NBA Stars and Players With the Most to Prove In 2023 Playoffs

Everyone involved will feel the heat of the 2023 NBA playoff pressure cooker. A few will feel it more than most.

The temperature rises for different reasons.

A decorated career that lacks championship success can do it. In the case of Kevin Durant, even having two championship rings in his collection isn't enough. He joined one of the best rosters in league history and turned the Golden State Warriors into a cheat code. Winning big with the Phoenix Suns would be a totally different kind of legacy lift.

So can failing to carry over regular-season dominance to the postseason. Fans rarely forget failures on basketball's biggest stage.

Before examining the five players with the most to prove this season, let's fine-tune the criteria by spotlighting some players you won't see.

Those who are missing important teammates to injuries are spared, because they can only do so much on their own. It would be awesome to see Kawhi Leonard go on a tear and prove why he's worth all of the load-management trouble, but no one would blame him for getting bounced without Paul George, who will miss a portion of the first round because of a knee injury.

It's also tough to put a ton of heat on Ja Morant when his Memphis Grizzlies are without their starting center (Steven Adams, knee) and his backup (Brandon Clarke, Achilles).

High-level expectations are a must, too. Donovan Mitchell might want to prove he was worth what the Cleveland Cavaliers gave up to get him, but no one outside Ohio expects them to reach the conference finals. The Sacramento Kings would surely love to quiet their doubters, but they are playoff-bound for the first time since 2006 and opening against the defending champs.

Resumes matter. While LeBron James and Stephen Curry are always tracked by the spotlight, they are past the prove-it portion of their careers. Roles matter, too. The ring-less Chris Paul would have been a prime candidate if he were younger, but he won't have the loudest (or second- or maybe even third-loudest) say in the Phoenix Suns' success.

But enough about all of the players who didn't crack the list. Let's break down the five who did.

Durant is a two-time champion and a two-time Finals MVP. Right or wrong, though, the validation normally attached to those accomplishments has been denied him because of the way he went about making them happen.

In 2016, he ditched the Oklahoma City Thunder to sign with the Warriors just over a month after they had knocked him out of the Western Conference Finals. Prior to his arrival, Golden State had just set the all-time wins record and won a title the season before that.

Durant made the Dubs even more dangerous, but a lot of hoop heads didn't care. In their mind, he was an in-prime superstar who joined a readymade champion as if he were a ring-chasing veteran in his final NBA go-round.

His 2019 departure to the Brooklyn Nets gave him a chance to create something special he could call his own—alongside handpicked sidekick Kyrie Irving—but that experiment blew up in spectacular fashion. During the two-plus seasons Durant played in Brooklyn (he missed 2019-20 with an Achilles injury), the Nets won a single playoff series.

His deadline trade to the Phoenix Suns gave him a championship chance again, but he doesn't have such an overwhelming roster around him like he did with Golden State. Critics couldn't short-change a title run with this group. Durant would have to get his props—not that he's waiting for them.

"At this point, they're saying, go play with Scoot Henderson and win a championship and then we'll give you credit," Durant told Yahoo Sports' Vincent Goodwill. "I don't need no credit from y'all."

Durant may not personally feel the need for credit, but his legacy could use the lift. To some, his title runs with the Warriors are tarnished. Whether that's fair is sort of a moot point as long as the sentiment remains. He may never get the historical ranking he deserves if he can't find his way to a third ring.

When weighing the MVP credentials of Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid against those of reigning two-time winner Nikola Jokić, one of the areas that often comes up is the latter's lack of postseason success. A third consecutive MVP win for Jokić would put him in the elite company of Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Larry Bird.

That's a hard thought for some to stomach when Jokić is still awaiting his first NBA Finals trip. To some—Embiid included—that puts Jokić under a different spotlight than anyone this postseason.

The Sixers star told The Athletic and Stadium's Shams Charania:

"People have been talking about who has the most pressure to win. People want to mention me. I'm not at the top of that list. I'm not a two-time MVP. ... So why is there pressure on me to do something when there are guys that have won two MVPs, a bunch of MVPs and haven't done anything either?"

What Embiid doesn't mention, of course, is that he was the silver medalist in both of Jokić's MVP wins. And if those votes had flipped to Embiid, he'd face just as many questions about his playoff track record—if not more.

Embiid has yet to advance beyond the conference semifinals. Sometimes his supporting cast has let him down, but sometimes he hasn't shown up in the postseason. In three of his five playoff trips, he has shot worse than 46 percent from the field. Only once has he cleared 31 percent from three. His career player efficiency rating is 27.9; in the playoffs, it drops to 21.9.

