Four Rounds: Is the Anthony Edwards generation moving in?

The Talking Point: A new, new generation

A big takeaway from the last week of the NBA playoffs.

For the first time since 2005, the second round of the NBA playoffs won’t feature one of LeBron James, Kevin Durant or Steph Curry. That’s a mind-blowing stat, but speaks to the tectonic plates shifting under the NBA ground.

Our favorite millennials will all make the All-NBA team this season, but their most successful years are behind them and they have already given way to the next generation: Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

It feels like it just happened, but those former MVPs have been three of the best five players in the league over the last half-decade. Antetokounmpo was the first from this group to win MVP and he did that in 2019. The award has hot-potatoed from one to the other over the last five years and will likely be back in Jokic’s possession after this season.

But we might be seeing the next generation already beginning to take hold, and it looks much different than the last.

Consider that Jokic, who isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, is the only one of this triumvirate not standing on shaky ground. Antetokounmpo was sidelined for the playoffs as the Bucks were eliminated from the playoffs, and Embiid’s Sixers were sent packing by the Knicks. All will be at least 30 years old at some point next season.

Now look around the second round of the playoffs. Who do you see? It’s 22-year-old Anthony Edwards, 25-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 26-year-old Jayson Tatum and 25-year-old Luka Doncic if the Mavs can close out the Clippers. (Heck, the best thing going for the Sixers might be that 23-year-old Tyrese Maxey looks like a budding star.) If the Larry O’Brien trophy doesn’t go to Jokic, chances are it will be hoisted by one of these young pups.

This is the next generation, and it looks different than its predecessor. 

This new generation is headlined mostly by perimeter players. Sure, Victor Wembenyama might have something to say about that, but it could also be argued that he’s a perimeter player in a lot of ways, too.

Make no mistake, the current generation isn’t going anywhere. Jokic’s Nuggets are the team to beat and Embiid’s 76ers and Giannis’ Bucks will factor into the inner circle of title contenders next season. Even LeBron, KD and Steph could weasel their way back into that group.

But whose got next is already in sight, and if we’ve learned anything from these playoffs so far, they are not waiting for their turn.

The Reset: The 76ers don’t need Paul George (or any other star)

Sometimes an old narrative needs another look. 

As the 76ers begin their offseason plans, it will be tempting to speculate which stars they can fit into their near $60 million of potential cap space this summer.  

But if Philadelphia proved anything this season, even after losing to the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs, is that it doesn’t need another star. The 76ers have their tentpole players in Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Rather than shake up the pecking order with another headliner, the 76ers should use their cap space to fill out the roster with players who complement their star duo.

Maxey, 2024’s Most Improved Player award winner, averaged nearly 30 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds on 48 percent shooting in these playoffs. As his Game 5 buzzer-beater showed, he’s ready for the stage. Joel Embiid is arguably the most dominant scorer of his generation.

Throwing Paul George, or any other star, into the mix would not only take the ball out of Embiid and Maxey’s hands at times but also complicate their burgeoning two-man game with another mouth to feed.

What’s becoming more apparent in today’s NBA is that pecking order matters. Teams with clear channels of command — the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder — avoid the clunky tug-of-war that teams like the Phoenix Suns failed to work through.

And under this new CBA, the days of the Big Three have been replaced by the Big Two. It’s difficult for teams to remain below the punitive second tax apron when they have to pay three players star-level salaries. Once a team crosses that second tax line, they can no longer access the mid-level exception, aggregate salaries or take back more money in a trade. Filling out the roster is limited to draft picks and minimum salaries.

Ten years ago, the Big Three Miami Heat could add Shane Battier and Ray Allen in back-to-back offseasons. Now, those roles would go to Norris Cole and Shabazz Napier.

While the 76ers could afford to sign another star, they would be risking future flexibility and depth.

If Daryl Morey were to distribute that cap space to multiple high-level role players, the 76ers could build out a starting five that rivals the Nuggets and Celtics.

They could take their pick from a list of free agents that includes Klay Thompson, Miles Bridges, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Nic Claxton and Caleb Martin. Philadelphia could re-sign its own free agents like Kelly Oubre Jr., Nic Batum and Kyle Lowry, and finally solve long-standing problems at backup center and shooting. 

Put more simply, the 76ers’ problem isn’t their star power. It’s their depth. They have the means this summer to solve that problem for good and make a run at a title next season. 

Observations:

The key battleground for Nuggets-Timberwolves

Denver’s defense can be exploited. While the Nuggets have done well over the years to build a serviceable defense around Jokic, there are still inherent limitations to what they can do. Jokic isn’t what we would call nimble and, despite his size, he’s not a great rim protector. So Nuggets coach Michael Malone has Jokic come up to the level of screen on pick-and-rolls. The idea is to use that size to trap and force the ball out of the ball-handler’s hands. 

That works on slower players like D’Angelo Russell, but not so much on players with a quick first step. Even LeBron James, at 39, can blow by Denver’s defense if the rotations aren’t dialed in.

That area at the level of the screen will be an important battleground to watch in this series, especially when Anthony Edwards has the ball.

