he’s going to turn his career around, it’s going to be with a team like the Pistons.

Last season was truly a Poole Party for Jordan Poole and the Warriors. Poole ascended into one of the top heat-check players in the league, seemingly out of nowhere, helping the Warriors capture the 2022 NBA Championship. In the offseason, Poole got paid (4-extension for $140M), and everyone expected him to continue his rise as a card-carrying member of the Splash Brothers. This season, however, has been a mixed bag (and that’s not even accounting for the Draymond Green punch). The Warriors, in part due to injuries to Steph Curry, have struggled to climb out of Play-In territory in the Western Conference and Poole play has been sporadic. His defense has been suspect, his three-point percentage is down from 36.4 last season to 33.0 this season and his net on/off rating is currently negative-8.9, whereas it was plus-1.4 last season. With Curry out of the lineup, the Warriors will need Poole to up his game and match some of what Klay Thompson has done lately. If he can’t do it, Golden State’s title defense could be over before the real playoffs begin.

One of the worst things that can happen to an ultra-talented, young player – like Jalen Green – is to be the go-to guy on a terrible team early in his career. Players develop inefficient, losing habits, never learn how to lead, and fail to comprehend the importance of the little things, especially on defense. That’s exactly what is happening in Houston right now (as noted by John Wall and Eric Gordon in recent interviews). Green, therefore, will be an interesting watch the rest of this season as he has arguably regressed in his sophomore season as his shooting efficiency, defensive rating and turnovers per game are all worse than last season. Will he and the Rockets continue to treat actual NBA games like summer pickup runs or will he flash some grit and show some signs of improvement? 

With Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin looking like the backcourt for the next decade in Indiana, and Myles Turner and Buddy Hield still in their respective primes, it’s hard to remember that this time last year, one of the team’s core pieces was then-rookie Chris Duarte. Last season, as a three-and-D wing, Duarte averaged 13.1 PPG and shot nearly 37 percent from three in 28 MPG. This season, however, has been a much different story, and it’s unclear whether Duarte will be in the mix moving forward. In 38 games, he’s scoring 7.8 PPG, shooting 30.1 percent from three, and only playing 19.1 MPG. There were even some rumors of him being moved at the trade deadline, which ultimately didn’t come to fruition. As a 25-year-old, 6-foot-6 wing, seems like an ideal wing to play alongside Indy’s aforementioned core pieces, but if he doesn’t start to regain his form from last season, he could be an afterthought quicker than anyone realized. 

This slide was originally going to be dedicated to Kawhi Leonard, but he’s clearly back to being the Kawhi of old, so that’s less intriguing and more of a given. It was then going to be one of the Clippers high-end role players like Terance Mann or Norman Powell or Eric Gordon…but then the Clippers made one of the more perplexing moves of the year and signed the ever-enigmatic Russell Westbrook…and immediately started him. He’s one of the more intriguing players in the NBA the rest of the season because if they continue to play him big minutes, he will probably ruin their season. Sure, he could miraculously change his stubbornly ineffective game into a souped-up version of Playoff Rondo, but what are the odds of that? To his credit, he’s looked alright through two games, but the Clippers lost both. 

Thought about discussing one of the Lakers new acquisitions here, but let’s not get too cute – the most intriguing Laker the rest of the way is Anthony Davis. After playing like the MVP for a nice stretch early in the season, Davis yet again missed a significant portion of the season with lower-body injury. He’s back again, but, in case you missed the game against the Thunder where LeBron James broke the scoring record, Davis’ body language (and effort) that night was horrendous. The losing and the injuries are obviously bumming him out, but is there something else amiss in LA? Now that the Russell Westbrook-sized elephant is no longer in the room, we’re about to find out whether LeBron plus AD plus shooters and capable defenders can still be a recipe for sustained success. If not, keep an eye on a potential AD trade after this season.

Apparently, Steven Adams – not Ja Morant or Desmond Bane or Jaren Jackson Jr. – is the Grizzlies most important player this season. I’m obviously being a little facetious, but man, Memphis has struggled mightily without him the past month, going 5-8 since he sprained his PCL in his right knee in late January. Before Adams went down, Memphis was 31-15, and in contention for the top spot in the Western Conference. Now, they’re five and a half games out of first and are fighting to stave off Sacramento for the two-seed. With Adams nearing a return, we’re about to see if this February slump was mostly due to Adams’ absence or if the team has much deeper issues. 

As seen by his dominant 23-point, 11-rebound, 9-assist performance in a 101-99 victory over the 76ers, the Heat are good enough to beat anyone when Butler is on the court. The problem for the Heat is that Butler isn’t always on the court in the regular season. In fact, in his three previous seasons with the Heat, Butler has yet to play more than 58 regular season games. This season, he’s played 47 of 62 games, and the Heat are currently the seven-seed. To avoid the Play-In, and then a first-round matchup with Boston or Milwaukee, Miami will need Butler to play most of the 20 remaining games on the schedule. Thus making him their most intriguing player.

