5 NBA Players Under The Most Pressure Down the Stretch
Pressure is ingrained into the NBA job description. It doesn't matter whether you're contending for a title, playing for your next contract, fighting for a roster spot or trying to actualize lofty individual expectations. The stakes may vary, but they're always high.
Certain forms of pressure are nevertheless more pressing than others. The household name with something to prove is about as intense as it gets.
Can they make good on existing star designations? Distance themselves from longstanding and broadscale stigmatizations and sticking points? Alleviate rising concerns about how much they are paid relative to what they're doing for their team?
Players facing a combination of these questions are the focus of this exercise. Their inclusion over others, though, is also rooted in the urgency to get answers. Each of these names could materially alter their own futures or their team's summer depending on how they close this season.
They say pressure is a privilege. If that's the case, these players are lucky beyond measure.
Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic
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Inefficient. Ball-stopper. Bad-shot taker. Less important than Franz Wagner. These are just a sampling of the many Paolo Banchero criticisms.
Some of the loudest knocks are exaggerated for effect. (He's getting off the ball much quicker this year.) Others require context behind them. (His shot diet and efficiency are inextricably tied to the lack of dynamism around him.) Still, there is no eliding the fact that the Orlando Magic have been statistically better without Banchero on the floor every season, including this one.
All the context in the world isn't going to spare him from heightened scrutiny if this continues. Not after he signed a five-year max extension over the offseason that kicks in next year. And most certainly not when the Magic are struggling to avoid play-in status despite entering the season as a potential powerhouse.
Banchero has the benefit of two solid playoff campaigns under his belt. They were brief (12 games total) and not especially efficient cameos, but they implied that he can capably handle superstar usage when it matters most.
Stardom is not built around signals and inferences, though. It is founded upon sustainability and results. If Banchero exits this season with he and the Magic facing all-too-familiar questions, awkward conversations about his future in Orlando will follow.
Stephon Castle, San Antonio Spurs
2 of 5
Stephon Castle's sophomore campaign is so far a rousing success. He continues to be a defensive terror and has improved as a driver, passer and floor-navigator without the ball.
Boiling his future down to "But can he make threes?" is reductive when he does so many other things. It's also the singular issue that will determine his ceiling.
Most defenses do not pretend to care about leaving him open from beyond the arc. For good reason, too. Castle is shooting 32.8 percent on unguarded threes—a bottom-11 mark among 138 players with at least 100 attempts.
The San Antonio Spurs keep finding effective workarounds. Playing De'Aaron Fox off the ball is among them. Castle also has different levers to pull with his on-ball physicality and coordination and off-ball relocation. He's banging in 45 percent of his mid-range jumpers, too.
Cliche though it is, the playoffs are simply a different beast. Castle will be tested with fewer closeouts and more egregious drops on ball screens. His ability to make defenses pay will go a long way toward determining where he sits in San Antonio's pecking order beyond this season—not to mention how the Spurs approach the summer trade market.
Evan Mobley, Cleveland Cavaliers
3 of 5
In some ways, the James Harden trade was just as much about Evan Mobley as it was Darius Garland. The Cleveland Cavaliers' appeal has always orbited around the belief that Mobley could one day become the team's best player and, by extension, a fringe No. 1 option.
Last year offered extended glimpses into what that might look like. This season, not so much.
More of Mobley's shot attempts are self-created than ever, but his efficiency has plummeted, driven largely by precipitous declines in three-point and free-throw percentages. He's posting the highest assist rate of his career, but not in a way that makes you believe he can consistently generate opportunities for others or anchor the offense.
Cleveland ranks in the 27th percentile of points scored per 100 possessions in the time he's spent without a lead creator, down from the 97th percentile last season. And despite more injuries up and down the roster, Mobley's true usage—which incorporates assists and potential assists, in addition to turnovers, shot attempts and free throws—has ticked up only a hair, per BBall Index.
Perhaps no team is under more pressure for the rest of this season than the Cavaliers. Going from Garland to the 36-year-old free-agent-to-be Harden (player option) puts them on the narrowest of timelines. If Mobley's offense has already hit its peak, additional wholesale changes could await this summer.
Amen Thompson, Houston Rockets
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Amen Thompson's place in the late-season pressure-cooker is identical to that of Stephon Castle, only more dire.
Their offensive strengths and limitations are eerily similar. Thompson is the more nuclear athlete, but both cut their teeth with downhill oomph, off-ball movement, the capacity to draw and withstand contact. Neither is a respected threat from the perimeter, able to tamp down turnovers or operate at their peak without running mates comfortable deferring a hefty share of on-ball touches.
Unlike Castle, though, Thompson barely ever takes threes and is worse off when he actually does. Among 269 players who have attempted at least 50 wide-open triples, only Dyson Daniels knocks his down at a lower clip. Despite flickers of hope on his floater, Thompson's track record from mid-range is also spottier than Castle's own.
All of which renders Thompson even more susceptible to defensive gimmicks. Teams will not hesitate to stash bigs on him more than they already do once the playoffs roll around. How well he fares won't just determine the Houston Rockets' postseason viability. It'll be a pivotal part of his extension talks this summer.
Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks
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Inconsistency has been a hallmark of Karl-Anthony Towns' career. Those dials have all turned up to 11 since joining the New York Knicks.
On some nights, the seven-footer looks like a transcendent floor-spacer and driver who can toss nifty passes and deliver the type of defensive effort that makes you wonder "Why can't he play like this all the time?!" On other nights, he will borderline disappear, if not outright vanish, oftentimes amid visible frustration, other times without so much as a whisper.
Pinpointing the genesis of his problems is complicated. You can attribute it to head coach Mike Brown's system, Jalen Brunson's score-first proclivities or a larger struggle to get him the ball.
The answer encompasses a little of everything, not the least of which is Towns' own imperfections. Being so reliant on others to get you the ball is its own problem. So, too, is his complaining to officials and at-times bizarre logic.
Package these familiar issues alongside career-worst efficiency and a noticeable dip in usage, and you've got a big problem without a clear solution.
For their part, the Knicks better hope one materializes. Towns is on the books for $118.1 million over the next two years. If he doesn't close the season strong, they'll be saddled with a star who isn't doing enough of what they need, but that they can't readily move.
Dan Favale is a National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
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