Edwards is too explosive to give him even a two-foot runway.

And when he’s feeling particularly Michael-Jordan like, he can turn this area into a mid-range launching zone.

The Nuggets have mostly had Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on Edwards during their regular-season matchups but haven’t had much success. It will be interesting to see if they switch up the matchups. They could put Aaron Gordon on Gobert so they can switch those screens, but then Edwards could call up whoever Jokic is guarding to set the screen and go to town. Do they experiment with having a defender aggressively shade off Minnesota’s least threatening offensive player — Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, maybe even Mike Conley — to provide help on Edwards’ drives? (Edwards tore Phoenix’s strategy of doing that apart in the first round with his playmaking.)

This isn’t new for the Nuggets and, when they ramp up their effort, can shrink these holes. But players like Edwards have always given them problems, and this Timberwolves roster is flush with good players and well-coached (get well soon, Chris Finch!).

The Timberwolves and Nuggets split the season series 2-2. Edwards may have leveled up in the first round. Karl-Anthony Towns is back. This should be fun.

Kelly Oubre making winning plays

It’s been a rollercoaster eight-year career for Tsunami Papi, but it seems he’s finally settled into a role as a streaky scorer who can provide tenacious defense and make the occasional spark-plug play.

While most of the headlines after Game 5 of Knicks-76ers were grabbed by Tyrese Maxey (and rightly so!), Oubre’s impact at the end shouldn’t go overlooked. He made three big plays that helped save Philadelphia’s season.

First was this layup in the final minute to cut the deficit to four.

Oubre did exactly what he was supposed to do. He got the handoff from Maxey and went strong to the hoop, wasting no time with his team down multiple possessions with under a minute left. This finish deserved a flex, but he got up and back on defense. Maxey’s four-point play on the next Sixers possession tied the game.

Then there’s this one in overtime. After Jalen Brunson tied the score with a pullup 3-pointer, Oubre pitched the ball to Nic Batum and slipped to the rim. This should have been an easy layup or lob, but Batum over-threw it. Oubre corrals it with his left hand and finishes through contact to give Philly a two-point lead with 1:02 to go.

Finally, on the other end, he contested Brunson’s potential game-tying floater.

Oubre will be a free agent this summer and will be in line for a raise after the season he put together. The 76ers would be wise to be the team that gives him that raise.

Evan Mobley’s block

Evan Mobley might have saved the Cavs’ season with his block on Franz Wagner at the end of Cleveland’s Game 5 win on Tuesday night.

How many players can do this? Anthony Davis, Victor Wembanyama … end of list? There aren’t many who have the length and mobility to get all ball on a 6-foot-10 player’s layup. Guys like Rudy Gobert have the length but not the hip fluidity. Bam Adebayo could move with Wagner but doesn’t have the reach to block this shot. Just an unreal play by one of the league’s premier defenders while his team’s starting center, Jarrett Allen, was sidelined. The Cavs, up 3-2, can close out the Magic Friday night.

P.J. Washington, defensive end, Dallas Mavericks

This made me laugh.

At the end of Game 4 between the Mavericks and Clippers, the Mavericks are trailing by four with 1:10 to go after Luka Doncic makes his first free throw. If Doncic makes the second one, the Mavs are down three with plenty of time left. Miss and Dallas would still be fine if they get a stop. But this is the playoffs, baby! Every point, rebound and inch matters.

As Doncic gets set to take his second free throw, Washington turns his body to get in a sprinter-like position, left foot carefully avoiding a lane violation and then, as Doncic takes his shot, Washington tries to juke out and use a Dwight-Freeney swim move to get around Ivica Zubac for the rebound. (It didn’t matter because Doncic made the free throw.) I kinda love this. Washington is giving up three inches and probably 30 pounds to Zubac. He isn’t going to go over him for the rebound. So might as well try to get around him. A for effort.

Take That for Data

Some numbers and stats.

63.3: It was a rough start for Paolo Banchero in his first playoff series. After he and the Magic had a hard time scoring as they went down 2-0 to start this series against the Cavaliers, Banchero is finding his spots. Rather than try to pulverize his way to the rim or settle for 3-pointers, Banchero has found his spot in the mid-range. It was a big part of his 39-point explosion in Game 5 when eight of his 14 makes came outside of the paint but below the 3-point line. Banchero is shooting 63.3 percent on 6 mid-range jumpers per game – the best mark of any player attempting more than two mid-range shots per game in the playoffs. No matter how this series ends, Magic fans have to feel good about their star player’s ability to problem-solve at a playoff level.

1 in 25: Jamal Murray is the first player in the past 25 seasons with multiple go-ahead shots in the final 5 seconds of a single playoff series, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He's the fourth player to do it multiple times across a single postseason.

400: That’s how many milligrams of caffeine Josh Hart claims he consumes on a game day. It sounds like a lot (and it is for most people). But it’s basically one 20 oz. coffee from Starbucks before a game. Not to be outdone, Jimmy Butler claims to drink 12 cups of coffee a day. If true, that’s at least 2,000 milligrams of caffeine a day.