We all know what Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday bring to the table for the Bucks. The player that appears to be the X-factor or swing piece has and continues to be Khris Middleton. Two years ago, he was burying clutch shots in the Finals and even scoring 40 points in a pivotal Game 4 victory. Last postseason, he missed the entire series against the Celtics and the Bucks were unable to overcome his absence. This season, he’s missed the majority of the season (only appearing in 19 of 60 games thus far) and his numbers have fallen off a cliff – he’s only averaging 13.4 PPG. However, his mere presence appears to have a very positive impact on the Bucks as his latest return from injury on January 23, 2023, coincided with Milwaukee starting a 14-game winning streak (which is still alive as of this writing).

Anthony Edwards is the most intriguing player on the T’Wolves because, despite being only 21 years old, it is unquestionably his team. After an excellent debut in last season’s playoffs, Edwards has made a mini-leap this season and is averaging 24.7 PPG, 5.9 RPG and 4.5 APG with 46-36-78 shooting splits. His play was strong enough for him to make his first All-Star team. Unfortunately for Edwards, the front office made one of the all-time bad trades this past summer in acquiring Rudy Gobert, and Karl-Anthony Towns has been injured for much of the season. Therefore, the T’Wolves are fighting for their playoff lives (31-32, ninth place in the West), and will need ANT to take his game to an even higher level down the stretch run of this season if they are to have a chance at making the playoffs again this season.

After really taking off during last year’s playoffs (27.0 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 6.2 APG, 48-41-83 shooting splits), Brandon Ingram caught the injury bug early this season and essentially forfeited the Alpha-Dog role in New Orleans to Zion Williamson, who took the reigns and dominated before he suffered his own serious injury in early-January. Ingram missed two months and returned to a Zion-less team that was desperate for a go-to scorer. Though he struggled initially, he seems to have found his footing again, averaging 28.8 PPG in his last eight games. Unfortunately, the Pelicans are a mess right now and have plummeted to 10th in the Western Conference standings. With no Zion return in sight, BI will need to play at least as well as he did in last year’s playoffs during this stretch run of the season to keep the Pelicans’ playoff hopes alive.

The Knicks big addition at the trade deadline, Josh Hart, doubles as their most intriguing player the rest of the season because, simply put, the guy is a winner. In fact, since he joined the Knicks, the team is a perfect 6-0 and a plus-66 in the minutes he’s played during that stretch (all off the bench). Reunited with his college teammate, Jalen Brunson, Hart is playing his tail off and the crowd at Madison Square Garden has adored him. If he keeps having this type of impact, the Knicks will be the five-seed come playoff time and have a shot to take on the guy they almost traded for this past summer (Donovan Mitchell).

Lost in some of the staggering Shai Gilgeous-Alexander performances and Jalen Williams first-team All-Rookie push, is the fact that second-year jumbo guard Josh Giddey has made a fairly sizable leap from his nice rookie season. He’s quietly averaging 16.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG and 5.8 APG. His shooting, which was the major red flag with him coming into the NBA Draft, has improved across the board – up from 41.9 percent to 48.4 percent from the field; 26.3 percent to 30.9 percent from three; and 70.9 percent to 76.9 percent from the line. If he keeps improving that this trajectory, he and SGA will make for one of the funkiest, but best backcourts in the NBA in no time.

After starting the season 5-16, the Magic have gone 21-20 over their past 41 games. What change, you ask? Markelle Fultz came back from an injury and gave the Magic something they’ve lacked for a while: a real point guard. While he’ll never live up to his first overall pick billing, Fultz has overcome his shooting yips enough to turn himself into a legitimate NBA point guard, and is averaging 13.2 PPG, 5.5 APG and 4.0 RPG with 50-31-78 shooting splits. And while the Magic are probably going to run out of games before they could sneak into the Play-In tournament, Fultz will be interesting to monitor because the Magic have an extremely promising team that is one good guard away from being a frisky playoff team next season. Could Fultz be that guy for them? He’s still only 24 years old!

James Harden has quietly been an excellent point guard and second-best player for the Sixers this season, averaging 21.6 PPG, 6.2 RPG and a league-best 10.7 APG with 45-39-86 shooting splits. The team also has a plus-6.4 net rating with him on the court. He’s intriguing not only because everything in Philly seems to be riding on this postseason (Doc Rivers’ job, Joel Embiid’s patience, Harden’s legacy, etc.). If Philly can at least break through the second round and make the Eastern Conference Finals or even the Finals, it would be huge for the franchise and its most important pieces. On the other hand, if we see another flameout, Harden, who is likely to opt out of his contract this summer, could head back to Houston, which could set off a chain reaction culminating in Embiid requesting a trade. That makes Harden, and his penchant for no-showing in playoff elimination games, the most intriguing man in Philadelphia the next three months.

