The most important player on each and every NBA team this season

Every team has their linchpin, the cog who holds everything together. As we head towards the 2018-19 NBA season, here is the most important player for each team.

What exactly defines the most important player on a basketball team? It might seem like the best player on every NBA team is also the most important player on said team, but that’s not always the case. It’s often the case, but definitely not always.

An important player can be a star in his prime that will determine a franchise’s season. It could be a young player who will either justify a front office’s moves or doom that staff. In some situations, a team’s most important player could be an older icon who embodies an era in franchise history. That stuff matters!

Since the definition of important is so vague, it leaves picking the most important player on each team up to interpretation. The NBA Most Valuable Player award is like this too — it’s purposefully not specific to leave flexibility in the hands of voters.

That means debate here is encouraged. Some teams have very clear most important players, but some of these decisions are tough, and depend on an individual’s read of the word important. That’s fine — intelligent debate is a pretty cool thing.

All of that said, here’s a pretty good idea of which player on each and every NBA team is most important to them this season, for reasons that will be explained within the post.