The Unsung Hero of Every Remaining NBA Playoff Team
Not all NBA heroes wear capes. Some of them, in fact, don't even get enough metaphorical hugs for their postseason efforts.
So let's pour one out for the unsung heroes.
Current All-Stars have no place here. They are great, and we love them. But they get enough attention.
When's the last time you turned on your desktop/laptop/cellphone and some variation of "LeBron James rescues small island's worth of puppies from sinking pets-only cruise ship" wasn't a headline? Exactly.
This space is for players who deserve more support for their playoff contributions. They aren't tallying triple-doubles or playing 55 minutes of every 48-minute game, but their work is nevertheless integral to their respective teams making it this far.
Maybe their impact isn't reflected in the box score. Or maybe they're in a crummy corner of the rotation and it's hard to discern their real value from the statistical and anecdotal noise around them.
Whoever they are, and for whatever reason they're overlooked, this one's for them.
Boston Celtics: Marcus Smart
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"Think of how good he'll be if he could knock down threes with any sort of regularity!" should be the rallying cry of Marcus Smart's agent, Josh Ketroser, at extension negotiations this summer. And this argument is not without merit.
Smart is an offensive liability. He is shooting under 30 percent from beyond the arc for his career and only sees his postseason clip rise because defenses don't feel the need to guard him. He's shooting 36.6 percent on three-pointers for the playoffs, but just three of his 41 attempts have been contested, and his accuracy has dropped to 33.3 percent against the Washington Wizards.
Mix some turnover problems into this errant cocktail, and Smart approaches unplayable. He's coughing up possession on 55 percent of his pick-and-rolls—an inconceivably bad mark when he isn't much of threat to score in those situations.
But this is only an issue, or noteworthy at all, because the Boston Celtics need Smart on the court. They can't have him pulling himself out of games, as he did to open the second round, and expect to survive. His defensive energy is too important.
"I wouldn't trade his passion for anything," head coach Brad Stevens said, per CBS Boston's Brian Robb. "It's the competitiveness that makes him who he is. And it's a passion that makes him who he is. There can be mistakes with effort that come from that, and that's OK. That's what we love about him."
Boston's offense improves by 3.9 points per 100 possessions without Smart on the floor, but its defense also slides 6.2 points in the wrong direction when he takes a seat. For as much as he forfeits on offense, he gives even more on defense.
That story hasn't changed against the Wizards. The Celtics are giving up 106.8 points per 100 possessions with Smart in the game compared to 122.5 when he's off the court. He has no bones about sliding between defending guards and forwards, and the team's defensive rebounding improves when he's available to impede the path of those who typically snare boards over Beantown's bigs and wings.
There will be games—and there have been games—when playing him feels counterproductive. But the Celtics know the real challenge, on most nights, would be to try winning without him.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Tristan Thompson
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Irreversible underappreciation is a part of Tristan Thompson's job description. You don't play beside three All-Stars, J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert's hair, and expect to reap heaps of love.
People don't romanticize the 20-something millionaire who stays in his own lane.
To Thompson's credit, though, his lane is far wider than advertised. He's not just a strong rebounder who feasts off well-placed lobs from the G.O.A.T. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. He is the lifeblood of the Cleveland Cavaliers' frontcourt rotation (non-LeBron division).
Thompson isn't armed with a jumper but still doesn't need the ball to make an offensive impact. He converts enough of his looks around the rim to be a threat out of the pick-and-roll and off cuts. Marcin Gortat and the vacationing DeAndre Jordan are the only players averaging more screen assists per game, while James is the the lone member of the Cavaliers tracking down more loose balls.
Enough cannot be said of Thompson's play at the other end—particularly in recent games. Cleveland's starting lineup, a season-long sieve, started to figure things out on defense against the Toronto Raptors. A fully engaged James and Smith helped, and the Raptors offense bogs down like clockwork every postseason, but Thompson is an oft-unrecognized nuisance.
"T.T. does things that doesn't show up in the box scores," James said, per Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor. "Obviously we know about his rebounding ability, but his ability to switch out on guards, it allows the other four guys to stay home."