He's had some excuses before—a not-quite-ready supporting cast, an ill-timed injury issue—but there are none this time around. He is healthy, and the 76ers are stacked. If they don't at least push their way into the conference finals, his stock will take a significant hit and major changes could be coming Philly's way this summer.

Statistically speaking, there aren't major differences between regular-season James Harden (a nightly supplier of 24.7 points and 7.0 assists across his career) and the playoff version (a per-game source of 22.9 points and 6.2 assists).

However, if you lock in on only the games Harden's teams had to have, he's almost unrecognizable.

During Philly's elimination game last season, he took just nine shots in 43 minutes and finished with 11 points. The Sixers lost his minutes by 16 points and won the five he sat by seven.

"Obviously, I'm sure since we got him, everybody expected the Houston James Harden, but that's not who he is anymore," Embiid told reporters afterward. "He's more of a playmaker. I thought, at times, as with all of us, could've been more aggressive."

Go back through Harden's game log, and you'll find a number of these awfully timed face-plants.

In Brooklyn's final game of the 2021 playoffs (Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals), he shot a disastrous 5-of-17 from the field and 2-of-12 from three. In Game 7 of the 2020 opening round with Houston, he had 17 points on 15 field-goal attempts and went 1-of-9 from distance.

After his Rockets built a 2-2 split with the Warriors in the 2018 Western Conference Finals, he shot 27-of-74 (36.5 percent) and 6-of-36 from outside (16.7) over the final three contests. In Houston's final loss of the 2017 playoffs (Game 6 of the conference semis), he was 2-of-11 with 10 points and six turnovers in 37 minutes.

Harden has the reputation of someone who crumbles in major moments, and it's well-deserved. He might have the best opportunity of anyone to improve the narrative around his career this postseason.

Regardless of whether Jokić takes home his third MVP—the early returns have Embiid in the driver's seat—the Denver Nuggets superstar center is already in rare company.

Jokić is just the 15th player to win multiple MVP awards. He is also one of three players in that group (along with Karl Malone and Steve Nash) to have never won a title.

Now, this is where someone will probably point out that the MVP is a regular-season honor, and that's true. But don't you think an eight-year veteran who is already making hoops history should have more to show for his previous playoff trips than four series wins and a single journey beyond the second round?

It's worth noting Denver was roughed up by the injury bug during some of those playoff runs and that Jokić was basically awesome in all of them. He has yet to average fewer than 24 points or shoot below 50 percent in the postseason. His 28.1 career playoff PER is fourth-highest in NBA history.

But we already know the Joker can put up bonkers box scores on a nightly basis. What we're all waiting to see is whether he can captain a championship vessel.

Opportunity's knock is thunderous in Denver. The Nuggets—especially Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.—are healthy. The roster is better balanced than has been at any point of Jokić's tenure.

The West, which the Nuggets paced with 53 wins, has never been this winnable. Stephen Curry and LeBron James are dragged down by inconsistent supporting casts. The Phoenix Suns have hardly played with Kevin Durant. The Grizzlies and Clippers are missing key players. The Kings don't play a lick of defense.

This feels like a now-or-never moment for Jokić and the Nuggets.

Jayson Tatum's situation is unique.

He is the youngest player listed here, so he's not fighting against the clock. The 25-year-old has already authored some major playoff moments, so the stage doesn't seem like too great of an obstacle. His Boston Celtics have been successful, too, making three conference finals and booking one Finals appearance since his arrival as the No. 3 pick in the 2017 draft.

What he's out to prove, though, is that his struggles in last year's Finals were an anomaly.

If he simply played at his typical level in that series, Boston probably would've won it. Instead, something got the better of him—the magnitude of the moment? Andrew Wiggins' defense? A horrifically timed shooting slump?—and he couldn't be himself.

Over those six games, he averaged nearly as many shots (20) as points (21.5). He was abysmal from the field (36.7 percent) and awful at the line (65.6). He led the entire series in turnovers (23). He had 12 points in the opener and 13 in the finale; he took 35 combined shots in those contests.

"I feel like I could have done a lot of things better," Tatum told reporters after the Celtics were eliminated on their home floor.

Early this season, it seemed like Tatum and Boston had bottled up all their frustrations from that series and used it as fuel to rocket to the top of the league. He was an MVP favorite, and Boston was basically unbeatable (21-5). But his shooting cooled as the campaign went on, and so did the Celtics' win rate.

Now, he's an afterthought in the MVP race, and his team is just one of several heavyweight title contenders. A championship run could change everything and potentially even launch him atop the best-player-on-the-planet debate. But if Boston bows out early and his shooting never heats back up, there will be questions about whether he can ever be the best player on a championship team.

Statistics courtesy of Basketball Reference and NBA.com.

Zach Buckley covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @ZachBuckleyNBA.