Let’s not make this complicated. Although we know exactly what Kevin Durant will look like when he steps onto the court for the Phoenix Suns (hint: awesome), he remains their most intriguing player for the rest of this season because he is the ultimate ceiling raiser. When healthy, he is the most unstoppable, effortless scorer in basketball. On the season, he’s averaging 29.7 PPG with 56-38-93 shooting splits. Per ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry, Durant scores an incomprehensible 1.34 points per shot off-the-bounce this season. With that type of scoring inefficiency, the Suns don’t have to worry about a major implementation or learning curve – KD’s going to show up, get buckets, and look like he’s played with Devin Booker and Chris Paul for years. The intriguing part will be whether his body holds up for the heavy playoff minutes he’ll need to play to make up for the depth that the Suns had to trade away to acquire him.

After a tough 2021-22 season (24.0 PPG in only 29 games), it seemed Damian Lillard might be heading to a different stage of his career. Not so fast! Lillard is actually having the best statistical season of his career as a 32-year-old, averaging 32.3 PPG, 7.2 APG with 47-38-92 shooting splits. He’s in the midst of one of the best tears of his career over the past 19 games as well, averaging an eye-popping 39.4 PPG, 7.4 APG with 52-41-96 shooting splits and over five made three-pointers per game. This stretch culminated in him scoring a career-high 71 points against the Rockets on February 26th!! Dame is the only reason to be at all intrigued by the mediocre Blazers, so enjoy this offensive maestro while you can. 

De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis have both been excellent for the Kings this season, so either one could be the most intriguing player down the stretch as Sacramento continues its improbable quest for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. I’m going with Fox here though because he’s the point guard and, therefore, the ball will be in his hands at the end of games and he’ll be tasked with making the most decisions that decide his team’s fate. The good news for Kings fans is that Fox is leading the NBA in clutch scoring (technically Kemba Walker has him beat, but Kemba only appeared in one clutch situation game all season) and is shooting a preposterous 57 percent from the field in clutch situations.

Let’s be honest – there ain’t much to be intrigued by in San Antonio this season. They’re currently on a 16-game losing streak!! They have some decent players like Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell, but the most intriguing has to be their rookie Jeremey Sochan. Sochan plays his butt off and projects to be a jack of all trades. He clearly likes to think of himself of the Spurs-era Dennis Rodman, but he plays more like the Pistons-era Rodman – more of a bouncy, rangy, crafty small forward than a power forward. In his last 12 games, Sochan is flashing a little more offense than most probably expected, averaging 15.2 PPG, 5.5 RPG and 2.8 APG with 45-39-83 shooting splits.

Scottie Barnes is having a season somewhat akin to his draft classmate Jalen Green, albeit with fewer bad habits. After taking the NBA by storm in 2021-22 and winning Rookie of the Year, Barnes has stalled a bit in terms of his progress and production. His shooting efficiency and rebounding has dipped. His turnovers have increased. He has increased his playmaking from 3.5 APG to 4.8 APG, but the Raptors have struggled compared to last year. Dig a little deeper, however, and you’ll see that not all is lost – Barnes’ on/off court net is plus-5.0 this season as compared to minus-2.0 last season – so perhaps the problems in Toronto lie elsewhere. Now that the trade deadline is over and the rumors surrounding most of his teammates have been put to rest, we’ll see if Barnes and company can turn things around a bit before the playoffs. 

Lauri Markkanen’s mid-career resurgence has been a sight to behold this season as he went from looking like a solid role player that always left you wanting a little more to a bonafide star. He’s averaging 25.2 PPG, 8.5 RPG with 51-41-88 shooting splits so far this year – about as efficient an offensive player as you could ask for. He’s the most intriguing player on the Jazz the rest of the way because he has displayed the ability all season to keep them in the playoff hunt despite the front office making moves with a heavy emphasis on the future. If Markkanen isn’t shut down with a mysterious injury, the Jazz could very well sneak into the playoffs, as they currently sit in eighth place in the West at 31-31.

Hope you weren’t expecting Bradley Beal in this spot – he’s arguably the least intriguing player in the NBA at this point. In fact, he might not even be the best player on the Wizards anymore as you could make an argument that Kristaps Porzingis or Kyle Kuzma are more impactful. Kuzma in particular is having a real nice season, expanding his game in a number of areas. He’s averaging career-highs in points (21.2 PPG) and assists (3.9 APG) while still rebounding at a good level (7.5 RPG) and playing above-average defense across multiple positions. A strong finish to this season will likely mean big bucks for Kuzma this offseason as he’s set to become a free agent in an underwhelming free agency class.