Those traps the Cavaliers used to harass DeMar DeRozan don't fly if Thompson isn't able to hang with ball-handlers beyond the three-point line. Even when he wasn't one-half of a double-team, he impacted the play as the last line of defense at the rim. Toronto shot 44.4 percent against him around the basket on 45 attempts—which, in a word, wow.
Cleveland's defense will face tougher tests down the line—if not against the Celtics or Wizards, then versus any one of the West's superpowers in the NBA Finals. Thompson is crucial to the latest uptick spilling into those matchups. If he can stay on the floor against centerless, three-point-drunk lineups and continue snuffing out shots at the rim, the Cavaliers' repeat bid gets that much stronger.
Golden State Warriors: Andre Iguodala
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JaVale McGee initially inhabited this space, but then fashion-backward diehards started paying homage to his triple rat-tail hairdo. And as a general rule, if you've become a cult hero, your praises have been sung.
Andre Iguodala continues to be more undervalued anyway. Where the Golden State Warriors rely on McGee in smaller doses, often as a garbage-timer, Iguodala plays a prominent role for one of the best cores in NBA history without monopolizing any of the ballyhoo. (Shout-out to all the heroes who will immediately point out Iguodala earned NBA Finals MVP honors. Cool story. Now, welcome to the year 2017.)
Though he is shooting just 3-of-22 from behind the three-point line since the postseason tipped off, Golden State's performance per 100 possessions improves on both ends of the floor when he's in the game—which is basically the most Iguodala thing ever.
Whenever the Warriors' opening lineup has needed a spark against the Utah Jazz, acting head coach Mike Brown has been quick to yank Zaza Pachulia for Iguodala. The resulting "Death Lineup" is a collective terror, but Iguodala's individual play is one of the driving forces behind its existence.
If he's not able to switch across every perimeter position, Golden State cannot be as selective with how it uses Stephen Curry. If he's not able to handle the ball like a point guard, the offense doesn't get to stretch defenses beyond function while simultaneously turning Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson into the scariest cast of off-ball threats the game has ever known.
If he's not shooting better than 90 percent inside three feet of the basket, I don't get to point out that he's shooting better than 90 percent inside three feet of the basket.
The little things always matter, but they're worth even more when you do all of them. And Iguodala does everything, right down to making sure Golden State pushes the ball off a defensive rebound—an influence uncharacteristic of most other 30-something wings.
Houston Rockets: Patrick Beverley
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As if we needed more proof that injuries suck, the Houston Rockets have lost Nene to a left adductor tear. Not only does this mean he's done for the postseason, but it also means you'll never get to read the ode to his underrecognized heroism that was slated to occupy your screen. You're devastated, I know.
On the bright side, this lets us pivot to Patrick Beverley. He could have received the nod no matter what, but his high-profile defensive assignments sometimes tilt him more toward household name than uncelebrated do-gooder.
Still, how about them defensive assignments?
Beverley is at the center of many on-court beefs for a reason. He doesn't fold against bigwigs. He pestered Russell Westbrook into oblivion during the first round, holding him to 7-of-27 shooting as his primary defender, and has even been known to get under the skin of Curry, the NBA's golden child.
It's impossible to properly value Beverley's defensive tenacity or to appropriately appreciate his knack for setting up shop between the ears of tenured All-Stars. But he's even more underestimated on the offensive end.
James Harden doesn't work seamlessly as a full-time floor general if Beverley, a point guard himself, doesn't thrive as an off-action option. About one-third of his field-goal attempts are spot-up threes, on which he's shooting 38.7 percent, and more than half of all his made baskets come off assists.
In the rare instances Beverley is given the keys to the offense, he's proved serviceable. His pick-and-roll decision-making doesn't come close to matching Harden's, but the Rockets are pumping in nearly 125 points per 100 possessions when Beverley plays without him—a truly, deeply, wholly incredible mark.
None of this is new. Beverley has been doing it all year. Eric Gordon—and, eventually, Lou Williams—helped bridge the playmaking gap during Harden's rest periods for much of the regular season, but Beverley piloted above-average attacks when running without him as well.
And by the way: Houston's scrap-master general doesn't even take home a top-160 salary. Beverley is doing all this, on a contender, for the price of Ish Smith—and, on a good day, the acclaim of George Hill.
San Antonio Spurs: Danny Green
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"Danny Green slander" is a thing. Like, an actual thing. You don't know it's there, but it is. Tweet out an innocent stat, and you'll see the dismissal of his importance. (Or be mistaken for a San Antonio Spurs fan.)
Perhaps it's because he doesn't score a jillion points (6.9 per game for the playoffs). Perhaps it has something to do with his on-again, off-again three-point touch. He's shooting 33.3 percent from distance, including 38.1 percent in the second round, but was just 1-of-3 in the Spurs' Game 4 loss to the Rockets. That came after he was 3-of-5 in Game 3, which happened after he was 2-of-4 in Game 2...which followed his 2-of-9 clunker in Game 1.
Or maybe Green is being judged against the ghost of himself from 2013, when he canned a then-NBA Finals record 27 threes.
"At one point he was topping Ray Allen as the best shooter in the NBA Finals, so the drop-off was inevitable," The Ringer's Juliet Litman wrote. "His efficiency, efficacy and general importance could only go down. His shortcomings have been abundantly apparent, though, because every time he does something dumb, the cameras pan to Coach Pop to catch his reaction."
Whatever it is that makes Green a divisive figure in certain circles, however small, it's stupid.
There are better wings, but very few of them are as talented on defense. The Spurs have no issue switching Green on to point guards, and he's the most dangerous shot-blocker at his position. He's defended more pick-and-roll ball-handlers than Isaiah Thomas and contested almost as many shots at the rim as Kawhi Leonard.
On most nights, Green hits enough of his open three-pointers to evade liability status. When he does go cold, it doesn't make him a bust. Players go through ruts. He'll regain his touch at some point. And even if he doesn't, he always has his defense to fall back on. The Spurs are at their most dangerous when he's draining threes, but he doesn't need to shoot like it's 2013 to help them win.
Washington Wizards: Kelly Oubre Jr.
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This is not an anti-Kelly Olynyk sentiment. We'll leave those to Draymond Green.
Washington stretches seven players deep on a good night. On a great night, maybe eight. On a regular night, you wonder whether Brandon Jennings should really be receiving minutes over Trey Burke.
The Wizards' second-stringers are getting pummeled by 12.8 points per 100 possessions when on the court—third-worst mark among playoff teams and dead last among those who made it to the second round. Kelly Oubre Jr. is a part of that bench mob. But his macro worth is skewed by the situation.
You try spending most of your time within lineups that feature Bradley Beal or John Wall and three bench players. See what happens.
Suspension aside, Oubre is having a pretty good postseason. He's putting down 40 percent of his three-pointers overall and 44.4 percent of his looks from the corners—high enough clips to draw opposing wings out of the paint and open up passageways for Beal and Wall.
Oubre is also earning his keep trying to stymie point guards. He often gets the challenge of chasing around Isaiah Thomas, even when Wall is in the game. Oubre defends more pick-and-roll ball-handlers than any wing on the team and has done a nice job running Thomas off the three-point line when fighting over screens. Thomas, for his part, is shooting a higher percentage when Oubre plays, but the sample size is small and he's able to get cleaner looks on drives when Jason Smith is in the middle.
Sophomore wings aren't supposed to be defensive lifelines for postseason squads—not even off the bench. Oubre gets style points for effort, just as he did in Round 1, when Washington ran into similar problems against Dennis Schroder. That Oubre hasn't completely caved amid this defensive strain is a huge win for a Wizards squad hoping to nullify the ill-effects of a shallow rotation.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale) and listen to his Hardwood Knocks podcast co-hosted by B/R's Andrew Bailey.
Stats courtesy of Basketball Reference or NBA.com.
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